Adhitthana

Adhiṭṭhāna (Pali; from adhi meaning "foundational" or "beginning" plus sthā meaning "standing"; Sanskrit, अधिष्ठान) has been translated as "decision," "resolution," "self-determination," "will", "strong determination" and "resolute determination." In the late canonical literature of Theravada Buddhism, adhiṭṭhāna is one of the ten "perfections" (dasa pāramiyo), exemplified by the bodhisatta's resolve to become fully awakened. While adhiṭṭhāna appears sporadically in the early Pāli Canon, various late-canonical and post-canonical accounts of the Gautama Buddha's past lives clearly contextualize adhiṭṭhāna within the Theravadin ten perfections. In the Pali Canon, in the Dīgha Nikāya discourse entitled, "Chanting Together" (DN 33), Sariputta states that the Buddha identified the following: Four kinds of resolve (adhiṭṭhānī): [to gain] (a) wisdom, (b) truth (sacca), (c) relinquishment (cāga), (d) tranquility (upasama). In the late-canonical Buddhavamsa, the Bodhisatta Sumedha declares (represented in English and Pali): In the late-canonical Cariyapitaka, there is one account explicitly exemplifying adhiṭṭhāna, that of "Temiya the Wise" (Cp III.6, Temiya paṇḍita cariyaṃ). In this account, at an early age Temiya, sole heir to a throne, recalls a past life in purgatory (niraya) and thus asks for release (kadāhaṃ imaṃ muñcissaṃ). In response, a compassionate devatā advises Temiya to act unintelligent and foolish and to allow himself to be an object of people's scorn. Understanding the devatā's virtuous intent, Temiya agrees to this and acts as if mute, deaf, and crippled. Seeing these behaviors but finding no physiological basis for them, priests, generals and countrymen decry Temiya as "inauspicious" and plan to have Temiya cast out. When Temiya is sixteen years old, he is ceremonially anointed and then buried in a pit. The account concludes: I did not break that resolute determination which was for the sake of Awakening itself. Mother and father were not disagreeable to me and nor was self disagreeable to me.