16 CHAPTER ONEacquired the first cognition, which is identical with the fourth superknowl-
edge: that of knowing his many thousands of previous lifetimes, seeing them
one by one. A Pali Sutta (M.4) depicts the Buddha as later describing the ex-
perience as follows: "When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright,
unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, and attained to im-
perturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of recollecting my past lives. I
recollected my manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two, ... five, ten, ... fifty, a
hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand, many eons of cosmic contraction,
many eons of cosmic expansion, many eons of cosmic contraction and expan-
sion: 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appear-
ance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and 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 and pain, such the end of my life. Pass-
ing away from that state, Ire-arose here [into my current life).' Thus I remem-
bered my manifold past lives in their modes and details. This was the first
knowledge I attained in the first watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed;
knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose-as happens in one who
is uncomplacent, ardent, and resolute."
During the second watch (10 P.M. to 2 A.M.), the Bodhisattva acquired the
second cognition: psychic vision-the fifth superknowledge-with which he
surveyed the decease and rebirth of living beings everywhere. The entire cos-
mos, it is said, appeared to him as in a mirror. He saw that good karma leads
to a happy rebirth, and evil karma to a miserable one. According to the same
Sutta, the Buddha later described the experience in these words: "When the
mind was thus concentrated ... and attained to imperturbability, I directed it
to the knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings. I saw-by
means of my psychic vision, purified and surpassing the ordinary human-be-
ings passing away and reappearing, and I discerned how they are inferior and
superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate, in accordance with
their karma: 'These beings-who were endowed with bad conduct of body,
speech, and mind, who reviled the noble ones, held wrong views and under-
took actions under the influence of wrong views-with the break-up of the
body, after death, have reappeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destiny,
in the lower realms. But these beings-who were endowed with good con-
duct of body, speech, and mind, who did not revile the noble ones, who held
right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views-with
the; break-up of the body, after death, have reappeared in the good destinies,
in the upper realms.' Thus, by means of psychic vision, purified and surpassing
tht: human, I saw beings passing away and reappearing, and I discerned how
they are inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate,
in accordance with their karma. This was. the second knowledge I attained in
the second watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose;
darkness was destroyed; light arose-as happens in one who is uncomplacent,
ardent, and resolute."