So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery, in the hut by the kareri tree. Then after the meal, on return from almsround, several mendicants sat together in the pavilion by the kareri tree and this Dhamma talk on the subject of past lives came up among them, “So it was in a past life; such it was in a past life.”

With clairaudience that is purified and superhuman, the Buddha heard that discussion among the mendicants. So he got up from his seat and went to the pavilion, where he sat on the seat spread out and addressed the mendicants: “Mendicants, what were you sitting talking about just now? What conversation was left unfinished?”