Why can't we all remember our past lives?

[immortalitylost]

I think cross species reincarnation would be interesting. Living on instinct, with less ego...

Seems simpler. Can I be a kitty now?

Hmmm... Dunno about kitties and ego though, lol.

Seriously though, perhaps we don't remember our past lives now because we have new lessons to learn now. Perhaps our higher selves, or souls, or whatever... Perhaps we do experience all knowledge from all lives when we aren't a part of the physical.

To me, the physical world seems like a putting on of reigns and dampers. We loose so much connection with everything around us. We feel on our own, and therefore have to figure things out the hard way, which is usually the best way to get the lessons to stick. I feel like we know what we need to know. Some people just need to know more than others.

But life, even without past lives, is much too complicated to try and fathom all of the intricacies put into it.

Doesn't stop me from tryin to do it anyway though. It's like one of those hellish rubiks cubes. I know it can be solved. I just don't know the trick of it. Yet, lol.

 

[Dream]

Good point. It would be hard to be aware of both a past and present life. You'd lose the premium of starting over. The present life would not be a separate experience but a continuum of the previous. You'd retain your favorites, preferences, habits and patterns; so you'd hardly feel a need to learn anything new.

 

[Zenda71]

I think there needs to be some clarification of what you mean by "past lives." Buddhist philosophy is very subtle when it comes to talking about things like time and reincarnation, so I think it would be really good to be clear about what a "past life" is to a Buddhist, which is very different than what it would be to say a Hindu.

But on the whole, I think that the reason we don't have omniscience about our past lives is because we haven't yet woken up. When we wake up, then we will. And everyone has the innate potential to wake up completely.

 

[Bhaktajan II]

I have heard that such past experiences exist in the ether.

But how to re-constitute the experience?

If Past lives, why not past existences?

The sand castles has washed out to sea. Yet the castle may be reconstituted by re-using the same materials afresh.

There is the element of time that passes that cannot be re-lived a second time because there is only the here and now.

 

[OAT]

This would help us understand our present life better, and we would be better people as a result.

Not necessarily. Imagine you have been done in by someone in your previous life and in your current life you remembered that person. You may now want to exact revenge on that person, assuming that he is still alive.

To address the topic, we generally can't remember our past lives probably because there are two aspects to our consciousness: one that is based on our brain and one that is not.

Not being trained to access the consciousness that is independent of the brain, we generally would have no ability to recall past lives. However, certain instincts would still be present. This could account for existence of child prodigies.

 

[TripleGem]

If we experience ourselves as changing all the time, then our past lives are but recent moments passed as well. We remember those moments.

 

[Anicca]

The Buddha taught only dukkha and its cessation

Questions about past lives are foregin to the Buddhas teaching


Furthermore the view of reincarnation is a view that should be abandoned. This is because if there is to be nibbana there must be letting go of everything including views as views are a yoke


"And how is there the yoke of views? There is the case where a certain person does not discern, as it actually is present, the origination, the passing away, the allure, the drawbacks, & the escape from views. When he does not discern, as it actually is present, the origination, the passing away, the allure, the drawbacks, & the escape from views, then — with regard to views — he is obsessed with view-passion, view-delight, view-attraction, view-infatuation, view-thirst, view-fever, view-fascination, view-craving. This is the yoke of sensuality, the yoke of becoming, & the yoke of views.