Pūrvanivāsānusmṛti

pūrvanivāsānusmṛti (P. pubbenivāsānussati; T. sngon gyi gnas rjes su dran pa; C. suzhu suinian 宿住隨念) is translated as "memory of past lives," "recollection of former abodes," etc. It is an element of meditative attainment of many traditions.

Pūrvanivāsānusmṛti is identified as:

• the first of the "three knowledges" (trividyā) obtained by the Buddha at the time of his enlightenment
• a supranormal power (abhijñā) produced through the perfection of insight (vipassana)
• one of the ten powers of a buddha (i.e., pūrvanivāsānusmṛti jñāna bala)

The Buddhist Dictionary states:

“He remembers manifold former existences (pubbe-nivāsānussati), such as one birth, two, three, four and five births… hundred thousand births; remembers many formations and dissolutions of worlds: ‘There I was, such name I had… and vanishing from there I entered into existence somewhere else… and vanishing from there I again reappeared here.’ Thus he remembers, always together with the marks and peculiarities, many a former existence.”

In the Lohicca Sutta (DN 12), the Buddha states:

"With his mind thus concentrated, purified, & bright, unblemished, free from defects, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, he directs & inclines it to knowledge of the recollection of past lives (lit. previous homes). He recollects his manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two births, three births, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred, one thousand, one hundred thousand, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction & expansion, [recollecting], 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.' Thus he recollects his manifold past lives in their modes & details...."

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Nyanatiloka Thera (2019), Nyanaponika Thera, ed., Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, Pariyatti Publishing 
• Thanissaro (trans.) (1998), Lohicca Sutta: To Lohicca (Digha Nikaya 12)  Available online at www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.12.0.than.html.