[256] How is wisdom (paññā) in penetrating dhammas occurring through conditions, by way of the diffusion of kamma in its diversity and unity, the knowledge (ñāṇa) of the recollection of past abodes (pubbenivāsānussatiñāṇa)?
Here a bhikkhu [develops] concentration (samādhi) due to desire (chanda) … having made [the mind] malleable and wieldy, he understands thus: "When this exists, this comes to be; with the arising of this, this arises—that is: with ignorance (avijjā) as condition, volitional formations (saṅkhārā) [come to be]; with volitional formations as condition, consciousness (viññāṇa); with consciousness as condition, name-and-form (nāmarūpa); with name-and-form as condition, the six sense bases (saḷāyatana); with the six sense bases as condition, contact (phassa); with contact as condition, feeling (vedanā); with feeling as condition, craving (taṇhā); with craving as condition, clinging (upādāna); with clinging as condition, existence (bhava); with existence as condition, birth (jāti); with birth as condition, aging and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair come to be. Thus is the origin of this whole mass of suffering (dukkha)."
With his mind (citta) thus developed, purified, and cleansed, he directs and inclines the mind toward the knowledge of the recollection of past abodes. He recollects his manifold past abodes, that is: 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: "There I was of such a name, of such a clan, of such an appearance, such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the limit of my life-span; passing away from there, I arose in such a place; there too I was of such a name, of such a clan, of such an appearance, such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the limit of my life-span; passing away from there, I was reborn here." Thus, with its aspects and particulars, he recollects his manifold past abodes.
That is knowledge (ñāṇa) in the sense of being known; wisdom in the sense of understanding. Therefore it is said: wisdom in penetrating dhammas occurring through conditions, by way of the diffusion of kamma in its diversity and unity, is the knowledge of the recollection of past abodes.
English translation from the Pali (Siam Raṭṭha edition) — under review, not for citation.