The Problem of Memory

Question: I just met a person, conversed for a while, and we exchanged contact information. Is this event stored in consciousness, or is it stored in manas, or both? What are the distinctions and differences?

Answer: Any experienced person, event, or object first registers in consciousness. Consciousness may remember it, or it may not. After consciousness remembers, it may enable manas to remember it as well, or it may not, resulting in manas failing to retain it. One reason may be that manas lacks interest; another may be the brevity of time, leaving manas insufficient opportunity to discern and remember, leading to an indistinct impression.

There is also a special circumstance: consciousness may not prioritize or remember the event, yet manas, having encountered it before and being relatively familiar with it, remembers it spontaneously without deliberate effort from consciousness. Later, without consciously intending to recall the event, one automatically and spontaneously remembers it. Finding it strange, one may ask oneself: "Why do I keep thinking about this?" This is the result of recollection by manas.

If an event exists only in consciousness and manas has no impression of it, it cannot be recalled again. This is because the decision to recall is determined by manas; it is manas that requires recollection to process the matter, thereby giving rise to the birth of consciousness for recollection.

If an event exists only in consciousness, how could consciousness recall it? Is consciousness self-generated? Does it exist continuously, moment by moment, upon all dharmas? Clearly not. Once an event has passed, consciousness regarding that event ceases. How, then, could it be recalled afterward?

If manas does not permit consciousness to contemplate, can consciousness arise to contemplate again? If manas does not permit consciousness to recollect, can consciousness arise to recollect again? Neither is possible. Consciousness lacks autonomy; it cannot exist freely and continuously. The prerequisite for the existence of consciousness is the continuous contact with sensory objects by manas. How could consciousness autonomously initiate its birth and then actively recollect? It cannot become the ruling consciousness to replace manas.

If one can recognize this true principle—that consciousness exists solely to serve manas—and clarify the active and passive relationship between manas and consciousness, all dharmas become easy to handle and resolve, especially the issues of Consciousness-Only.