In this DhO thread on Past Lives, Nikolai quoted Culadasa's take on past lives, which I found to be valuable. Reproduced with permission from a discussion on the Jhana Insight yahoo group. Culadasa's website, offering more of his teachings, is available at http://dharmatreasure.com/.

Claudiu

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Hi Michael,

Daniel has given you some excellent advice. Consider his third point: How would you know that these "past life memories" actually belonged to you?

On what basis do you assume that the manifold past lives the Buddha recollected were "his", in some linear, separate, and individual sense? Are you assuming that the Insight gained by the Buddha in seeing past lives was an Insight into the truth of reincarnation? If so, then he didn't discover anything new, he was only confirming a commonly held belief of his time - and all the statements attributed to him in the passage you quoted are completely consistent with what the Brahmins were already teaching.

Could it be instead, that by reviewing many, many human lives, the real Insight he gained was into a deeper truth about human suffering, the causes of suffering, how suffering can end, and the way to end suffering? Perhaps this review of past lives actually gave him an Insight into human nature and the nature of the mind, one that completely refutes the illusion of separate self, rather than confirming it? That would certainly fit much better with everything else he taught during his life. Might not the review of many other, non-human, lives have perhaps allowed him to extend this same Insight to all existent beings of every sort?

There is absolutely no basis at all for anyone to assume that the past lives the Buddha saw, or that Ajahn Lee saw, or that I have seen, or that you will see if you do the practice, belong to some kind of separate self. The only reason that anyone would ever make that assumption is that they are already predisposed to accept the idea of reincarnation. It is an entirely ungrounded assumption, based only on a pre-existing belief or a desperate desire to believe in anything that will reify the personal self.

Remember, a Stream Entrant, by the Buddha's definition, is someone who has overcome belief in the reality of the personal self, in any form. This is one of the Three Fetters that has been overcome. A Stream Entrant knows with absolute certainty that, whatever might be reborn, it is definitely not the personal self we think we are. And, therefore, that the idea of reincarnation of a personal self or "soul" is a falsehood. But the inherent feeling that one is a separately existing entity will keep coming back until one becomes an Arhat, even though one no longer believes in a personal self. This is why Stream Entrants (and not just Buddhist stream entrants, either) so often try to find something else that they can attach their lingering sense of a separate selfhood to, since it can no longer attach to personality. Consciousness is a popular candidate for this (see the Mahatanhasankhya Sutta, MN 38, about Sati the fisherman's son). Consciousness lends itself well to being framed as Universal, or Cosmic, or God Consciousness, all in an effort to accommodate the inherent sense of a separate self into the Stream Entrant's realizations of the illusoriness of the personal self, and the interconnectedness of everything. This is also a wrong view (although not quite as wrong), because even though "consciousness as the true self" is being intellectually described as "universal", it is still being intuitively conceived of as separate. But there is no way that a true Stream Entrant can continue to believe in personal rebirth or reincarnation.

You have expressed your own true brilliance in your last comment: "Instead of spending so much time on speculations, I should be focusing on my meditation and figure it out myself."

Yes, Michael, you can recollect a few past lives yourself, and when you do, you can jump to an uncritical conclusion that, "Wow, reincarnation must be true!" and stop there. Or else you can continue to repeat these experiences, examining them more closely until you realize that, in fact, they are no more about "you" than was the last movie you saw. When that happens, you will have to ask yourself, "How, then, can I be accessing the memories of some other person's life?" An excellent question! It's a question that applies equally well to the associated power of knowing the minds of others, and to the divine eye and divine ear as well. What common explanation might lie behind all of these? Then you might consider Daniel's 4th point as well: "Is this just a projection of my own mind?" Or better yet, you might wonder if both things could be true, that the "memories" are indeed coming from another's mind, and therefore are not an illusion, but somehow it also involves a projection of "your" mind. Those questions will lead you to a genuine Insight into no-self, interconnectedness, dependent origination, and emptiness. That is the way for you to truly follow directly in the footsteps of the Buddha.

Much love and joy to you,
Culadasa