Why Do Infants Have Relatively Poor Memory? (Part One)

Why Do Infants Have Relatively Poor Memory?  The memory spoken of here is the ability to imprint and recollect, also called an impression. What is an impression (印像)? "Imprint" (印) means a stamp or seal: pressing with the hand onto something, or pressing something onto a place, means it is stamped down, carved in, and held by the imprint; "image" (像) means a visual trace, a mark left behind. Only after pressing onto something and holding it by imprinting does an image arise—this is called an impression. Impressions are related to the mental factor of mindfulness (念) and are related to memory.

Impressions can be deep or shallow. A deep impression comes from pressing and imprinting repeatedly, over and over, or from pressing and imprinting deeply; the image left behind, the image stamped out, is then very deep. To hold something in the mind through deep and repeated imprinting is precisely meditative concentration (samādhi): only when fixed on one object without shifting can the impression be deep. Memory contains both the imprint and the image; only when conditions are later encountered can the impression be recalled. The preconditions for memory are, first, determination (adhimokṣa): only by being able to understand clearly the true meaning of the people, events, objects, and principles one has experienced can one hold them by imprinting, forming an image, so that memory is possible later; the other precondition is meditative concentration—only by holding it in the mind repeatedly, imprinting it deeply into the mind, can a deep impression be formed.

Infants have little capacity for memory; their memory is poor because infants' power of determination (adhimokṣa) is weak. In this life they have not experienced or undergone the vast majority of things, and thus lack the ability to compare; moreover, their power of deliberation is extremely feeble. Therefore they have little determination, can hardly leave impressions, and so cannot remember. Infants' mental power is weak, and they also lack meditative concentration and cannot focus; thus they cannot imprint and hold all the people, events, and things they encounter, and consequently their memory is poor. For most things, infants need their parents to teach them repeatedly, with many repetitions, before they gain a little memory. But this does not include the food, drink, toys, and so on that the infant has become accustomed to and interested in, nor does it include the infant's innate, inborn habits and inclinations, because these innate habits and interests are carried over from previous lives—they are so from birth. Worldly people call this instinct: it is an inborn instinctive capacity by which every living being adapts in order to survive.