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Claims to Attainments

Anyone Remember Past Lives?

Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/5/12 4:09 PM
Traditionally, it's a common occurrence for those far along the path (or done with the whole thing) to remember past lives. The freedom from rebirth and samsara is, after all, the fundamental point of this whole endeavor (not just to be free from suffering in this life).

So my question is, has anybody developed the ability to remember past lives?

And for those 4th pathers around here, do you believe that you'll be exiting the ride after this life?

And for anybody to answer, is the freedom from rebirth an actual motivation for practice?

With Metta,
Teague

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/7/12 8:44 AM as a reply to Teague.
Teague A:

And for anybody to answer, is the freedom from rebirth an actual motivation for practice?


For me, not really. My goal actually is freedom from suffering in this life. To be more precise: in this moment. The future is of interest only insofar as it is a concept derived from the apparent continuity of the stream of events we know as our existence. My working assumption is: If there is a future moment in time (or a future life), I want to do whatever I can do right now to make that potential future as good as I can. Fortunately I don't have to choose between making the present moment good and making the future good. I think a big part of "enlightenment" or understanding or "right view" is just this: the realization that good actions based on good intentions make the current moment better and also make the future better. Therefore you don't have to decide between the present and some potential future, like you were forced to when you were buying into delusions of material wealth etc.

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/7/12 11:18 PM as a reply to Teague.
What is this life?

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/8/12 9:23 AM as a reply to Andrew ..
I'm a beginner and do not remember past lives, although the claims of other people who did initially contributed to my interest in Buddhism. I think it's a good question.

Thanissaro Bikkhu wrote a free ebook you might be interested in: http://dhammatalks.org/ebook_index.html#big_books

He doesn't make a case for rebirth per se, but makes a strong case that rebirth was central to the Buddha's teaching - not incidenta l- and that recalling his past lives was important in his own awakening.

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/8/12 10:17 AM as a reply to Teague.
I think it's an important question as well. I'd like to hear from some enlightened folks on the DhO that have or have not experienced this.

I asked a similar question in a thread a while back re unworldly beings. The silence was deafening...

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/8/12 12:26 PM as a reply to Some Guy.
J B:
but makes a strong case that rebirth was central to the Buddha's teaching - not incidenta l- and that recalling his past lives was important in his own awakening.


Yes, a very central component to his awakening was the twelve steps of dependent origination, which take place over the course of three lives (previous, present, and next).

Most of the time, my own motivation is just to live a good life now, but there have been moments when I've felt and seen the truth of suffering so keenly that the idea of going through this process called life again and again really does sound maddening.

Anyone interested in past lives should order a book called "rebirth as doctrine and experience". It's the best dhamma reading I've found since MCTB.

Another question I'd like to tack on is: what do the actual freedom folk think of rebirth?

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/8/12 2:05 PM as a reply to Teague.
And for anybody to answer, is the freedom from rebirth an actual motivation for practice?


You know, I haven't thought about it much until now, but I think it is an actual motivation at times. Lately, my practice has seemed a little bogged down and not as rewarding as I sometimes hope. And there are several recent threads here and elsewhere that make enlightenment seem, well... disappointing. So, maybe a little negative motivation to avoid unfavorable rebirths keeps me going. But it's a faint motivation, because I'm not convinced about the rebirth theory. So, testimonies would interest me.

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/9/12 1:45 PM as a reply to Teague.
i don't remember my past lives but she does

http://www.dhammaweb.net/paauk/USA-D5/PaAukSayadaw11-141-09%28Caitlin%29.mp3

very interesting talk

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/9/12 3:13 PM as a reply to Superkatze one.
the above was a link to nowhere.

table of contents of her thus recorded talks

can you tell us which #talk is the one describing her past lives.



'I' find the subject compelling. I use "" to illustrate that an identity is forming as i write these words. so i will attempt to write without any such thing occuring emoticon

lots and lots of data pointing to reincarnation. some somewhat-plausible hypothesis as to how such a thing could occur. doubt any such speculation is fruitful. though any motivation is good motivation until the time when the momentum can't be stopped. if i were to remember a past life, i'd examine it to the furtherest extent i could. it would be a novelty. but would it change anything?

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/9/12 4:21 PM as a reply to Jon T.
corrected link

http://www.dhammaweb.net/paauk/usa-dhammatalk.html

it is
Disc 5 Pa Auk Sayadaw Dhamma Talk Nov 14 2009 (Caitlin)

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/9/12 9:40 PM as a reply to Superkatze one.
Superkatze one:
corrected link

http://www.dhammaweb.net/paauk/usa-dhammatalk.html

it is
Disc 5 Pa Auk Sayadaw Dhamma Talk Nov 14 2009 (Caitlin)


Thanks. English portion begins at about 6'50".

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/10/12 12:14 AM as a reply to Some Guy.
"So my question is, has anybody developed the ability to remember past lives?

And for those 4th pathers around here, do you believe that you'll be exiting the ride after this life?

And for anybody to answer, is the freedom from rebirth an actual motivation for practice?"

I have had experiences that appear to be "past lives".
It is all now though, ultimately.
Recently, there was seeing a death process itself, in jhana, it was helpful to see this.
Freedom from clinging is a natural interest.

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/10/12 4:53 AM as a reply to Teague.
As I was just sitting here, staring at a blue kasina, I remembered something I would like to run by you:

When I was experimenting with hypnosis years ago, I saw something that I now believe to have been a past life. Most of the people who were going through the same hypnotic induction told stories about walking around in a house or being stranded on an island or something like that. My own story was not quite human: I was one of a few dozen beings (that I could see). We all appeared to be blobs of light floating in space. I'm not sure why, but it felt like we were approximately in geosynchronous orbit, though I don't remember seeing any stars or planets. All the other blobs were orange or violet in color, but for some reason I perceived myself as green or blue. It was a little bit confusing because everything seemed so fantastic. Even now it's hard to find words to describe this.

Since we're already talking about this... When I had started Mahasi noting years later and was getting into A&P territory, I had a dream that was probably also a past life memory. In fact that dream was the first actual A&P event I have had in "this" life. I dreamed that I was sitting in a fairly large hall looking out onto trees. Everything was green, a really beautiful setting. As I became concentrated, all of a sudden, on an out-breath, what I was seeing (the scene of green trees) started being perceived as a rapid succession of images interrupted by blackness (typical visual A&P experience as I know now). It then went back to normal (non-strobing) on the in-breath, but on the next out-breath, the strobing started again and became more intense. This time it ended not in having the blackness between frames disappear, but in having the frames disappear and falling into absorption.

During the events described above, nobody was holding a sign up, "You are experiencing a past life memory," so they might just have been products of my imagination, but then again, what is the difference?

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/10/12 10:45 AM as a reply to Superkatze one.
That is a fascinating dhamma talk, Superkatze.

She discusses a practice that involves following the chain of thoughts back to the womb and then before. She says the purpose of the practice is to understand the nature of the ignorance that caused your rebirth. She also says that it's a very systematic practice accessible to any stream enterer, or jhana adept. She also confirms that the practice brings strong motivation to escape samsara.

The process of following minute machinations from one life to the previous would seem to negate the idea that such memories are really just collective unconscious memories.

She also had some really nice insights about perfecting sila.

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/12/12 3:34 PM as a reply to Some Guy.
Does anybody have a reference that would address the question of what there is outside of samsara?

Someone suggested to me recently that the ultimate outcome of buddhist practice, presupposing the cycle of rebirth and its cessation, would be to return to dust. I couldn't disagree. Thoughts?

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/12/12 11:45 PM as a reply to Some Guy.
I have a theory. I don't know if it's true, but believe it probably is. I tried to introduce it here:

http://forums.philosophyforums.com/comments.php?id=51514&findpost=909895#post909895

What difference does it make to me? None really.

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/19/12 11:09 AM as a reply to Dauphin Supple Chirp.
Dauphin Supple Chirp:
My own story was not quite human: I was one of a few dozen beings (that I could see). We all appeared to be blobs of light floating in space. I'm not sure why, but it felt like we were approximately in geosynchronous orbit, though I don't remember seeing any stars or planets. All the other blobs were orange or violet in color, but for some reason I perceived myself as green or blue. It was a little bit confusing because everything seemed so fantastic. Even now it's hard to find words to describe this.


That's interesting. I wonder if that's pretty much what existence in the deva realms is like.

Dauphin Supple Chirp:
I have a theory. I don't know if it's true, but believe it probably is. I tried to introduce it here:

http://forums.philosophyforums.com/comments.php?id=51514&findpost=909895#post909895

What difference does it make to me? None really.


I've heard this theory before and it's cool to think about, but I agree with your statement: What difference does it make. Whether I'm mind and matter, or just ones and zeros, I'd still like to suffer less and escape samsara.

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/19/12 1:40 PM as a reply to Teague.
Here's a post of my take on the subject

http://dharmaoverground.org/web/guest/discussion/-/message_boards/message/2712247

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/20/12 4:35 PM as a reply to Santiago Jimenez.
listening to the series of talks santiago pointed out yesterday found this

Reincarnation in Human Evolution - The New Science of Darwinian Rebirth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2uZkPzJrZc

cheers

RE: Anyone Remember Past Lives?
Answer
3/24/12 5:47 AM as a reply to Teague.
Alright, so on the retreat in 2003 at MBMC where I finished those things up, when my concentration was really strong about 2.5 weeks into that 3 wk retreat, I had the following experience:

I was doing walking meditation and a thought said: "Hey, watch this!" and there was this trail of thought bubbles off to the left, 6 of them, each of which instantly imparted a relatively large amount of information for the very short period of time they existed.

The first was a scene of a small rodent-like creature, probably a skunk, being eaten by a wolf-like thing or dog.

The second and third were of bats, one of which was somehow crushed on the floor of a cave.

The fourth I don't remember well.

The fifth was of a very large, dangerous-looking skeletal thing I can only assume was some sort of Jealous God-realm sort of entity, and it had armor, a very large sword, and there was the sense that it had run across the universe through space for many hundreds of thousands of years fighting nearly constantly without tiring at all, as it was a creature of great strength and boundless endurance, and it died in the fire of some very large dragon-like thing.

The last had the feeling of immense age and was by far the most alien and least comprehensible, being some sort of giant, gelatinous, pseudopod covered creature in a very dark place.

Somehow there was a deep sense of both memory and emotional resonance with them, and it was very hard not to come to the conclusion that this was what people would call past-life experiences.

I merely report the sensations and impressions these experiences conveyed, but beyond that I do not add any sense of the absolute validity of them being past lives, as who can know? I have had so many weird visions, strange and compelling experiences, and the like, but in the end the only question is what makes a difference here and now, and so I don't really see how calling those experiences past lives or powers or visions or just hallucinations or delusions actually makes any difference at all, so I choose to just keep them as memories of something that felt like memories, but I can't confirm that they really were.