Observation of past rupa

[ekocare]

@ekocare

@bksubhuti

If able to discern the NāmaRūpa of near death, then discern the object of the Maraṇāsanna Javana

Okasa bhante,The famous and classical argument against Pa Auk is,“How can one see past lives and read mind by ‘Vipassana’?”, because “seeing past lives” and “reading minds” are classically described as ‘Abhinnna’.
This is what the Burmese Sangha council questioned from Pa Auk sayadaw in 1990s, as I heard.
How would you, bhante, respond to this?

@bksubhuti

This is taken directly from the 5th method meditation manual from Pa-Auk which addresses this issue with references.

Khajjaniya Sutta:
“Bhikkhus, there are some Samaṇas and some Brahmaṇas who, recollecting by insight the numerous past existences’ Khandha processes can discern them. Such Samaṇas and Brahmaṇas can recollect by insight the 5 Upādāna Khandhā or one the 5”.

Commentary:
In the above Pāḷi, by using the word “Pubbenivāsaṁ” the Buddha did not mean that it is the recollection of past existence Khandhā process by the power of Pubbenivāsānussati Abhiññā. What the Buddha really meant by the word “Pubbenivāsaṁ” is that the Samaṇas and Brahmaṇas recollect the past existence Khandhā processes by the power of Vipassanā insight.

The above are the references about the difference in power between Pubbenivāsānussati Abhiññā and Vipassanā ñāṇa and that the past and future can be discerned by Vipassanā ñāṇa.

@ekocare

Okasa bhante,
According to the commentary ‘recollection of past lives’ in this particular sutta (khajjaniya sutta) has been considered to be done by vipassana, but with no mention of how to do it by Vipassana.

In the subcommentary, it is explained like below.

Sub-commentary:
Vipassanāvasenāti etarahi rūpavedanādayo anussaritvā “Pubbepāhaṃ evaṃvedano ahosi”nti atītānaṃ rūpavedanādīnaṃ paccuppannehi visesābhāvadassanā vipassanā, tassā vipassanāya vasena.

‘Vipassanavasena’ means, having recollected present Khandas, then seeing by Vipassana “the absence of special-ness in past Khandas to present ones.” by seeing that “In the past also, I was a person with vedana(etc) like this”.

So, according to the Subcommentary (Tika) and the traditional scholars, the mention of ‘recollection of past lives’ in Khajjaniya sutta, seems to be an “inference (an understanding) about the past ” and not a “real seeing”.

Dear Bhante, we would like to know what your understanding is, regarding this Tika explanation?