Grammatical Analysis
Pubbenivāsānussatiñāṇa: [nt.] knowledge of recollecting past lives. Formed by pubbe (formerly, in the past) + nivāsa (dwelling, existence, life) + anussati (recollection) + ñāṇa (knowledge).
Orthodox Definition
Pubbenivāsānussatiñāṇa is the fourth of the six supernormal knowledges (abhiññā). It is the psychic capacity to trace one’s own consciousness-stream backward through the vast cycles of saṃsāra. This was the first of the three ultimate knowledges (tevijjā) attained by the Buddha during the first watch of the night of his enlightenment.
The canonical text states the meditator recollects manifold past lives: one birth, two, a hundred, a hundred thousand, through many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion, remembering exactly: “There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance, such food, such experience of pleasure and pain, and such an end of life.”
The Visuddhimagga explains the method: The meditator enters the fourth jhāna, emerges, and directs the mind to the most recent event (e.g., eating breakfast), then steps backward to yesterday, last week, birth, the rebirth-linking moment, and finally crosses the boundary of death into the preceding life, illuminating the unbroken chain of cause and effect.
Textual References
- Sutta: Bhayabherava Sutta (MN 4) – The Buddha recounting his own execution of this knowledge under the Bodhi tree.
- Canonical: Sāmaññaphala Sutta (DN 2) – Comparing the recollection of past lives to a traveler remembering the exact path and villages he walked through on a long journey.
- Commentary: Visuddhimagga (Chapter XIII) – The exhaustive manual on how to train the mind to jump the cognitive gap between the current life and the past life.