Why Do Babies Have Poor Memory? (I)

Why do infants have relatively poor memory?  The memory spoken of here is the capacity for discernment and recollection, also called impression. What is an impression (印像, "imprint-image")? "Imprint" (印) means a stamp or seal: pressing with the hand onto something, or pressing with some object onto something, is to imprint it, engrave it, and hold it by imprinting; "image" (像) means the visual trace, the mark left behind. Only after pressing onto something and holding it by imprinting does the image arise—this is called an impression. Impressions are related to the mental factor of mindfulness (smṛti) 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 imprinted, is then very deep. Imprinting something deeply and repeatedly upon the mind is precisely meditative concentration (samādhi); only by being fixed on one object without shifting can the impression be deep. Memory contains both the imprint and the image; only when conditions are encountered later 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 imprint and hold them, forming an image, so that memory is possible afterward; the other precondition is meditative concentration—only by imprinting and holding it upon the mind repeatedly, imprinting and holding it deeply upon the mind, can there be a deep impression.

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 capacity for comparison; moreover, their power of deliberation is extremely feeble. Therefore they have little determination, can hardly leave impressions, and thus cannot remember much. Infants' mental power is weak, and they also lack meditative concentration and cannot focus; thus they cannot imprint and hold all people, events, and things in mind, and so 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 infants themselves are accustomed to and interested in, nor does it include infants' innate, inborn habitual tendencies, because these innate habits and interests are carried over from past 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.