Arhat

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Arhat figurines in the Huating Temple in the Western Hills near Kunming, China
Arhat figurines in the Huating Temple in the Western Hills near Kunming, China
A garden featuring depictions of various arhats (Hsi Lai Temple, California)
A garden featuring depictions of various arhats (Hsi Lai Temple, California)

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.

The word literally means 'worthy one'[1] (an alternative etymology is 'foe-destroyer') 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.

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[edit] Jainism

In Jainism, the term "arhat" or "arihant" is a synonym for jina or tirthankara. The Jain Navakar Mantra starts with "Namo Arhantanam". An arihant has destroyed the karmas ("ari" means "enemy", "hant" means "destroyer") and is thus approaching nirvana.

[edit] Theravada Buddhism

In Theravada Buddhism the Buddha himself is first named as an Arahat, 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]

[edit] Mahayana Buddhism

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.

Variations:

  • Chinese: 阿羅漢 (āluóhàn, luóhàn); rarer terms: 應供 (yinggong), 應真 (yingzhen), 真人 (zhenren)
  • Hindi: अरिहन्त (arihant)
  • Japanese: 阿羅漢 (arakan), 羅漢 (rakan)
  • Korean: 나한 (nahan)
  • Tibetan: dgra.bcom.pa
  • Vietnamese: a la hán


[edit] See also

[edit] 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.

[edit] References

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