Why Do Infants Have Relatively Poor Memory (Part Two)

The conscious mind of an infant is very weak; their perceptual capacity is poor and their thinking capacity is poor. Because they have little power of determination (adhimokṣa), their power of mindfulness is extremely poor, and they have little memory. However, there are some special exceptions. For example, infants have innate habitual tendencies: they are very keen in their perception of tactile sense-objects, yet their capacity to endure is rather weak, and they cannot express themselves in language, so whenever things do not go their way they cry and fuss, thereby expressing their feelings of discomfort. Warmth and satiety belong to tactile sense-objects, and infants are extremely sensitive to these. Moreover, since food and drink are essential to the life activities of sentient beings, infants are born with determination regarding food, drink, warmth, and satiety; they have determination regarding tactile sense-objects, and they have memory of them—but this does not come from any special deliberation; it is simply instinctive. Also, because food and drink and bodily tactile sense-objects are constantly present, and infants are constantly in contact with them—equivalent to being concentrated on food, drink, and tactile objects—infants have determination, mindfulness, and memory regarding these. Apart from this, the memory of infants is very poor.

Memory is one of the functional natures of the mind consciousness. During the fetal stage, as soon as the mind consciousness appears, the function of memory is present, and this is why prenatal education is possible. Prenatal education means that when the fetus hears sounds from inside and outside the mother's womb, the mind has a certain degree of understanding and can be influenced and thereby educated. When the fetus is four or five months old in the mother's womb, the mind consciousness is born; at that point it has perceptual capacity, and thus the phenomenon of fetal movement occurs. Only when the conscious mind has been born can there be fetal movement; without a consciousness, the body would not move. It is because of the conscious mind that prenatal education can have its effect; otherwise, prenatal education would be of no use.

Without the mind consciousness, there would be no determination and no memory, and the fetus could not receive education. Fetal movement is a phenomenon of the joint activity of the mind consciousness and the body consciousness; otherwise, movement could not occur. The mind consciousness and the body consciousness can discern the environment within the mother's womb; after discerning it, there is feeling, and thus the body has corresponding reactions—this is how the phenomenon of fetal movement arises. When the fetus discerns sounds, there is certainly a feeling in the mind, and the inner emotions are expressed through the body—either from stillness to movement, or from movement to stillness.
The determination, concentration, mindfulness, and memory spoken of above are all functional natures of the mind consciousness; they are the five object-specific mental factors of the mind consciousness, plus the mental factors of desire (chanda) and wisdom (prajñā). The five sense consciousnesses, which arise together with the mind consciousness and perform the function of discrimination, also possess the five object-specific mental factors. As long as an infant has the existence of the six consciousnesses, there must be the five object-specific mental factors; it is only that these mental factors manifest rather weakly. As survival experience accumulates after birth, the functions of the object-specific mental factors grow strong, and only then can memory be strengthened accordingly.