Paccavekkhana-nana

Paccavekkhana-ñāna: 'retrospective knowledge', refers to the recollected mental image obtained in concentration, or to any inner experience just passed, as for instance, any absorption jhāna, or any supra-mundane path, or fruition of the path, etc. see: ariya-puggala As it is said:;At the end of fruitional consciousness, consciousness sinks into the subconscious stream of existence bhavanga-sota. Then, breaking off the stream of existence, mental directing manodvārāvajjana arises at the mind-door, for the purpose of reviewing the just passed path-moment. Now, as soon as this stage has passed, 7 moments of impulse consciousness javana-citta one after the other, flash up while reviewing the path. After they again have sunk into the subconscious stream, there arise, for the purpose of reviewing the fruition of the path the moments of directing and impulsion, during whose arising the Bhikkhu is reviewing the path, reviewing the fruition, reviewing the abandoned defilements, reviewing the still remaining defilements, reviewing Nibbāna as object. 'This blessing have I attained'. 'This and that defilement still remains in me'. 'This object have I beheld in my mind', etc.; Vis.M XXII.
==References==
Maha Thera Nyanatiloka. Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, Buddhist Publication Society, first edition 1952. 
Category:Pali terms