Past lives and Darwinism

[Sacha G]

Hi,
The Buddha declared remembering his past lives (MN19):

"When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, 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 & expansion: 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure & 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 & pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.' Thus I remembered my manifold past lives in their modes & details.

OK so as I understand the Buddha remembers himself always as a human being.
Does that mean he was on other planets before? Because more than 300 000 years ago, there was at least no homo sapiens on Earth.

[PeterB]

Firstly there is the possibility that this is a poetic rendition of an experience which is not renderable into a form which corresponds with the scientific view.
But even if we take it to be literal, there is no reason to assume one earth, one planet, or even one Universe.
There is also no reason to assume that time is linear.

[cooran]

Hello SachaG, all,

Sacha said: I understand the Buddha remembers himself always as a human being.

These tales may be worth the read:
The Jataka, the treasury of tales of Buddha's previous animal reincarnations
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/jt/index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

with metta
Chris