How Does the Mind Consciousness Recall Past Events?

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning and have been awake for a little while, you still do not know where you were sleeping; even after a minute or two, you still do not know you are in your own home—this is the mind consciousness having a blackout. A major blackout of the mind consciousness occurs when the new five aggregates (pañcaskandha) are born: one is in a state of utter ignorance, having forgotten everything from past lives; without superknowledge, one forgets for an entire lifetime. A minor blackout occurs after waking from a coma, after sobering up from drunkenness, after waking from sleep, or at the moment the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava) arises after death—whenever the mind consciousness lacks continuity, a blackout phenomenon will appear. By what does the mind consciousness connect with the past? It relies on the manas, its dominant condition (adhipati-pratyaya)—and of course there is also the eighth consciousness, but let us not discuss that for now. When the mind consciousness first arises, it strives to recall the past; all thoughts are given to it by the manas. In a dazed, half-awake state, it can only discern the immediate sense objects and does not know anything from before it became awake. The manas prompts the mind consciousness to think and to recall, and the mind consciousness then recollects; the content of that recollection is also dharma brought into contact by the manas. The mind consciousness continuously discerns and judges it, and thereby the memories are recalled. In fact, the inner mental dharmas that the mind consciousness recollects are all presented and manifested by the tathāgatagarbha.