Adhiṭṭhāna should not be confused with Adhiṣṭhāna.
(Pali: from, meaning "foundational" or "beginning" plus meaning "standing"; Sanskrit: |adhiṣṭhāna) has been translated as "decision," "resolution," "self-determination," "will",[1] "strong determination"[2] and "resolute determination."[3] In the late canonical literature of Theravada Buddhism, is one of the ten "perfections", 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 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 : [to gain] (a) wisdom, (b) truth (sacca), (c) relinquishment, (d) tranquility .[4]
In the late-canonical Buddhavaṃsa, the bodhisatta 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.[5] | [6] |
In the late-canonical Cariyapitaka, there is one account explicitly exemplifying, that of "Temiya the Wise" (Cp III.6,). In this account, at an early age Temiya, sole heir to a throne, recalls a past life in purgatory and thus asks for release . In response, a compassionate advises Temiya to act unintelligent and foolish and to allow himself to be an object of people's scorn.[7] Understanding the '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 [{{transliteration|pi|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.[8]