Wisdom

[unspoken]

Is there any possibility that when a person in the past life could have been meditate in a higher stage, and after the rebirth that particular person in the new life will have a wisdom which most likely surpassing every normal human being's?

It like after they grow in a certain age, maybe 13 to 16, they start to encounter troubles and wisdom just "appears" within them in a sudden?

[IanAnd]

Hello unspoken,

It's obvious from your post that English is not your native language, so hopefully you will be able to read and correctly interpret this response to your questions.

When a person dies, and after a time is eventually reborn into a new physical body on earth, that "personality" carries with it the influences from the previous lifetime's experiences. When I say "personality" I'm referring to the condition of the five aggregates at the moment of that personality's previous death. So, in the sense that whatever was learned in a previous physical life span can be carried into the next physical life span, yes, this is true. This is not to say, however, that in the new life span that that personality will necessarily always "remember" those lessons. They may, and then, depending upon the conditioning in their present life span, they may not. That is, unless their memory is "jogged" by some event or other stimulus that helps them to recall a vague or even a strong sense of recollection of right view which they learned in that previous life span. It all depends upon whether there is a triggering of the recollection of "knowledge" or "wisdom" from the previous life span.

It's kind of like, some people don't need to be told right from wrong when they have developed (perhaps through a previous mental conditioning) an inner sense of these two conditions. Such stimulus can also come about through coming into contact with the Dhamma once again in the present lifetime and having an inner sense that this material is somehow familiar and helpful to them. I'm sure that quite a few people here on this forum have likely experienced such a sense of familiarity with the Dhamma, which then encouraged them to explore it more deeply. It's kind of like one is coming back to finish off the process they began in a previous lifetime.

Nothing just happens to someone "in a sudden" for no reason. It's generally based upon a previous conditioning of the mind.

Hope that helps.

In Peace,
Ian

[unspoken]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it very much. I'm sorry that English is not my native language and there was a lot of mistakes in grammar when I was asking about any questions. I understand it fully. To acquire the wisdom in this life depended on the previous one to help us "trigger" the wisdom from us.

[IanAnd]

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it very much. . . . I understand it fully. To acquire the wisdom in this life depended on the previous one to help us "trigger" the wisdom from us.

Hi unspoken,

Just to clarify a bit further, when I mentioned about the "influences from the previous lifetime's experiences" I was speaking about the underlying tendencies that remain embedded, so to speak, within the mind and the five aggregates that make up the mind — especially within the aggregates of vedana (feeling), sanna (perception), sankhara (volition), and vinnana (consciousness) as these four have a great influence on how one acts and reacts to phenomena.

For instance, to take a very simple example (although more complex examples can also be conceived), when one experiences the taste of an orange for the first time, vedana is affected, and we either like, dislike or are neutral with regard to the taste of an orange. In the future, when we encounter an orange again, sanna (perception) and our memory brings back the recollection of that first encounter. If we reacted in a positive way, then we probably have a "feeling" of liking for the orange, and perhaps even might be inclined (sankhara or mental volition) to partake (or eat) of it. So, these underlying mental tendencies can be carried on from lifetime to lifetime. It is because the mind has become "conditioned" by these tendencies.

Also, the sum total of these tendencies make up what we conventionally call our "personality." One's personality is constructed, so to speak, from the reactions that one has to various phenomena based upon vedana (liking, disliking or neutrality) toward the phenomenon. So, vedana has a very important role to play in the construction of a person's personality. That personality (and the tendencies that go with it) is what is carried on and can pass between lifetimes.

The same can be said about whatever amount of wisdom (or truth) we pick up during that lifetime and as we transition from one lifetime to the next. It all gets passed on through this same mental conditioning process.

In peace,
Ian

[Goedert]

Is there any possibility that when a person in the past life could have been meditate in a higher stage, and after the rebirth that particular person in the new life will have a wisdom which most likely surpassing every normal human being's?

It like after they grow in a certain age, maybe 13 to 16, they start to encounter troubles and wisdom just "appears" within them in a sudden?

Abidhamma could provide an answer. We won't find it on the suttas.

It has to do with volition and the cultivation of paramis.