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The Four Foundations to Be Established

Cattāro adhiṭṭhānā

Four things to set firmly in the mind — wisdom, truth, relinquishment and peace. The whole practice condensed into four words.

4 points

In the Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta, after taking body and mind apart into six elements, the Buddha concluded with four things to be established firmly in the mind: wisdom, truth, relinquishment and peace.

They run as a sequence — see as things are through wisdom, stand on what is real through truth, let go of what should be let go through relinquishment, and so arrive at peace. It reads as a summary of this whole site.

1

Wisdom — standing on what is actually true Paññādhiṭṭhānaṃ

Establishing the mind in seeing things as they are — their conditions, their impermanence, their not-self — rather than as we would like them to be.

Applying it in daily life
Start problems with "what are the facts?" before "whose fault is it?" That order changes the outcome of the whole matter.
2

Truth — standing on honesty Saccādhiṭṭhānaṃ

Truth in speech and in the mind: not deceiving others and not deceiving oneself. It keeps what wisdom has seen from being bent back out of shape.

Applying it in daily life
Admit one thing to yourself you have been avoiding. Admitting it inwardly often unlocks the outward situation more than expected.
3

Relinquishment — standing on letting go Cāgādhiṭṭhānaṃ

Giving up possessions, clinging and lingering moods alike. It is what turns understanding into actual action.

Applying it in daily life
Choose one thing to let go of this week — an unused possession, time given to someone, or the urge to win one argument.
4

Peace — standing on stillness Upasamādhiṭṭhānaṃ

The calm that results from the first three. When you see truly, admit honestly and release genuinely, peace doesn't have to be fetched from anywhere.

Applying it in daily life
Use peace as the gauge of whether the first three are real. If the mind is still unsettled, something is usually still unseen or unreleased.

Try it in daily life

Use it as a checklist when life jams up: which truth am I not yet seeing, what am I still telling myself, what am I refusing to put down, and why is the mind still unsettled?

The answers to the first three usually explain the fourth entirely, because unrest almost always begins with refusing to see, to admit, or to release something.