“But at what point, sir, does the fervent mortification in disgust of sin reach the peak and the pith? Please help me reach the peak and the pith!” “Nigrodha, take a mortifier who is restrained in the fourfold constraint. They give up these five hindrances, corruptions of the heart that weaken wisdom. Then they meditate spreading a heart full of love … compassion … rejoicing … equanimity. They recollect many kinds of past lives, that is, one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. They remember: ‘There, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn somewhere else. There, too, I was named this, my clan was that, I looked like this, and that was my food. This was how I felt pleasure and pain, and that was how my life ended. When I passed away from that place I was reborn here.’ And so they recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details.