Buddha and the knowledge of previous births

Q & A
1

Majjim nikaya ( mahasinhnada sutta )
It says that thathagat recollects several lifetimes he recollects many eons of the world contracting and many eons of the world expanding.
It means thathagat can recalls those moments when he had no body i.e, the interval between the dissolution and another creation of the universe.
Sayukt nikaya ( upay vagga )
but thathagat stated that there is no consciousness apart from form , feeling , perception and choices and none of this exist after dissolution so how come thathagat had memories of that interval without consciousness ?
And how does the universe get created and dissolve on its own ?
Namo Buddhaya.

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2

In e.g. dn27 we have this:

There comes a time when, Vāseᚭᚭha, after a very long period has passed, this cosmos contracts. As the cosmos contracts, sentient beings are mostly headed for the realm of streaming radiance. There they are mind-made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the sky, steadily glorious, and they remain like that for a very long time.

3

what you wanna say ??? ididint get???

4

Perhaps the thathagata can recall those moments spent as a sentiment being in the realm of streaming radiance in-between dissolution and another creation of the universe.

You said of form , feeling , perception and choices: “none of this exist after dissolution”. I’m questioning if this is correct? Can you link to a relevant Sutta which says this?

5

Consciousness doesn’t need a body. The stream of consciousness is relentless, when the body falls apart, whatever plans, ideas, intentions are left in the mind, those will be taken up by consciousness, like a monkey jumping from one branch to the next. When the Buddha reflects he sees this torrent of consciousness and all the damage it has caused in all the eons of contracting and expanding.

Keep in mind that consciousness is not one thing that moves from life to life (like Sati the fisherman’s son :wink: ) - it is a process, a vortex of namarupa and vinnana.

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6

https://suttacentral.net/sn22.54

7

That Sutta does support the bit where you said:

“there is no consciousness apart from form , feeling , perception and choices”

But it doesn’t support where you said:

“and none of this exist after dissolution”

It doesn’t say anything about what exists or doesn’t exist in-between dissolution and another creation of the universe, whereas dn27 suggests that there are sentient beings in the realm of streaming radiance in that in-between time. So consciousness in this case could be involved with feeling or perception or choices