Adhiṭṭhāna

Buddhist Perfections   10 pāramīs dāna sīla nekkhamma paññā viriya khanti sacca adhiṭṭhāna mettā upekkhā     6 pāramitās dāna sīla kṣānti vīrya dhyāna prajñā   Colored items are in both lists.

Adhiṭṭhāna (Pali; from adhi meaning "foundational" or "beginning" plus sthā meaning "standing"; Sanskrit, अधिष्ठान) has been translated as "decision," "resolution," "self-determination," "will"^[1] and "resolute determination."^[2] 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.

Pali Canon texts

While adhiṭṭhāna appears sporadically in the early Pali Canon, various late-canonical and post-canonical accounts of the Buddha's past lives clearly contextualize adhiṭṭhāna within the Theravadin tenfold perfections.

Digha Nikaya analysis

In the Pali Canon, in the Digha Nikaya discourse entitled, "Chanting Together" (DN 33), Ven. Sariputta states that the Buddha has identified the following:

'Four kinds of resolve (adhiṭṭhānī): [to gain] (a) wisdom, (b) truth (sacca), (c) relinquishment (cāga), (d) tranquility (upasama).'^[3]

Bodhisatta Sumedho

In the late-canonical Buddhavamsa, the boddhisatta Sumedha declares (represented in English and Pali):

And as a mountain, a rock, stable and firmly based, does not tremble in rough winds but remains in precisely its own place, so you too must be constantly stable in resolute determination; going on to the perfection of Resolute Determination, you will attain Self-Awakening.[4]

Yathā'pi pabbato selo acalo suppatiṭṭhito Na kampati bhusavātehi sakaṭṭhāne'va tiṭṭhati. Tathe'ca tvampi adhiṭṭhāne sabbadā acalo bhava Adhiṭṭhānapāramiṃ gantvā sambodhiṃ pāpuṇissasi.[5]

Temiya the Wise

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.^[6] 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. Omniscience [sabbaññuta] was dear to me, therefore I resolutely determined on that itself. Resolutely determining on those factors I lived for sixteen years. There was no one equal to me in resolute determination — this was my perfection of Resolute Determination.^[7]

See also

• Paramita (perfection)
• Prajna (wisdom)
• Sacca (truth)
• Dana (generosity)
• Passaddhi (tranquillity)
• Nekkhamma (renunciation)

Notes

1. Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 28, entry for "Adhiṭṭhāna" (retrieved 2007-06-28). As further noted in Rhys Davids & Stede, in the Pali Canon, adhiṭṭhāna can at times be wrongly motivated, connoting "obstinancy," as indicated by the Pali phrase adhiṭṭhāna-abhinivesa-anusayā, "obstinacy, prejudice and bias" (p. 44, definition for anusaya).
2. Horner (2000), passim.
3. DN 33 1.11(27), translation by Walshe (1995), p. 492, v. 27. Parenthesized Pali and square-bracketed English are in the original.
4. Bv IIA.154-5 (trans. Horner, "Buddhavamsa," p. 22).
5. Bv II.153-4 (retrieved 08-20-2008 from "Bodhgaya News" at http://www.bodhgayanews.net/tipitaka.php?title=&record=10522.).
6. Horner (2000), p. 36 n. 5, comments: "Kings, having to be very harsh, accumulated much demerit leading to Niraya [a Buddhist hell realm]."
7. For the whole account, see Horner (2000), pp. 36-38. The final quotation is from Horner (2000), pp. 37-38, vv. 17-19.

Sources

• Horner, I.B. (trans.) (1975; reprinted 2000). The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon (Part III): 'Chronicle of Buddhas' (Buddhavamsa) and 'Basket of Conduct' (Cariyapitaka). Oxford: Pali Text Society. ISBN 0-86013-072-X.
• Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/.
• Walshe, Maurice (trans.) (1987; reissued 1995). The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya. Boston: Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86171-103-3.

External links

• Dhammawiki
• DN 33 in the Ida B. Wells on-line library
• Adhiṭṭhāna & Anumodana Paramittas samples