長阿含經 18.p50

18.p50

“The Dharma that the Tathāgata teaches has another superiority, which is the direct knowledge of one’s own past lives. Ascetics and priests use various methods to enter a fixed samādhi of mind. Following that samādhi, they recollect innumerable events of their own past lives: One birth, two births … a hundred thousand births, an eon of formation, or an eon of destruction. ‘Thus were my innumerable birth places. My names were thus. My castes and clans were thus. My life spans were thus. My meals were thus. My pains and pleasures were thus. I was born there from here, and I was born here from there .’ Whatever various aspects there were, they recollect their own past lives and the events of innumerable eons. Day and night, they’re constantly aware of past times they’ve passed through. ‘Here was form. Here was formlessness. Here was conception. Here was no conception. Here there was neither [conception nor] no conception.’ They fully recollect and fully know it.