[88] And furthermore, venerable sir, this is unsurpassed: the way in which the Blessed One teaches the Dhamma with regard to the knowledge (ñāṇa) of the recollection of past abodes (pubbenivāsānussatiñāṇa). Here, venerable sir, some ascetic or brahmin, relying on ardor … attains such concentration of mind (cetosamādhi) that, with the mind (citta) thus concentrated, he recollects his manifold past abodes—that is to say: one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births, ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births, a hundred births, a thousand births, a hundred thousand births, many eons of world-contraction, many eons of world-expansion, many eons of world-contraction and expansion … Thus, with their aspects and particulars, he recollects his manifold past abodes.
There are, venerable sir, beings whose lifespan cannot be reckoned by counting or by calculation; yet in whatever state of individual existence one has formerly dwelt—whether among those possessed of form or among the formless, whether among the percipient or among the non-percipient or among the neither-percipient-nor-non-percipient—thus, with its aspects and particulars, he recollects his manifold past abodes. This, venerable sir, is unsurpassed with regard to the knowledge of the recollection of past abodes.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.