The Reason for Being Unable to Recall Past Lives

Because sentient beings lack the recollection of past lives (pūrvanivāsānusmṛti), they do not know the matters of causes, conditions, and karmic retribution of past and future lives; only with the recollection of past lives can one know all the causes and effects of one's own and others' past and future lives. Because after sentient beings die, the five aggregates (pañca-skandha) change and are no longer the original ones, and the six consciousnesses change and are no longer the original ones, the people, matters, and objects of past lives—everything related to oneself—become unknown, and the matters of causes and effects are even less known. Because the six consciousnesses of this life exist on the same five aggregates and are continuous with memory, when the six consciousnesses can discern the people, matters, objects, and principles of a matter, they can remember all the dharmas experienced in this life. But in the next life, it is not the original five aggregates; the six consciousnesses arise anew dependent on the new five aggregates, have not experienced past lives, have no memory of the people, matters, objects, and principles of past lives, and thus cannot recall the events of past lives.

However, the manas has continued uninterrupted since beginningless kalpas, has experienced the people, matters, objects, and principles of beginningless kalpas, has accumulated the habitual tendencies of life after life, and corresponds with the karmic seeds of life after life. Therefore, the five aggregates of this life and the five aggregates of past lives are continuous in terms of habitual tendencies and afflictions; if one does not cultivate, and in this life newly instills some more bad habits, the habitual tendencies will become heavier and heavier. The eighth consciousness has also continued uninterrupted since beginningless kalpas and will never perish in future lives; therefore, the self of this life and the self of past lives certainly have a connected relationship and are not unrelated to each other. In our cultivation, we should think more about our own future lives.

The acquisition of the recollection of past lives requires cultivation up to the fourth dhyāna before it can be attained; after cultivating to the fourth dhyāna, if one cultivates the five supernatural powers, one can attain them as one cultivates.