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Past life recollections?
jhana
Explorer
Is it possible to have faint recollections of things from past lives? E.g. If certain Buddhist practices, when learned for the first time, one has a feeling of Deja Vu, or knowing this/remembering this already, or finds the practice especially easy to learn - does this mean one has learned it in a previous life?
Or is this just an affectation?
Or is this just an affectation?
0
Comments
Yes its possible you will come across practitoners who have been at it for years and they will have some stories to tell you....:o
What stories?
If a practice is easy to learn, maybe its because you enjoy doing it !
_/\_
There are a few i know who have had some interesting past life recollections.
Aha, that makes a lot of sense. Thanks.
But, just because one is enlightened or reached higher stages in meditation doesn't mean they all can achieve this special capability. Some get it and some don't, just like the "parachitha wijanana Gnana" which means the ability to read other people's minds.
True but its the me of future lives that will be in the shit if one apathetically beleives its okay because I cease at the end of this life
I think past life recollection is used as a way to see how much this cycle of births and deaths is suffering. It says that meditators even see their own deaths in past lives and understand how much suffering it is
There are billions of other beings who are affected by our actions even after "we" pass away. If the only reason one is not apathetic and doesn't run around doing whatever they want is because they don't want their future "self" to suffer, then the Dhamma has gone right over said person's head.
The kind of kamma you're talking about, a kind that supposedly doesn't manifest until a future life, is superstitious and cannot possibly be proven, and isn't particularly helpful in comprehending anatta or even understanding actions have consequences.
Deshy,
Nibbana is here and now The Buddha still died, but he did not suffer and he did not fear death or seek to escape it. Dispassion. Only someone who does not understand the true origin of dukkha would feel the literal cycle of samsara must end in order to be free of suffering. The birth and death of the false self which clings is dukkha (which can be seen in "this life"), not literal birth, life, aging, sickness, or death.
Oh so true. Could that be why I am in shit now?
Ahh here you go again
I'm still reading the article; will reply you later on this. Keep well
Shit happens we deal with it
When someone asked Trungpa Rinpoche if he remembered his past lives, he said, "Yes."
Palzang
Right or wrong -- that's what I do.
That being said... if someone tells me that they remember past lives? That's fine - I personally don't believe them - but that doesn't mean they are wrong. It just means that I have some barrier/shortcoming/lesson-to-be-learned/bias that is causing me to doubt their words..
THAT being said -- what is remembering or not remembering my past lives got to do with the work I have to do RIGHT NOW?
IMO - it's very easy to get caught up in the academics of Buddhism rather than practice it. Kind of like the hypocritical theologists that know all the Greek and Hebrew translations and "roots" of words and scriptures and are about as full of compassion, caring and love as the pharisees and sadducees that Jesus had to open up a 12oz can of whoopa$$ on in the temple.
-bf
Palzang
i think past lives have some definitive actuality, and the contemplation of them has relevance. in itself, there is nothing wrong with it, or contemplating anything else which does not strictly pertain to gaining enlightenment, unless it serves to strengthen attachment.
the theory of past lives is very popular in buddhism, and the theory of material-bound consciousness that crashes on impact and dissolves with death is very popular in secularism. but secularist science is very materialistic and outbound, which ignores a significant aspect of our being, which is largely, and primarily internal. investigating the innards of consciousness and mind reveals very ethereal things of it, which materialism neglects. mostly, because it is not very much a religion as buddhism is, which emphasizes meditation and spiritual training so much, direct psychonautics.
I have realized that I'm too stoopid to understand 95% of what you just said - so it's probably better that I just "sit".
Well, after I look up some of them $20 words you just threw at me on wiki
-bf
Palzang
Nevermind.
-bf
I once asked a couple of tulkus on separate occasions if they remembered their past lives and they said "No ".....so there you go. Who knows? - and it has little relevance to my own practice in the here and now. Buddha taught it was possible to quench suffering in one lifetime.
.
.
Just as I suspected. Does sound like a good hobby though...
Palzang
That made me crack up so hard
Sure, I can remember things from my past lives. Just 2 hours ago I ate a subway sandwich. THAT life isn't THIS life, is it?
I was wondering if anyone can help me out with this; Until recently I have doubted having capability of recalling any of my past lives. Well last weekend while meditating I found myself in an entranced state, it began as I was (as best as I can describe it) moving upward and forward at the same time into a white void with multi-colored shapes coming from center. As I rose up I felt a point where it seemed I passed into a gateway that opened into infinite space.
Now here is the past life portion of this event:
Next thing I know I am deep in the ocean and a giant blue whale swims right by me and not too long afterwards a shark swept me by as well. I knew that I was in an altered state of consciousness when this happened, and had it in my head to look to my past lives and ancestral origins for answers. I descended deeper, but as it got darker I became frightened then headed back upwards to find fry land. It did not take me long to snap out of it as I came closer to the waters surface.
Could the shark and whale be my most recent past lives? I am still not completely sure, just hoping someone could give me an idea of where these odd visions came from P:
Well for a start they came from your mind. No one here can possibly give you the explanation you are requesting - newbuddhist is not a past-life search engine.
Maybe those past life memories are there to remind us of what we're suppose to do in similar circumstances? But, we here must still make that choice?
We've learned a lot in previous lives, but sadly, not enough.
I think you were dreaming during your meditation.
I realize what I am walking into...
My earliest memories were memories of what I understand to be a past life. At eighteen months I asked for (re: demanded) my partner from that life by name. When my mother repeatedly replied that we didn't know anyone by that name, I stopped talking. I was taken to the doctor, then specialists and it was eventually it was determined that I was simply angry and stubborn and would talk when I was ready. It took another two years.
@Padmini42Padmini42
These experiences do not need to be examined any more than any other phenomena that arises in meditation.
The point is to not manipulate or direct whatever is unfolding. Even asking about or recounting such experiences says that you are giving them a significance that runs counter to the purposes of a meditation practice.
It is time to trust that the meditation process will best unfold on it's own when we stop trying to secure our identities validity in that practice. Ones mentality and it's habitual analysis of what is arising in meditation, is just our ego going about it's usual empire building routine.
Time to wake up or dream of past and future?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past_life_regression
Trust your mind? Trust no-mind? Which incarnation is the awakening one?
Here is the Buddha's answer:
In other words they came from you or rather your own mind.
Which does not mean that they are necessarily meaningless...But they are unlikely to be memories.
When I am meditating with my eyes closed I often think of people and their face appears briefly in my mind, sometimes, the image of that face persists and the face morphs into other faces, some I recognise and some I do not. It is interesting to watch, sometimes it can go on for a few minutes, or a few seconds.
Are they memories of people I have seen? Or as I suspect, they are just a few of the myriad potential faces that can arise in my mind and given the right sensory stimuli will materialise (i.e. as I walk down the street and come across Joe Bloggs, P.C. Plod, jackie Chan and screaming baby).
Equally and with equanimity you can look at these memories in the same light, and even see how false memories may come into being. I have sat with my wife and discussed some shared memories, and when we look at the detail, she remembers some facts and aspects that I did not and vice versa; Only so many memories can be stored or accessed, most have evaporated into the ethereal mist, never to return. Much like my current incarnation will. Perhaps when I am buddha, I'll be able to access me again, but why would I want to, I'll be liberated then, and I'm not now. Boundless Freedom or Binding Suffering; Hmmm?
metta
I have the same experience with the faces, @anatman. Sometimes they are just people and sometimes they are scary, more like demons. But I never get a sense that they were people I've known, just my brain working and putting conglomerations of faces together. It happens quite often as I'm waiting to fall asleep.
I don't spend much time thinking about past lives, but I wonder about certain things, sometimes. I remember being very young and having very distinct and troubling feelings that I was not with the right family, or in the right country. And this was at an age where I didn't really have a concept of the planet or countries. I just felt like I was very much in the wrong place. I was probably 2 or 3. My children at young ages had experiences and comments about things they would have had no way of knowing. Is it proof of rebirth and past lives? Who knows. Maybe they are just odd situations. For me, it feels like more, but there isn't much point in dwelling on it. If I contemplate or think about it, I can't possibly arrive a different conclusion that I am at now: either they are real, or they aren't, and I currently have no way of knowing. Best to spend my time thinking about things I can work on changing in my life and so on.
But I find the topic fascinating
Oh thanks. I guess I did let my ego get a little out of hand in this one P:
I didn't really manipulate it much, since the whale and shark was the last thing I was expecting to see XD
But its beginning to make a little bit of sense since I've had time to look back into my early years of this lifetime.
Well I was at first, but a person I was talking to in that dream said something (can't remember what it was) that scared me, and right at that moment I knew that I was sleeping and wound up in that void that I mentioned earlier. And I am not really sure how long I stayed in that white openness but it felt blissful (best way to describe it).
Thanks for the link I love reading Buddhist sutras
Yes sometimes the faces can take on fantastical, horrific and demonic features. I can see how if I was not objectively observing them, and realising them as emanating from the mind, they could appear as real demons, and be falsely remembered as such.
Sometimes one must be wary of what one perceives and how they are interpreting it, especially in meditation.