Adhitthāna

The man who gets off the train is not the same man as the one who crosses the platform. The man who gets on the next train is someone else again.

That's the problem. Now I see things one way. I understand them very clearly. I make a decision. Tomorrow's man inherits this. But his viewpoint, feelings and understanding then are likely to be different from mine now. He may come to a different conclusion. If he does, he will make a different decision.

What's the answer? One has to work until one really does understand something through and through. 100 percent. Then one has to make an effort to fix this understanding in the endless flow of selves so that, although the selves continue to change, this decision is constantly inherited by each in its turn and is always there. Then one can move smoothly towards one's goal.

The effort to fix a decision is called in Buddhism - Adhitthāna. This is usually translated as “determination”. But this is not practical enough. Literally it means "place, foundation". That gives us a clue. If you use something as a foundation, everything you build on it remains durable and in place. Even if you keep changing the superstructure, the foundation remains constant. If you make an adhitthāna about something, all the succeeding selves rest on it and inherit it. So it appears as a foundation for each of them. The Buddha made an adhitthāna under the bodhi tree to the effect that he would sit there until he had either found the truth or died. He also made adhitthānas before each of his last ten births as to which of the Perfections he intended to perfect in that lifetime.

NEW PROJECT: Cast not your pearls before swine...