Exact process of remembering past lives

[dharmacorps]

Remembering past lives is a byproduct of the path, not the purpose of it. So, no, there is no exact practice for only that.

[frank k]

you need jhāna, and you need to develop the perception of light.
When the light gets bright enough, you'll start to see and know things that you never knew before.
At lower stages, you won't know the difference between what's hallucination and what's real.
But the stronger you develop the light, and stronger the samādhi, the more accurate and reliable your visions become.
Most people don't put nearly enough time into jhāna and regular meditation for any of this to be feasible.

Seeing visual light requires spending many hours per day charging up the jhāna battery.
Most people, instead of charging up are dissipating their vital energy on completely useless pursuits (5 cords of sensual pleasure, social media, etc.).
Even fruitful pursuits, like studying suttas, is dissipating your jhāna battery instead of charging it up.

It's like becoming a rich person. You have to make more money than you're spending.

The suttas mention this in plenty of places, iddhi pada, AN 6.29, but they don't tell you the part I mention above, that the secret is in charging the battery for a net gain instead of using up your energy as quickly as you gain it.

So realistically, I would think most people who have this ability live quiet lives of noble silence (2nd jhāna or better) in most of their daily life, and even people who do have reliable psychic abilites can easily lose their powers if they don't maintain that lifestyle.

[lostitude]

note this is a complete absurdity. A neuron is just a cell working like a cable to transmit 0.75mv. How it can have the images from the past?. Where are the images of your old friends, your places and thousand different memories?. Maybe into the mitochondrias?

Neurons "having" images from the past is not more nor less absurd than neurons making you perceive images right now.
The same neuronal pathways are reactivated, that’s all. They did it once to conjure up the image you currently have in front of your eyes, and they will do it again to conjure up a similar image (a memory) in your mind’s eye.
I don’t see what the mitochondria have anything to do here.

Be careful with Pop-Science.

But this is not pop science. This is cognitive neurobiology. I’m not sure what you are getting at.

And this failed system of the God-Money should promote the ridicule pop-science like a new coarse pseudo-religion

It’s not religion. It’s observation and experiment. You might be interested in demarcation criteria.

the masses should take the new communion with all sort of drugs and harmful behaviors and ideas

But there is no relationship whatsoever between scientific inquiry and depression.

to palliate the pains of their existential prison.

The Buddha himself talked of the pains of our existential prison, which shows that it bears no relation with science.

The process of remembering past lives is a supranormal skill normally arising in an very high progress.

Again, I was not asking how in terms of the method. I was asking how it is at all possible.

First step is buying into the theory that memories are retained in some metaphysical way outside the body.

What made you buy into that yammer ?

Remembering past lives is a byproduct of the path, not the purpose of it. So, no, there is no exact practice for only that.

Sorry if I was unclear. I’m not interested in remembering my past lives (I mean, I would be, but that’s not my point right now). I’m interested to know how Buddhist scholars (or the scriptures themselves) have theorized explanations as to how it is possible to have memories not stored in the brain.

The suttas mention this in plenty of places, iddhi pada, AN 6.29, but they don't tell you the part I mention above, that the secret is in charging the battery for a net gain instead of using up your energy as quickly as you gain it.

Why don’t they tell us the part you mention above?

[Sha Bac]

I remembered a previous life once.

The process was thorough concentration without any thoughts. I sat in the sauna. The sweltering heat provided incentive for non thought. I was aware, and very conscious of the possibility of thought. Through mindfulness I kept my thoughts completely suppressed.

Later that night I was sitting on the couch at my mom's house, and I entered into a meditative state. A blue and white radiance filled my head. I then remembered, from the first person perspective. I was living in a cave. A young boy came to the entrance of the came and brought me food. I left the cave and walked out into a little village. I saw an ox pulling a cart. I then recalled hovering above a body of water.

[dharmacorps]

Sorry if I was unclear. I’m not interested in remembering my past lives (I mean, I would be, but that’s not my point right now). I’m interested to know how Buddhist scholars (or the scriptures themselves) have theorized explanations as to how it is possible to have memories not stored in the brain.

The question you have posed has a few problems. 1. Not everything is reducible to the brain. 2. Memories and complex and often non local in the brain 3. "storage" is probably not the way to frame memory.The brain isn't a shelf 4. the question lies outside the purview of dhamma because it doesn't assist putting an end to suffering.

[lostitude]

1. Not everything is reducible to the brain.

But if not, then what is the alternative you are implying?

2. Memories and complex and often non local in the brain

Well that’s exactly what I am interested in. How do we know that memories are complex and often not located in the brain? On what basis can we assert this with any degree of confidence?

3. "storage" is probably not the way to frame memory.The brain isn't a shelf

I know that ultimately this is just a metaphor. But so far I haven’t heard other descriptions that would be more fitting, I’d be interested to hear more.

4. the question lies outside the purview of dhamma because it doesn't assist putting an end to suffering.

I disagree. Removing incoherence is probably a good first step along the way, at least for beginners like me.

[Sha Bac]

you need jhāna, and you need to develop the perception of light.
When the light gets bright enough, you'll start to see and know things that you never knew before.
At lower stages, you won't know the difference between what's hallucination and what's real.
But the stronger you develop the light, and stronger the samādhi, the more accurate and reliable your visions become.
Most people don't put nearly enough time into jhāna and regular meditation for any of this to be feasible.

Seeing visual light requires spending many hours per day charging up the jhāna battery.
Most people, instead of charging up are dissipating their vital energy on completely useless pursuits (5 cords of sensual pleasure, social media, etc.).
Even fruitful pursuits, like studying suttas, is dissipating your jhāna battery instead of charging it up.

It's like becoming a rich person. You have to make more money than you're spending.

The suttas mention this in plenty of places, iddhi pada, AN 6.29, but they don't tell you the part I mention above, that the secret is in charging the battery for a net gain instead of using up your energy as quickly as you gain it.

So realistically, I would think most people who have this ability live quiet lives of noble silence (2nd jhāna or better) in most of their daily life, and even people who do have reliable psychic abilites can easily lose their powers if they don't maintain that lifestyle.

Do you recall your previous lives?

[dharmacorps]

Well that’s exactly what I am interested in. How do we know that memories are complex and often not located in the brain? On what basis can we assert this with any degree of confidence?

This would be a question for neuroscientists.

[Sha Bac]

Well that’s exactly what I am interested in. How do we know that memories are complex and often not located in the brain? On what basis can we assert this with any degree of confidence?

This would be a question for neuroscientists.

Wouldn't that be a question for someone who remembers previous lives? It's a super normal power, isn't it? Not everyone can do it. The people who can do it would be able to answer. Neuroscience wouldn't know. How would they if they can't recall previous lives themselves? They're just going to say memories are in the brain...but if you can recall your previous lives then you have some spiritual gift transcendending the science.

[zerotime]

Neurons "having" images from the past is not more nor less absurd than neurons making you perceive images right now.
The same neuronal pathways are reactivated, that’s all. They did it once to conjure up the image you currently have in front of your eyes, and they will do it again to conjure up a similar image (a memory) in your mind’s eye.
I don’t see what the mitochondria have anything to do here.

as happened in the past with quite Religious arguments, from our childhood we should hear explanations using Science to explain the Reality, although without any final sense. However, that constant repetition in Society cause that we adopt that mechanics without analyzing what we are believing and repeating.

In example, you say the neurons "conjure up the image" and some image can appear. Then, in example, we can imagine a tree with their leaves and,colors, etcetera. However, if a surgeon would open your head, no tree will be found inside your brain. Where is the image of the tree?

A neuron is a simple cell transmitting 0.75mv. One neuron liberates some chemicals and the next neuron will react transmitting the same electricity and liberating more chemicals. Where is that tree you are seeing so clearly in your mind?.

Obviously, we cannot deny the empirical experience of that tree. Although inside our brain there is not that image in any place.

When we read or hear about there is a tree stored into our neurons, this is not real Science but Pop-Science. And we can believe there is a tree image inside our cells like those ignorant people from the past, who believed in spirits inhabiting the blood to explain the illnesses.

Human Science is still primitive and too conditioned by money. We should remember the present Science cannot heal a simple cold while some of their priests are promising the immortality to the ignorant masses. Such scams are so ridicule that it remembers the obscurantism of the clergy in the middle ages to manipulate the populations.

Dhamma is useful to emancipate our mind from superstitions and false beliefs. It includes the superstitions under any dress, be religious, scientifical or whatever. Don't believe in the present times there are not superstitions to deceive the people. The change only exists in the appearances. In the same way there is always a real Religion and a pop-Religion to manipulate the masses, so the same happens with the new religion for the masses which is Science.

When one adopts the Dhamma schema to understand the Reality, one can discover a fully coherent system without any hole. This is not possible with Science. The incoherence is in the side of those people who mistake Science with Superstition. These people become too attached to a system still with serious holes and contradictions while they try to explain the founaments of Reality. Unfortunately, Science cannot help for such task.

I think better if one contact with Dhamma teaching with that same open mind of somebody who would start the knowledge of a different planet or a new civilization grown with different founaments. Some things could sound very advanced while others primitive. This is not important but the main issue is checking its success for the purpose causing its arising and evolution. In the case of Dhamma it is already finished and successful.

[Radix]

Given suttas like this:
https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN15_13.html
https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/SN/SN15_3.html

the remembering of past lives seems to be about remembering past events and remembering oneself as different lifeforms. "In the past, you were a father whose children died. ...In the past, you were a cow whose head was cut off."

The question is how to distinguish "what it is like to be a cow whose head gets cut off" vs. "imagining what it is like to be a cow whose head gets cut off". Perhaps the relevant distinction is in being able to distinguish an intelligent empathetic guess from a memory of the real thing.

[lostitude]

as happened in the past with quite Religious arguments

That is just not true. Religious arguments are in the form of "that’s how it is and no rational explanation is to be expected, and any religious statement is not to be subjected to testing to check its soundness". That’s the opposite of science.

In example, you say the neurons "conjure up the image" and some image can appear. Then, in example, we can imagine a tree with their leaves and,colors, etcetera. However, if a surgeon would open your head, no tree will be found inside your brain. Where is the image of the tree?

On your computer screen you see lots of images. If you open your computer’s CPU, will you find the images inside? No. So believing that the images displayed on your computer screen come from the CPU is just pop science and a pseudo-religious argument, right?

The question is how to distinguish "what it is like to be a cow whose head gets cut off" vs. "imagining what it is like to be a cow whose head gets cut off". Perhaps the relevant distinction is in being able to distinguish an intelligent empathetic guess from a memory of the real thing.

Exactly. I used to be a Muslim and I once had an extremely life-like experience that I was meeting Prophet Muhammad and he shook my hand. What do I make of this today? An expression of a deep-seated desire? The same could happen with a number of supposedly past life memories. Or not. Which is why it’s interesting to know the grounds on which such an interpretation of those mental images is based.

[lostitude]

Well that’s exactly what I am interested in. How do we know that memories are complex and often not located in the brain? On what basis can we assert this with any degree of confidence?

This would be a question for neuroscientists.

Wouldn't that be a question for someone who remembers previous lives? It's a super normal power, isn't it? Not everyone can do it. The people who can do it would be able to answer. Neuroscience wouldn't know. How would they if they can't recall previous lives themselves? They're just going to say memories are in the brain...but if you can recall your previous lives then you have some spiritual gift transcendending the science.

I think the problem is more probably that no one has ever documented a verified case of past-lives memories with useable data. So neuroscientists don’t even have available study subjects to start with...

[Radix]

The question is how to distinguish "what it is like to be a cow whose head gets cut off" vs. "imagining what it is like to be a cow whose head gets cut off". Perhaps the relevant distinction is in being able to distinguish an intelligent empathetic guess from a memory of the real thing.

Exactly. I used to be a Muslim and I once had an extremely life-like experience that I was meeting Prophet Muhammad and he shook my hand. What do I make of this today? An expression of a deep-seated desire? The same could happen with a number of supposedly past life memories. Or not. Which is why it’s interesting to know the grounds on which such an interpretation of those mental images is based.

Several things:

1. Back to the question "What is it that gets reborn?"
If we can answer this question, then we should be able to answer questions about remembering past lives.
It is sometimes said in Theravada that it is a "stream of consciousness" that goes on, as if to flow from one birth into another.
Also, that the proper line of reasoning is "There is kamma, therefore, there is rebirth". So it's not like there is a fixed entity that gets reborn, reincarnating, taking on different bodies each time around (as is the case in mainstream Hindu style reincarnation).

2. The formulation "remembering past lives" is perhaps misleading, as it suggests a Hindu style reincarnation: a fixed entity remembering its past existences.
If one understands the workings of kamma, and understands that "kamma, therefore, rebirth", then it stands to reason that one will "remember one's past lives". So it appears that understanding the workings of kamma will lead to an understanding of rebirth, and to the "remembering of past lives".

3. Merely just contemplating the possibility of rebirth (without necessarily "remembering one's past lives") is an exercise in empathy, an exercise in "putting oneself into another's shoes". This can be extremely offensive to one's ego. I imagine it was quite egregious in the time of the Buddha, where the caste system was still strongly in place and generally unquestioningly respected. To imagine oneself in the position of someone lower on the socio-economic scale, or even as an animal -- I imagine that was regarded as off-limits, or at least accompanied by strong negative emotion. Similarly nowadays; note: How is it that so many people's reports of "remembering their past lives" are stories where they were royals or aristocrats or otherwise special and elevated? I think this refusal or at least reluctance to put oneself into the shoes of other beings, especially those lower than oneself, functions as a very real and immediate impediment to even just considering the possibility of rebirth, an impediment to reflect on the possible workings of kamma through to its logical conclusion.

[Johann]

Maybe one might start to try to remember the last 10min, 1 hour: object one lived on, it's tast, it's endurance, pasing away.