You have existed far longer than you could ever imagine
Quote from Kai Chan Andrew on 10/16/2026, 09:02In the Assu Sutta (The Discourse on Tears), the Buddha said:
"The stream of tears you have shed while wandering and roaming through this long course of transmigrating from life to life—grieving and weeping—is greater than the waters in the four great oceans."
From this viewpoint, phenomena like déjà vu are not merely temporary glitches in the focus of a universal mind. Instead, they are fleeting fragments of memories resurfacing from the vast, immeasurable journey you have traveled over countless lifetimes.
You have existed far longer than you could ever imagine—not just thousands or millions of years, but over hundreds of billions of years across endless cycles of time (Kalpas). This long lineage of consciousness is what the Buddha directly described when reflecting on the nature of existence.
In the Assu Sutta (The Discourse on Tears), the Buddha said:
"The stream of tears you have shed while wandering and roaming through this long course of transmigrating from life to life—grieving and weeping—is greater than the waters in the four great oceans."
From this viewpoint, phenomena like déjà vu are not merely temporary glitches in the focus of a universal mind. Instead, they are fleeting fragments of memories resurfacing from the vast, immeasurable journey you have traveled over countless lifetimes.
You have existed far longer than you could ever imagine—not just thousands or millions of years, but over hundreds of billions of years across endless cycles of time (Kalpas). This long lineage of consciousness is what the Buddha directly described when reflecting on the nature of existence.