The Relationship between Tathāgatagarbha and Memory (1)

Among the eight consciousnesses, the tathāgatagarbha is the storehouse; the source of supply for all dharmas—that is, the seeds—are all drawn out from the tathāgatagarbha. The deeds we have done in the past, and all the people, events, things, and principles we have experienced, are stored as seeds in the tathāgatagarbha. If the mind consciousness wishes to discern again the people, events, things, and principles of the past, it must retrieve the records from the tathāgatagarbha and examine them.

However, only the mind consciousness has the ability to examine records; the function of memory belongs to the mind consciousness, while the tathāgatagarbha itself has no function of memory. When karmic seeds manifest and become mental sense-objects (dharmas), He cannot discern those mental sense-objects; He does not discern any specific mental sense-object. Although the mind consciousness has the functions of memorizing and recalling, in the absence of having cultivated supernatural powers, the sixth consciousness can only remember the people, events, things, and principles experienced in this present life; only the sixth consciousness can recall the events one has experienced.

On what basis can the mind consciousness recall past events? The events we have experienced and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions we have performed are immediately stored in the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha in the form of seeds. When the mind consciousness later wishes to retrieve and discern them, they must also be taken out from the storehouse; there must be a certain connection between the mind consciousness and the tathāgatagarbha, and the manas serves as the bridge and link connecting the two.

The manas is like a head steward: whatever goods the mind consciousness wishes to retrieve must be permitted and approved by the manas. If such goods exist in the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha, and conditions allow, the tathāgatagarbha will unconditionally offer them out, and the manas will hand them over to the mind consciousness to enjoy; if the storehouse happens not to have such goods, or the goods are pressed down and temporarily cannot be retrieved, the mind consciousness can only wait foolishly empty-handed, obtaining nothing and enjoying nothing.

The dharmas we cultivated and familiarized ourselves with in past lives, and all the people, events, things, and principles we experienced, are also stored in the storehouse of the tathāgatagarbha in the form of seeds. Can we retrieve them in this present life? Of course we can! But the mind consciousness must cultivate supernatural powers, so that, unobstructed and unaffected by the physical body of form, and without going through the brain—the supreme faculty (indriya)—it can directly discern the mental sense-objects that the manas attends to and that the tathāgatagarbha manifests. If supernatural powers have not been cultivated, the mind consciousness will be obstructed by the physical body of form, and the events experienced in past lives cannot be discerned or recalled by the mind consciousness.