Practise to recall past incarnations

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HandsomeMonkeyking
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Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by HandsomeMonkeyking »

Are there ways to recall past incarnations?

Any buddhist or non-budhdist practises with that goal in mind?

Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
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Könchok Thrinley
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Könchok Thrinley »

Recalling your past lives could be fun but it is nothing compared to bodhicitta. Even if there are I'd say they are useless if you want to have a nice problem free future tame your mind and pactice virtue.
“Observing samaya involves to remain inseparable from the union of wisdom and compassion at all times, to sustain mindfulness, and to put into practice the guru’s instructions”. Garchen Rinpoche

For those who do virtuous actions,
goodness is what comes to pass.
For those who do non-virtuous actions,
that becomes suffering indeed.

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Motova
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Motova »

You can venerate Ksitigarbha, one of the benefits of that is remembering one's past lives.

There is also a small "practice" for this found in Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond by Ajahn Brahm (which isn't really different than hypnotic age regression): https://www.amazon.ca/Mindfulness-Bliss ... and+beyond

You can also try hypnotic age regression: https://www.amazon.ca/Art-Hypnotic-Regr ... regression

Good luck. :smile:
Last edited by Motova on Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Aryjna
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Aryjna »

HandsomeMonkeyking wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:12 pm Are there ways to recall past incarnations?

Any buddhist or non-budhdist practises with that goal in mind?

Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
In order to see outcomes etc. you need omniscience, so you need to become a buddha.
amanitamusc
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by amanitamusc »

The Horror!
kausalya
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by kausalya »

HandsomeMonkeyking wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:12 pm Are there ways to recall past incarnations?

Any buddhist or non-budhdist practises with that goal in mind?

Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
Past-life recall is a side-effect of correct practice. The wish for it blocks the needed conditions from arising.

To gain insight into the Four Noble Truths (and to make educated guesses at outcomes) look at your own life/relationships/mind. Everything you need is there in front of you... amazing! :applause:
"For as long as space remains,
For as long as sentient beings remain,
Until then may I too remain
To dispel the miseries of the world."
(Shantideva)
Fortyeightvows
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Fortyeightvows »

If one wants to know what they did in the past lives. Just look at the present circumstances.
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cyril
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by cyril »

HandsomeMonkeyking wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:12 pm Are there ways to recall past incarnations?

Any buddhist or non-budhdist practises with that goal in mind?

Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
Mastering the first 4 jhanas should allow you to recall past incarnations according to Samannaphala Sutta:

"Quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful mental qualities, he enters and remains in the first jhana: rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation [...]. Furthermore, with the stilling of directed thoughts & evaluations, he enters and remains in the second jhana: rapture and pleasure born of composure, unification of awareness free from directed thought and evaluation — internal assurance. [...]. And furthermore, with the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, & alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the third jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare, 'Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding' [...]. And furthermore, with the abandoning of pleasure and stress — as with the earlier disappearance of elation and distress — he enters and remains in the fourth jhana: purity of equanimity and mindfulness, neither-pleasure nor stress [...].

With his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished, free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability, he directs and inclines it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. He recollects his manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two births, three births, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred, one thousand, one hundred thousand, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion, recollecting: 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and 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 and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.' Thus he recollects his manifold past lives in their modes and details. Just as if a man were to go from his home village to another village, and then from that village to yet another village, and then from that village back to his home village. The thought would occur to him, 'I went from my home village to that village over there. There I stood in such a way, sat in such a way, talked in such a way, and remained silent in such a way. From that village I went to that village over there, and there I stood in such a way, sat in such a way, talked in such a way, and remained silent in such a way. From that village I came back home.' In the same way — with his mind thus concentrated, purified, and bright, unblemished, free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to imperturbability — the monk directs and inclines it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives. He recollects his manifold past lives... in their modes and details.

"This, too, great king, is a fruit of the contemplative life, visible here and now, more excellent than the previous ones and more sublime.
"

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitak ... .than.html

However, there are teachers such as Ajahn Brahm who basically say that you might not actually need to master all 4 rupajhanas; just by attaining the first jhana, the mind would become purified enough to recall past lives to some extent.
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Varis
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Varis »

The curriculum laid out in the visuddhimagga is supposed lead to the recollection of past lives. Going to need a teacher though.
Aryjna wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:31 pm In order to see outcomes etc. you need omniscience, so you need to become a buddha.
Source? Seeing the future is a siddhi, not omniscience.
"I have never encountered a person who committed bad deeds." ― Ven. Jìngkōng
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Aryjna
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Aryjna »

Varis wrote: Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:00 am The curriculum laid out in the visuddhimagga is supposed lead to the recollection of past lives. Going to need a teacher though.
Aryjna wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:31 pm In order to see outcomes etc. you need omniscience, so you need to become a buddha.
Source? Seeing the future is a siddhi, not omniscience.
The OP said
Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
So it seems he means the effects of specific actions and reasons for things, which are not possible to know without omniscience.
Varis
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Varis »

Aryjna wrote: Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:21 pm The OP said
Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
So it seems he means the effects of specific actions and reasons for things, which are not possible to know without omniscience.
Knowing the effects of specific actions and the reasons for things is the point of divination, astrology, etc.
"I have never encountered a person who committed bad deeds." ― Ven. Jìngkōng
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Aryjna
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Aryjna »

Varis wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 5:31 am
Aryjna wrote: Tue Jul 24, 2018 7:21 pm The OP said
Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
So it seems he means the effects of specific actions and reasons for things, which are not possible to know without omniscience.
Knowing the effects of specific actions and the reasons for things is the point of divination, astrology, etc.
I've never heard anything like that, and it makes no sense in the first place. Divination helps give some semi-generic insight on what may be the best course of action in a given situation, or things along these lines, as far as I know.
Drops of Nectar wrote: For a single iridescent eye upon a peacock's tail,
The causes are both many and distinct.
The one who knows them is indeed omniscient.
Without all-knowing wisdom, they cannot be known.
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Josef
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Josef »

Miroku wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:22 pm Recalling your past lives could be fun but it is nothing compared to bodhicitta. Even if there are I'd say they are useless if you want to have a nice problem free future tame your mind and pactice virtue.
This.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
XXIlluminatingVoid72
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by XXIlluminatingVoid72 »

I'll spoil the fun and tell you what happened.

You died in the end.
Motova
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Motova »

kausalya wrote: Mon Jul 23, 2018 11:01 pm
HandsomeMonkeyking wrote: Sun Jul 15, 2018 9:12 pm Are there ways to recall past incarnations?

Any buddhist or non-budhdist practises with that goal in mind?

Curious if it would be helpful for learning seeing outcomes of situations, actions and their reactions, consequences.
Past-life recall is a side-effect of correct practice. The wish for it blocks the needed conditions from arising.
:roll:
To become a rain man one must master the ten virtues and sciences.
MiphamFan
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by MiphamFan »

According to Abhidharma you need to attain at least the first dhyana then within the first dhyana you can apply your concentration to remembering past lives. Some Theravadins have instructions on this.
Varis
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Varis »

Aryjna wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 6:21 am I've never heard anything like that, and it makes no sense in the first place. Divination helps give some semi-generic insight on what may be the best course of action in a given situation, or things along these lines, as far as I know.
To know all causes is indeed omniscient, to be capable of knowing some things is not omniscient.
Vaṅgīsa could tell where a person was reborn, etc. etc.
"I have never encountered a person who committed bad deeds." ― Ven. Jìngkōng
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Aryjna
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Aryjna »

Varis wrote: Fri Jul 27, 2018 4:53 am
Aryjna wrote: Thu Jul 26, 2018 6:21 am I've never heard anything like that, and it makes no sense in the first place. Divination helps give some semi-generic insight on what may be the best course of action in a given situation, or things along these lines, as far as I know.
To know all causes is indeed omniscient, to be capable of knowing some things is not omniscient.
Vaṅgīsa could tell where a person was reborn, etc. etc.
Knowing where one will be reborn and knowing why one is reborn in the body and circumstnces in which they are reborn is not the same. But in any case it doesn't really matter.
Anders
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Anders »

I don't know why past life recall gets such a bad rep in modern Buddhism. I think the book referenced above by ajahn brahm gives good advice:

These recollections of past lives qualify as deep insight
for four reasons. First, the Buddha called them the first of
the “threefold knowledges” (tevijjā) (MN 91,33) leading to
enlightenment. And in the Sekha Sutta (MN 5 3,20), the Buddha likened the recollection of one’s past lives to the
first breaking out of a hen’s chicks from their eggs. Second,
they arise only after an experience of jhāna, just as the
seeing of things as they truly are (yathā bhūta
ñānạ dassana) happens only after jhāna (AN VII,61). Third,
the recollection of past lives is based on personal experience here and now, and not on beliefs, traditions, or
inferences. Fourth, these recollections change one’s whole
life. One experiences a great paradigm shift. For instance,
the fear of one’s own death and grief over other people’s deaths are immensely diminished. The present life is now
viewed from another perspective. One has the “big picture,” as they say, the whole jigsaw puzzle rather than one tiny piece called the years of this life. Most important, only now
has one received the raw data from one’s own widened
experience to truly appreciate what the Buddha means by dukkha, or suffering. One will understand why the Buddha’s wisest disciple, Sāriputta, said: “Getting reborn again is the meaning of dukkha, ending rebirth is the meaning of happiness!” (AN X,65).
"Even if my body should be burnt to death in the fires of hell
I would endure it for myriad lifetimes
As your companion in practice"

--- Gandavyuha Sutra
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Grigoris
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Re: Practise to recall past incarnations

Post by Grigoris »

Personally I have enough problems dealing with my BS in this life, without concerning myself with my BS in past lives...

One thing is for sure: I must have done some horrendous sh*t in my past lives to end up a moderator at DW! :tongue:
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