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Seeing past lives
Hello,
I was listening to a dharma talk in which the monk described being able to see the light of the mind, and be taken to a place where you can see a memory of a past life. I was wondering if anybody has ever had such an experience? If so, how long had you been meditating before you had such an experience?
I was listening to a dharma talk in which the monk described being able to see the light of the mind, and be taken to a place where you can see a memory of a past life. I was wondering if anybody has ever had such an experience? If so, how long had you been meditating before you had such an experience?
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Hi danny,
Can I ask who the monk was and which Buddhist tradition he belongs to, please?
How did he describe being ''taken to a place'' etc?
I'm sorry, this isn't very clear to me. It's not an experience I've had myself during meditation.
Kind regards,
Dazzle
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As he described it, you can be deep within to a point you can see past memories. When I say taken to a place it isn't as though you will be taken there like a bus to the next stop, but the memory will be revealed and you'll know it the same as any memory you'd currently relate to.
Thanks very much for the additional info. danny
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Sometimes our mind has bizarre dreams. Do we consider them "past lives" or just mental pictures.
Absolutely.
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Unless we have such an experience of seeing past lives for ourselves, we speak words out of ignorance or attachment/aversion to this concept and dismiss such an experience outright. I would encourage everyone to keep an open mind above all else, and not to be bogged down in the dogma of their school's teachings. It isn't helpful for the reader to be given an answer that is of a biased nature.
If whatever school we subscribe to teaches rebirth, let us not dismiss that rebirth may turn out to be untrue in the literal sense. If the school does not teach rebirth, let us keep an open mind to that as well. Above all else, we should examine our motivations for our belief in either case. Beliefs without our own realization to back them up are no better than blind faith in the existence of a creator "God", or whether the universe began or will end.
What the Buddha actually taught can be debated back and forth until our dying days to no consensus. We can only count on ourselves and our efforts to ferret out the truth through study of the Dhamma, direct experience of life, and insight meditation.
Bottom Line: Neither believe nor dis-believe, but acknowledge the concept and its possibility and remain open-minded. This is how we may also apply the "middle way" of avoiding extremes to an idea that is otherwise hotly debated only to result in the suffering of those entangled in the debate.
The Buddha was able to recall past lives just before he was enlightened.
P
In fact, if one realises emptiness, there will be no suffering and the matter of 'rebirth' will not exist.
Open-minded does not entail entertaining beliefs that do not accord with emptiness.
If one never drops 'self' and 'continuity', enlightenment is difficult.
In other words, on the night of his enlightenment, all of his mind's past conditioning unwound.
All of the old memories of "I", "me" and "mine" unwound.
All of the 'self belief' that existed in his subconsciousness from before he was enlightened unwound.
The Buddha said:
You mean like this, from MN19? This clearly desribes the Buddha remembering his past lives.
"When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my past lives. I recollected my manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two... five, ten... fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction, many eons of cosmic expansion, many eons of cosmic contraction & expansion: 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.' Thus I remembered my manifold past lives in their modes & details."
The matter of rebirth clearly does exist for many Buddhists. So I guess none of have realised emptiness.:p
P
The only way to enlightenment is to give up such mental attachments/aversions, thus freeing your mind from clinging and allowing you to move forward in your understanding. Anyone who can find the wisdom within to "wait and see", or to admit "I don't know", is much further along the path and is actively removing hindrances to awakening.
Those who can not find this simple yet profound wisdom remain in a state of dukkha, defending their belief rather than knowing the truth through realization for themselves. The teachings can not prove to anyone whether rebirth occurs or not (or even whether the Buddha taught the concept or not), and so this type of speculation is unskillful.
When your mind is ready to let go, I'll be cheering you on, knowing that you're closer to waking up and not confusing the words of the Pali Canon with true reality. The words can only show us the path to self-realization; they are not the absolute truth or proof in and of themselves.
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I have a case of second-hand dukkha in that although I am not entangled in clinging over rebirth I must now try and point out the error of wrong views in this regard, hopefully so that you can attain stream-entry and will see things from a more clear perspective. I will gladly continue to do so, but it is to your disadvantage to not have a pliant and malleable mind that takes my words into due consideration instead of dismissing them. They are logical, reasonable and in accord with the spirit of the Buddhist teachings.
I wish you well, but it is up to you to free yourself. I can only help point the way.
Indeed. None of them have realised emptiness.
I already quoted the Khajjaniya Sutta, where it was said in accordance to the Dhamma: 'This is not mine. This is not my self. This is not what I am.'
But instead, you wish to interpret a text in a way the promotes 'self-view'.
The Pali here is anekepi saṃvaṭṭakappe anekepi vivaṭṭakappe anekepi saṃvaṭṭavivaṭṭakappe.
The Pali dictionary provides one translation of kappa, meaning</B> 'duration of life'.
In the Pali above, the word 'loka', which Thanissaro translates as 'cosmos' and Bodhi translates as 'world' is not found anywhere.
Instead we can see the term vatta, which means 'cycle'. It seems to refer to cycles of 'life durations', meaning, cycles of becoming, cycles of thinking "I am this", "I am that", etc.
This term kappa, can be found in the Maha-parinibbana Sutta.
In brief, this passage gives the impression the translations are dodgy dodgy. How could the Buddha keep himself alive for a 'world period'?
But then any translator like Bhikkhu Bodhi or Thanissaro who regard Dependent Origination as occuring over three lifetimes would give the impression they are a little confused, wouldn't they?
You suppress your mind or something else, have a mental cartharsis where you cannot sleep for the night and believe "you" ("I") have attained jhana.
A mind that has not realised emptiness cannot understand the Buddha's teachings.
It follows it is wise for one who has not realised emptiness to simply offer their opinions in a discussion rather than thinking they are a 'teacher' and can help others.
What you have stated Stephen is wrong view.
About right view, the Buddha taught as follows:
Of rebirth view, the Buddha said:
The only thing to be seen is what the Buddha has advised, as follows:
Some of us actually don't need you to help point the way, Stephen.
....but thanks very much for trying.
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You appear to be stating the realisation of emptiness is unwise, dukkha & unskilful.
You appear to be stating rebirth belief is a "realisation".
Of realisation, the Buddha said:
You sound very confused to me. "Second-hand dukkha"? Ha?
How can pointing out an error result in dukkha?
It is like saying saving a child drowning in water or from a house fire is dukkha.
So as well as being a jhana master who cannot sleep at night, now are you declaring stream entry?
Indeed. I dismiss your words completely.
To me, your words are illogical, unreasonable and not in accord with the spirit of the Buddha's teachings.
I trust your open mindedness can accept that.
Consider this my last reply to you, because I will not take on the insurmountable task of convincing a wall of anything.
The Buddha also realised that this could not lead to escape from the conditioned realm. Past lives recollections and supranormal powers or siddhis belong to deep jhana/meditative absorption states. Without insights no liberation is possible.
Are you sure?
The Venerable Sariputta was a master of jhana but had no supernormal powers.
Also, whilst most Buddhists commonly declare the Buddha used supernormal power to recollect the "past dwellings", the suttas appear to not say this.
The suttas appear to only say the Buddha used supernormal power (divine eye) to know the karma of others (which is perfectly reasonable, according to reality).
For me, everyday, whatever I do, it is business as usual.
What is flowing before my eyes are merely dhatus or elements.
Nothing worth grasping at.
The Buddha said:
Hi DD,
I thought Sariputta was the foremost in wisdom and Maha Mogallana was the foremost in supernormal powers. Wisdom does not come from jhana does it?
I understand this to mean the benefits of attaining jhanic states.
Perhaps you can clarify.
His wisdom is found in comprehending the nature of the jhanas lucidly (rather than getting stuck in them or beguiled by them).
The Anupada Sutta reports Sariputta's jhana experience.
Thanks a lot for making things clear DD. In fact these dodgy pali translations have done a huge damage to the Dhamma... sometimes I wonder if the damage can ever be undone now. There are so many misinterpretations of the pali suttas upto the point that people even believe ridiculous notions such as a Buddha can live a million years if he wanted to etc ...:(
Many times i've felt intense memories towards Native Indians and am convinced i lived amongst them at one time , even down to THE Native indian music , when i hear it it's as if i know each beat and have never heard any before .
Day-ja-vu .
Same as places and peoples eyes who i've never seen before but know the eyes .
It doesn't make sense .