解脫道論 憶宿命智的種類與修法

Of the five direct knowledges, this is the only method that walks backward.

The other methods expand outward: hearing more distant sounds, knowing another’s mind, seeing other worlds. This one retreats, and its starting point is astonishingly near—“the present sitting place.” From where one sits now, recollect the bodily, verbal, and mental acts of this day; then the previous night; then one day, two days, one month, two months, one year, two years, three years, a hundred years, all the way back to one’s first birth.

The passage moves segment by segment because its support is not memory in the ordinary sense, but the continuity of mind and mental factors: mind arises in continuity, conditions are presently observed, recollective consciousness flows, and the line remains unbroken. If a segment cannot be joined, one cannot simply leap over it.

Most revealing is what to do when recollection fails. The treatise does not say to think harder. It says not to abandon energy, but to bring forth jhāna again; once it has arisen, make it masterful, “like polishing a mirror.”

The problem is not the strength of memory, but a clouded mirror. Recollection depends on the clarity of concentration. When it does not reflect, polish concentration rather than stare harder at the object. The instruction reaches beyond this method: when a practice stalls, the treatise often sends the practitioner back to its preparation.

The text also names what cannot be recollected: birth as an animal, birth in the formless realm, and birth without perception—the last cannot be conceived because it is without perception.

Its scale of reach is the chapter’s longest: a non-Buddhist practitioner remembers forty eons, a noble disciple ten thousand, then a chief disciple, a chief solitary buddha, and a Fully Awakened One. This alone among the five methods places non-Buddhist practitioners on its scale. Remembering for a long time is therefore not itself evidence of nobility.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Kinds and Cultivation of Knowledge Recollecting Past Lives · Doorway · Summer 2026

Who Brings It Forth, How Many Kinds, and How?

Question: Who can bring forth knowledge recollecting past lives? How many kinds are there? How should it be brought forth?

Answer: Through the eight kasiṇas and the two kasiṇas, one gains mastery of mind in the fourth jhāna. This is what can bring forth knowledge recollecting past lives.

Another account asks: What about the form-realm base? Answer: One gains mastery of mind in the fourth jhāna. This is what can bring it forth.

Another account says: It arises in the four jhānas.

Three Kinds of Recollection of Past Lives

Question: How many kinds of recollection of past lives are there?

Answer: Three: first, many-retained birth; second, made by birth; third, accomplished through cultivation.

1. Many-Retained Birth

In this matter, one of many-retained birth recollects past lives in four ways: because that sign has been well grasped, because its portion-sign has been seen, because the faculties are clear, and because its nature has been gathered. These four ways constitute recollection of past lives through many-retained birth. One who is foremost in this can recollect seven past lives.

2. Accomplished by Birth

Devas, nāgas, and phoenixes recollect past lives through accomplishment by birth. One who is foremost among them can recollect fourteen past lives.

The earlier heading reads “made by birth,” while the explanation here reads “accomplished by birth.” The wording differs and is preserved without correction.

3. Accomplished through Cultivation

One accomplished through cultivation cultivates the bases of power.

The Method: Walking Backward from the Present Sitting Place

Question: How should knowledge recollecting past lives be brought forth?

Answer: The beginning meditator cultivates the four bases of power in this way. Through faith he gains mastery and becomes clear to the point of being unmoving.

Beginning from his present sitting place, he recollects everything done during this day, whether by body, intention, or speech.

In the same way he recollects what was done during the night. In the same way he proceeds through one day and two days, step by step to one month, recollecting every event. In the same way he recollects the events of two months, then step by step those of one year, of two years, three years, and a hundred years, all the way back to what was done at his first birth.

The Continuity of Mind and Mental Factors

At that time, mind and mental factors long past have a later arising; mind and mental factors arise in the present, arising in dependence on the first mind and mental factors.

Through the arising of mental continuity, he presently observes conditions. Recollective consciousness flows on; both remain unbroken—arising in this world and arising in that world.

Cultivating his mind to clarity in this way, the meditator recollects more than one past life: one life, two lives, three lives, four lives, and so on through all such lives.

When Recollection Does Not Arise

The beginning meditator has now recollected everything in this life. If he cannot recollect that previous life, he should not abandon his energy. He should bring jhāna forth again.

Once jhāna has arisen, he should make it thoroughly masterful, like the method of polishing a mirror.

When mastery has been well gained, he recollects in the present as at the beginning, and recollection is accomplished.

If he emerges from one life and his mind accomplishes recollection, he experiences the greatest ease and has seen the means.

What Cannot Be Recollected

Birth as an animal cannot be recollected, nor birth in the formless realm. Birth without perception cannot be conceived, because it has the nature of being without perception.

The elder 輸毘多 was foremost in this matter.

Seven Kinds, the Character of What Is Recollected, and the Reach of Recollection

Knowledge recollecting past lives has seven kinds: small, great, not to be spoken, past, internal, external, and internal-and-external.

One should recollect path and fruit attained in the past, or a country or village. That becomes knowledge recollecting past lives through the perception of the past.

Recollecting the continuity of the aggregates through knowledge is knowledge recollecting past lives.

From here, non-Buddhist practitioners can recollect forty eons. Beyond that they cannot recollect because the body lacks strength. A noble disciple can recollect ten thousand eons. Beyond this is a chief disciple; beyond him, a chief solitary buddha; beyond him, a Tathāgata, the Fully Awakened One, who recollects all of his own and others’ past lives, actions, and places.

Others recollect only their own past lives and a few of others’. A Fully Awakened One recollects everything as he wishes; others recollect in sequence.

A Fully Awakened One recollects whether entering samādhi or not; when not entering samādhi, he still recollects continually. Others recollect only after entering samādhi. Knowledge recollecting past lives is complete.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Kinds and Cultivation of Knowledge Recollecting Past Lives · Vernacular · Summer 2026

This is the fourth of the five direct knowledges. The first three move outward—sound toward a thousand worlds, mind toward another person’s body, the transformed body toward the Brahmā world. This method turns and walks back.

The central observation is this: among the five, only this method is cultivated in reverse, and its starting point is unexpectedly near. “Beginning from his present sitting place, he recollects everything done during this day, whether by body, intention, or speech” 〔T32 443c15–16〕. The point of departure is the place where he is sitting now; the first step is to remember what he did today. Then “in the same way what was done during the night, one day, two days, step by step to one month” 〔T32 443c17–18〕, then two months, one year, two years, three years, a hundred years, “all the way back to what was done at his first birth” 〔T32 443c20〕. Segment by segment, he retreats to birth.

The other four methods generally extend beyond the body or toward distance. This one moves from present to past, from now back to birth. Their distance is largely spatial; this one is temporal. The passage teaches a beginner to move back through day, month, and year. Its closing section separately says that a Fully Awakened One “recollects everything as he wishes” 〔T32 444a10〕, so the beginner’s sequence must not be made into an absolute law that no accomplished knower can cross.

Why One Cannot Leap

“At that time, mind and mental factors long past have a later arising; mind and mental factors arise in the present, arising in dependence on the first mind and mental factors. Through the arising of mental continuity, he presently observes conditions. Recollective consciousness flows on; both remain unbroken—arising in this world and arising in that world” 〔T32 443c20–24〕.

The punctuation is difficult and the treatise gives no further explanation, so this edition does not impose a final segmentation. Yet one matter is clear: the support is continuity, not memory as a personal faculty. Mind and mental factors long past arise in dependence on the first mind and mental factors; through mental continuity, conditions are observed, and recollective consciousness flows with “both” unbroken. Since the method follows an unbroken line, if any segment is lost the subsequent segment cannot be joined. That is why the meditator begins today and retreats through day, month, and year, taking hold of the line one piece at a time. This is not a mnemonic technique but a hand tracing an existing line backward.

When Recollection Fails, Polish the Mirror

The most revealing instruction concerns failure.

“The beginning meditator has recollected everything in this life. If he cannot recollect that previous life, he should not abandon his energy. He should bring jhāna forth again. Once jhāna has arisen, he should make it thoroughly masterful, like the method of polishing a mirror” 〔T32 443c26–28〕.

Pause here: when recollection fails, why does the treatise not tell him to try harder to remember, but to bring forth jhāna again?

The text answers with the mirror. If a mirror does not reflect clearly, the defect is not in the object reflected and not in whether the viewer strains hard enough, but on the mirror’s surface. “Like the method of polishing a mirror” occurs only here in the treatise and the polishing technique is not described. Yet its position after “bring forth jhāna again” and “make it thoroughly masterful” makes its direction plain. Recollection of past lives depends on the clarity of concentration. When the image does not appear, polish concentration, not memory.

This gives a reading practice: when a passage says “cannot,” see whether the prescribed medicine strengthens the immediate activity or returns to a preparation. Here failure to remember is treated by re-arousing jhāna and making concentration masterful. In the transformation method, slowness, regression, and fear receive respectively a sign of speed, concentration, and a sign of equanimity 〔T32 442a12–14〕. Both locate the remedy in preparation or adjustment of mind. Whether the observation applies elsewhere must be checked passage by passage.

“When mastery has been well gained, he recollects in the present as at the beginning, and recollection is accomplished” 〔T32 443c28–29〕. Once the mirror is polished, look again and the image appears. The next sentence gives a concrete threshold: “If he emerges from one life and his mind accomplishes recollection, he experiences the greatest ease and has seen the means” 〔T32 443c29–444a01〕. The difficulty is not how far one remembers, but crossing the first boundary between lives. Cross it once and the means has been seen; fail to cross and recollection back to birth remains recollection of this present life. This also explains why the method retreats one segment at a time. Birth is not the destination but the boundary at which the method is discovered.

Three Accounts of What Brings It Forth, in a Familiar Form

The opening answer likewise gives three accounts: “Through the eight kasiṇas and the two kasiṇas, one gains mastery of mind in the fourth jhāna. This is what can bring forth knowledge recollecting past lives” 〔T32 443c04–05〕; “a further account asks: what about the form-realm base? Answer: one gains mastery of mind in the fourth jhāna; this is what can bring it forth” 〔T32 443c05–06〕; “a further account says: it arises in the four jhānas” 〔T32 443c06–07〕.

Three accounts stand side by side without one word of judgment, in a form close to the three accounts opening the divine-ear method 〔T32 443a12–15〕. In these two passages a further account is given without choosing among them, so this edition preserves rather than fuses them. The observation is limited to these passages; it does not assert that every “a further account says” in the treatise has the same function. The punctuation of “the eight kasiṇas and the two kasiṇas” cannot be settled from the treatise and remains marked for further study.

Three Kinds of Recollection, One without a Number

The earlier paragraph divides recollection into three: “first, many-retained birth; second, made by birth; third, accomplished through cultivation” 〔T32 443c07–08〕.

One of many-retained birth recollects in four ways: “because that sign has been well grasped, because its portion-sign has been seen, because the faculties are clear, and because its nature has been gathered” 〔T32 443c09–10〕. A direct count gives four, and every item closes with “because.” One foremost in this kind “recollects seven past lives” 〔T32 443c11〕. Devas, nāgas, and phoenixes belong to what the explanation calls “accomplished by birth” 〔T32 443c11–12〕, and one foremost among them “recollects fourteen past lives” 〔T32 443c12–13〕. The third kind is simply, “one accomplished through cultivation cultivates the bases of power” 〔T32 443c13〕.

The first two kinds each receive a number—seven and fourteen. The third, the kind actually cultivated by the meditator, receives none. The treatise does not say how many births cultivated recollection can remember. Later it gives eons for different classes of practitioner, but that is a separate table. The blank here remains blank: the method does not measure itself by the number of lives remembered.

The heading calls the second kind “made by birth,” while the explanation calls it “accomplished by birth.” The wording differs and is retained without correction.

What Cannot Be Recollected, and the Longest Scale

“Birth as an animal cannot be recollected, nor birth in the formless realm; birth without perception cannot be conceived because it has the nature of being without perception” 〔T32 444a01–02〕. Three cases are listed. Only the final one supplies its own reason; no reason is given for the first two. The four witnesses read 憶, “recollect,” for the base’s 想, “conceive.” Following them would align the verb with the earlier “cannot recollect birth as an animal.” Under the base, “cannot conceive” accords with the reason “because it has the nature of being without perception.” Both are recorded; the base is followed.

The verbs therefore remain distinct. The base first says that animal birth “cannot be recollected,” then says that formless birth and birth without perception “cannot be conceived.” Only the witnesses turn the latter into “recollect.” This edition does not silently harmonize the verbs merely because the three items stand together, nor infer reasons for the first two from the reason supplied for the third.

The seven-kind list reads “small, great, not to be spoken, past, internal, external, and internal-and-external” 〔T32 444a03–04〕. A direct count gives seven, agreeing with the heading. It is the chapter’s second-longest object-list, after transformation’s nine and knowledge of others’ minds’ eight, and alone among the five lists none of its entries carries the word “object.” Its “not to be spoken” also differs from transformation’s “indescribable object” 〔T32 443a09–10〕. The wording is not harmonized.

Two Easily Missed Sentences

After the seven kinds come two short lines easy to skim as connective material: “One should recollect path and fruit attained in the past, or a country or village. That becomes knowledge recollecting past lives through the perception of the past” 〔T32 444a04–05〕; and “recollecting the continuity of the aggregates through knowledge is knowledge recollecting past lives” 〔T32 444a05–06〕.

The first names what is remembered—path and fruit previously attained, as well as places such as country and village. Recollecting these becomes recollection through perception of the past. The second is more decisive: “recollecting the continuity of the aggregates through knowledge.” What is remembered is not merely a chain of incidents, but the continuity of the aggregates. Recollection in this treatise is not leafing through an old album. It follows the line along which the five aggregates continued, segment after segment. This restates the earlier “mind arises in continuity; conditions are presently observed; recollective consciousness flows; both remain unbroken” 〔T32 443c22–23〕 with the word “aggregates.”

The position of these two sentences is instructive: first the text says what is recollected, and only afterward how far recollection reaches. Reverse the order and the practice becomes a contest of duration. Read in the text’s order, distance is the final consideration; content—path, fruit, place, and continuity of aggregates—is why recollection belongs within a path of freedom.

The scale of reach is the chapter’s longest: “From here, non-Buddhist practitioners can recollect forty eons; beyond that they cannot recollect because the body lacks strength. A noble disciple can recollect ten thousand eons; beyond this is a chief disciple; beyond him a chief solitary buddha; beyond him a Tathāgata, the Fully Awakened One, who recollects all of his own and others’ past lives, actions, and places” 〔T32 444a06–09〕.

Five levels, and the first is a non-Buddhist practitioner. The divine ear, knowledge of others’ minds, and divine eye each give only disciple, solitary buddha, and Tathāgata. Only recollection includes a non-Buddhist practitioner, and assigns forty eons. The treatise adds no evaluative comment, stating only why he stops there: “because the body lacks strength.”

This at least establishes that long memory is not by itself sufficient evidence of nobility, because the same scale includes a non-Buddhist practitioner at forty eons and a noble disciple at ten thousand. Nor is quantity the only distinction. The later levels also differ through chief disciple and chief solitary buddha, the Fully Awakened One’s recollection of his own and others’ lives, actions, and places, and whether samādhi is required. The scale cannot be flattened into amount alone.

The final sentence adds another contrast: “A Fully Awakened One recollects whether entering samādhi or not; when not entering samādhi, he still recollects continually. Others recollect only after entering samādhi” 〔T32 444a10–12〕. The preceding line pairs “a Fully Awakened One recollects everything as he wishes” with “others recollect in sequence” 〔T32 444a10〕. The checkable contrasts are as one wishes / in sequence and continual recollection outside samādhi / recollection only in samādhi. The treatise does not say that sequentiality belongs to the essence of recollection itself.

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Carry away three things. One observation: only this method proceeds backward, beginning with the present sitting place and today’s actions. Its support is continuity of mind and mental factors, not personal memory, so segments cannot simply be skipped. One reading practice: where a passage says “cannot,” look at whether its medicine strengthens the immediate act or returns to preparation. Here it returns to jhāna and mastery of concentration. One place to pause: why return to jhāna when recollection fails? Because the simile is polishing a mirror. When the image is unclear, polish the mirror rather than stare harder.

Remember also that a non-Buddhist practitioner stands on this scale and can recollect forty eons. The treatise says only that he cannot go beyond because the body lacks strength. The later levels differ not only in reach but in actions, places, and dependence on samādhi, so the table must not be reduced to a single quantitative measure.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Kinds and Cultivation of Knowledge Recollecting Past Lives · Exposition · Summer 2026