Exactly what is acquisition?

Can the word be explained what it means in Dhamma exploration?

Saw it first in.
Inner exploration

Thank you in advance! Much meta! :pray:t4:

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Acquisition means simply the drive to acquire first material goods, then mental attainments. It has to be pointed out this craving is a necessary motivation for progress in the conditioned stage of the path. It is abandoned in steps according to the severing of the fetters:

"In the same way, there are these gross impurities in a monk intent on heightened mind: misconduct in body, speech, & mind. These the monk — aware & able by nature — abandons, dispels, wipes out of existence. When he is rid of them, there remain in him the moderate impurities: thoughts of sensuality, ill will, & harmfulness. These he abandons, dispels, wipes out of existence. When he is rid of them there remain in him the fine impurities: thoughts of his caste, thoughts of his home district, thoughts related to not wanting to be despised. These he abandons, dispels, wipes out of existence.”—-AN 3.100 i-x

The practitioner may understand the drawbacks of possessiveness but until they are able to abandon the actions connected with a certain level of thinking, they cannot be said to have severed that fetter. At the basis are views, leading to perceptions and thoughts. Conventional reality (the consensual trance) has the view that progress is made by material acquisition. For the Buddhist that has to be replaced by belief and experience in the action of cause and effect applied to moral actions.

That experience formed the foundation of the Buddha’s awakening where he investigated certain thoughts and their results and took action accordingly:

"The Blessed One said, "Monks, before my self-awakening, when I was still just an unawakened Bodhisatta, the thought occurred to me: ‘Why don’t I keep dividing my thinking into two sorts?’ So I made thinking imbued with sensuality, thinking imbued with ill will, & thinking imbued with harmfulness one sort, and thinking imbued with renunciation, thinking imbued with non-ill will, & thinking imbued with harmlessness another sort.

"And as I remained thus heedful, ardent, & resolute, thinking imbued with sensuality arose in me. I discerned that ‘Thinking imbued with sensuality has arisen in me; and that leads to my own affliction or to the affliction of others or to the affliction of both. It obstructs discernment, promotes vexation, & does not lead to Unbinding.’

“As I noticed that it leads to my own affliction, it subsided. As I noticed that it leads to the affliction of others… to the affliction of both… it obstructs discernment, promotes vexation, & does not lead to Unbinding, it subsided. Whenever thinking imbued with sensuality had arisen, I simply abandoned it, dispelled it, wiped it out of existence.”—MN 19

Investigation initiates the arising of other profitable states leading to release from the consensual trance.

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Hello @Upasaka_Dhammasara ,

“Acquisition” in SN12.66 is B. Bodhi’s translation of the Pali word, upadhi, defined here. @sujato translates this as “attachment”.

I hope this helps,
David.

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Thank you both very much . :pray:t4: