Can Information Be Temporarily Retained in the Brain?

Information is formless and without characteristics—a "thing" that is not a thing—while the brain is material form (rūpa). How could the two possibly merge together? Consider this: can a room temporarily retain a piece of news? Can something that has happened be preserved in a room or in space for even a little while? Absolutely not. Likewise, the brain cannot preserve even the slightest bit of information.

If the brain could preserve information, then by slicing open the brain of a living or dead person piece by piece, one could find that information, and even study and examine it. Then all of a person's secrets could be revealed, and people in the world would have no secrets at all; it would be far too easy for criminal investigators to solve cases. There would be no centuries-old unsolved mysteries or wrongful convictions, and no riddle that could not be unraveled. If a computer could store information, would taking the computer apart reveal the information? If a mobile phone could store information, would dismantling the phone allow one to find the information?

If information belonged to material form (rūpa), it would be composed of the seeds of the four great elements. Only the tathāgatagarbha contains the seeds of the four great elements; the brain does not contain them and cannot store information. Moreover, the brain's capacity could not hold it. Therefore, information should be stored in the tathāgatagarbha and comes from the tathāgatagarbha. If information does not belong to material form (rūpa) and is not composed of the four great elements, then it exists in a formless, characteristicless seed-state and must be stored in the tathāgatagarbha; the brain cannot store seeds. Footprints on a wall or on the ground belong to the material form of the four great elements; they are not information, and of course the eyes can see them.