Prāpti

Prāpti (T. thob pa ཐོབ་པ་; C. de 得) is defined in the Sanskrit Abhidharma tradition as a non-concurrent formation that enables "the possession of that which is obtained within one's mindstream."

The Khenjuk states:

If a quality or attribute in one's being, whether virtuous, unvirtuous or neutral, is obtained anew without being there formerly, this possession being [now] continuously present is called acquisition [prāpti].

Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics states:

Obtainment [prāpti] is explained as a substance enabling the possession of that which is obtained within one’s mindstream. This too is considered to be something separate from the thing obtained, just as, for example, the rope securing a load exists separately from the load.

This formation is identified as:

• one of the fourteen non-concurrent formations of the Abhidharma-kosa
• one of the twenty-four non-concurrent formations of the Gateway to Knowledge

In the abhidharma tradition of the Vaibhāṣika school, non-concurrent formations are understood as substantially existent entities. In the Sautrantika Abhidharma and in the Higher Abhidharma traditions, these formations are understood as imputations that arise from the mind.

Translations of this term into English

• obtainment (T. thob pa) (Ian James Coghlan)
• acquisition (T. thop pa) (Erik Pema Kunsang, Rigpa wiki)
• possession, aquisition (T. 'thob pa) (Buswell, Princeton Encyclopedia of Buddhism)
• obtaining (ADS translation)

Sources

• Buswell, Robert E.; Lopez, Donald S. (2014), The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Princeton University 
• Chim Jampaiyang (2019), Jinpa, Thupten, ed., Ornament of Abhidharma: A Commentary on Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa, translated by Coghlan, Ian James (Apple Books ed.), Library of Tibetan Classics 
• Mipham Rinpoche (2004), Gateway to Knowledge, vol. I, translated by Kunsang, Erik Pema, Rangjung Yeshe Publications 
• Thupten Jinpa, ed. (2017), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 1: The Physical World, translated by Coghlan, Ian James, Wisdom Publications 

External links

• thob_pa, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki