Memories of ancient times
I was listening to Venerable Amy Miller a while ago, and she spoke about how in one of his talks, HH The Dalai Lama spoke about one memory of his, a very faint memory, of being an Indian villager sitting in a crowd that was listening to the Buddha’s teachings. This is fascinating. That was 2600 years ago. Let me repeat that, 2600 bloody years ago! If proper progress in refining your concentration can lead to that, then why would anyone who hears this not be motivated?
On the specific topic of memory, I can attest to the fact that an enormous amount of effort brings back an almost photographic recall of experiences from many years ago. I did my PhD coursework some 14 years ago (2005-2006). I recall attempting to remember in detail one of my courses from 2006, back in 2016. That is a decade apart. This doesn’t sound particularly amazing, but it is worthwhile to note the fact that I only have a fuzzy recollection of what took place in the course that I sought to recall. However, as I persisted over the course of several hours to recall the visuals, the smells and the sounds of the classroom, I found that there were memories stored of this course that I didn’t believe were there in the first place.
Now, when I contrast the effort that I had to put in in order to excavate memories and impressions a decade apart with HH The Dalai Lama speaking of a vague memory from 2600 years ago, that gives me an insight into what level of memory is possible for the Buddha mind. This, in turn, gives me an insight into what level of clarity is possible for the Buddha mind. This, in turn, gives me an insight into what level of concentration is possible for the Buddha mind. Why do I list these insights in this order? Well, when I attempted to recall a past experience in vivid detail that was a decade older than the point of recall, the first thing I had to do was to concentrate on aspects of that experience. As I concentrated more, my clarity of recall improved. As the clarity improved, the recorded memory showed up more completely. It was as if by concentrating, I was wiping fog off a lens in order to see clearly. I found it took a lot of concentration to do this for just an experience that was a decade old. What level of concentration would be required to see something with clarity from 2600 years ago?
