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arhat

  (är'hət) pronunciation
n. Buddhism.

One who has attained enlightenment.

[Sanskrit, from present participle of arhati, he deserves.]

arhatship ar'hat·ship' n.
 
 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: arhat

In Buddhism, one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence, has achieved nirvana, and will not be reborn. Theravada Buddhism regards becoming an arhat as the goal of spiritual progress. It holds that a seeker must pass through three earlier stages before being reborn in a heaven as an arhat. Mahayana Buddhism criticizes the goal of becoming an arhat as selfish and considers the bodhisattva to be a higher goal because the bodhisattva remains in the cycle of rebirths to work for the good of others. This divergence of opinion is one of the fundamental differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism.

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Buddhism Dictionary: Arhat

(Sanskrit, worthy one; Pāli, arahant). One who has attained the goal of enlightenment or awakening (bodhi). Essentially, Arhatship consists in the eradication of the outflows (āśrava) and the destruction of the defilements (kleśa). The Arhat is also free of the ten fetters (saṃyojana), and on death is not reborn. The difference between an Arhat and a Buddha is that the Buddha attains enlightenment by himself, whereas the Arhat does it by following the teachings of another. It should be noted, however, that the Buddha is also an Arhat and is frequently addressed as such in invocations such as the Pāli formula ‘Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsambuddhassa’ (Homage to the Lord, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One). As taught in early Buddhism, the Arhat attains exactly the same goal as the Buddha. Mahāyāna Buddhism, however, comes to regard Arhatship as an inferior ideal to that of Buddhahood, and portrays the Arhat (somewhat unfairly) as selfishly concerned with the goal of a ‘private nirvāṇa’. In contrast, emphasis is placed on the great compassion (mahākaruṇā) of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who dedicate themselves to leading all beings to salvation.

 
Asian Mythology: Arhat

In Buddhism (see Buddhism), the arhat is literally the “worthy” one who is at the final stage before Enlightenment. He is, therefore, deserving of special respect. Usually the arhat is an ascetic. He is no longer attached to the world of form and the senses. For Hīnayāna and Theravāda Buddhists (see Hīnayāna Buddhism, Theravāda Buddhism) there can be only one Buddha in any era and in our era Gautama Buddha (see Gautama Buddha), “the Buddha” has already existed. Therefore, the state of the arhat is the highest achievable for others. The reformist Mahāyāna Buddhists (see Mahāyāna Buddhism) consider the arhat idea a self-centered concept and have generally substituted for it the ideal of the bodhisattva (see Bodhisattva), who could become a buddha, but who chooses rather to work with compassion in this world for the enlightenment of others.

 
Wikipedia: arhat
A Chinese Luohan statue from the Liao Dynasty in Hebei Province, China
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A Chinese Luohan statue from the Liao Dynasty in Hebei Province, China

In the sramanic traditions of ancient India (most notably those of Mahavira and Gautama Buddha) arhat (Sanskrit) or arahant (Pali) signified a spiritual practitioner who had—to use an expression common in the tipitaka—"laid down the burden"—and realised the goal of nibbana, the culmination of the spiritual life (brahmacarya). Such a person, having removed all causes for future becoming, is not reborn after biological death into any samsaric realm.

Origin

The word "arahan" literally means "worthy one"[1] (an alternative folk etymology is "foe-destroyer"[citation needed]) and constitutes the highest grade of noble person—ariya-puggala—described by the Buddha as recorded in the Pali canon. The word was used (as it is today in the liturgy of Theravada Buddhism) as an epithet of the Buddha himself as well as of his enlightened disciples. The most widely recited liturgical reference is perhaps the homage: Namo Tassa Bhagavato, Arahato, Samma-sammbuddhassa.—Homage to him, the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the perfectly enlightened Buddha.

Variations

  • Chinese: 阿羅漢/羅漢 (āluóhàn, luóhàn); rarer terms: 應供 (yinggong), 應真 (yingzhen), 真人 (zhenren). "真人" normally refers to a respected Taoist, and the term comes from the book Huangdi Neijing.
  • Hindi: अर्हन्त (arhant)
  • Japanese: 阿羅漢 羅漢 (arakan, rakan)
  • Korean: 나한 (nahan)
  • Tibetan: dgra bcom pa
  • Vietnamese: la hán

Jainism

A garden featuring depictions of various arhats (Hsi Lai Temple, California)
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A garden featuring depictions of various arhats (Hsi Lai Temple, California)

In Jainism, the term "arhat" or "arihant" is a synonym for jina or tirthankara. The Jain Navakar Mantra starts with "Namo Arhantanam".

Theravada Buddhism

In Theravada Buddhism the Buddha himself is first named as an arahant, as were his enlightened followers, since he is free from all defilements, without greed, hatred, and delusion, rid of ignorance and craving, having no "assets" that will lead to a future birth, knowing and seeing the real here and now. This virtue shows stainless purity, true worth, and the accomplishment of the end, nibbana.[2]

In the Pali canon, Ven. Ānanda states that he has known monastics to achieve nibbana in one of four ways:

  • one develops insight preceded by serenity (Pali: samatha-pubbaṇgamaṃ vipassanaṃ);
  • one develops serenity preceded by insight (vipassanā-pubbaṇgamaṃ samathaṃ);
  • one develops serenity and insight in a stepwise fashion (samatha-vipassanaṃ yuganaddhaṃ);
  • one's mind becomes seized by excitation about the dhamma and, as a consequence, develops serenity and abandons the fetters (dhamma-uddhacca-viggahitaṃ mānasaṃ hoti).[3][4]

Mahayana Buddhism

Arhat figurines in the Huating Temple in the Western Hills near Kunming, China
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Arhat figurines in the Huating Temple in the Western Hills near Kunming, China

Mahayana Buddhists see the Buddha himself as the ideal towards which one should aim in one's spiritual aspirations. Hence the arhat as enlightened disciple of the Buddha is not regarded as the goal as much as is the bodhisattva. Bodhisattva carries a different meaning in Mahayana Buddhism to Theravada Buddhism. In the Pali scriptures the Tathagata when relating his own experiences of self-development uses a stock phrase "when I was an unenlightened bodhisattva". Bodhisattva thus connotes here the absence of enlightenment (Bodhi) of a person working towards that goal. In Mahayana Buddhism, on the other hand a bodhisattva is someone who seeks to put the welfare of others before their own, forfeiting their own enlightenment until all beings are saved. Such a person is said to have achieved a sort of proto-enlightenment called bodhicitta.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ An authoritative Pali-to-English translation of "arahant" can be found in Rhys Davids & Stede (1921–25), p. 77.[1]
  2. ^ Khantipalo (1989), "Introduction".[2]
  3. ^ Ven. Ānanda's teaching on achieving arhantship can be found in AN 4.170. Translations for this sutta can be found in Bodhi (2005) pp. 268–9, 439, and Thanissaro (1998).
  4. ^ Bodhi (2005), p. 268, translates this fourth way as: "a monk's mind is seized by agitation about the teaching." Thanissaro (1998) gives a seemingly contrary interpretation of: "a monk's mind has its restlessness concerning the Dhamma [Comm: the corruptions of insight] well under control." Thus, it appears possible to interpret the excitation (Pali: uddhacca, see Rhys Davids & Stede, 1921–25) as either something that the future arahant uses to impel their pursuit of the path or something that the future arahant controls in order to pursue the path.

References

  • Bodhi, Bhikkhu (ed.) (2005). In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pāli Canon.Boston: Wisdom Pubs. ISBN 0-86171-491-1.


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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Buddhism Dictionary. A Dictionary of Buddhism. Copyright © 2003, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Asian Mythology. A Dictionary of Asian Mythology. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by David Leeming. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Arhat".  Read more

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