Suttas about memory in EBTs and parallels

Q & A
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1

Encoding, storing, data or information from the past experiences and retrieving them when needed can be defined as memory.
The experimental data abotained by modern science has proven there are some links between memory and brain. But, there is no machine or detector designed to detect psycological part of life.
There are some information on memory in EBTs and parallels. Sarvastivada has a theory based on viññāṇakāya concept, and yogācāra has another called
ālayaviññāṇa.
Could you please give me English translations of texts, suttas and sastras that are related to the notion of memory.

2

A good place to begin would be with the first six of the eleven articles collected in the book, In the Mirror of Memory – Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, ed. Janet Gyatso (SUNY 1992), along with their respective bibliographies.

Contents:

• Donald S. Lopez: Memories of the Buddha.

• P. S. Jaini, Smṛti in the Abhidharma Literature and the Development of Buddhist Accounts of Memory of the Past.

• Nyanaponika Thera, The Omission of Memory in the Theravadin List of Dhammas: On the Nature of Saññā.

• Collett Cox, Mindfulness and Memory: The Scope of Smṛti from Early Buddhism to the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma.

• Paul J. Griffiths, Memory in Classical Indian Yogācāra.

• Alex Wayman, Buddhist Terms for Recollection and Other Types of Memory.

• Rupert Gethin, The Mātikās: Memorization, Mindfulness, and the List.

• Janet Gyatso, Letter Magic: A Peircean Perspective on the Semiotics of Rdo Grub-chen’s Dhāraṇi Memory.

• Paul Harrison, Commemoration and Identification in Buddhānusmṛti.

• Matthew Kappstein, The Amnesic Monarch and the Five Mnemic Men: “Memory” in Great Perfection (Rdzogs-chen) Thought.

• Edward S. Casey, Remembering Resumed: Pursuing Buddhism and Phenomenology in Practice.

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Also, if you haven’t already done so, see the 2018 exchange of articles between Ven. Anālayo and Bryan Levman in the Mindfulness journal.

  1. Anālayo, Early Buddhist Mindfulness and Memory, the Body, and Pain
  2. Levman, Putting Smṛti Back into Sati
  3. Anālayo, Once Again on Mindfulness and Memory in Early Buddhism
  4. Levman, Response to Ven. Anālayo’s Once Again on Mindfulness and Memory in Early Buddhism
  5. Anālayo, Mindfulness Constructs in Early Buddhism and Theravāda - Another Contribution to the Memory Debate
  6. Levman, Sati, Memory, and Wisdom - Response to Ven. Anālayo’s Mindfulness Constructs in Early Buddhism and Theravāda - Another Contribution to the Memory Debate
  7. Anālayo, Remembering with Wisdom Is Not Intrinsic to All Forms of Mindfulness
  8. Lobsang Rapgay, Mindfulness and Memory in Early Buddhism - A Response to Ven. Anālayo

You can download them here.

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