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:

• a supranormal power (abhijñā) produced through the perfection of insight (vipassana)
• one of the "three knowledges" (trividyā) attained by the Buddha at the time of his enlightenment
• one of the ten powers of a buddha

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.”

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