Arahant

From Buddhist Encyclopedia

• Chinese :  阿罗汉 āluóhàn
• Pali :  arahaṃ
• Tibetan :  dgra.bcom.pa

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

The word Arahant comes from the present active participle of the Pali verb arahati, "he/she is worthy". In Sanskrit its strong stem is arhant, its nominative arhan.

A popular folk etymology derives the word from the Sanskrit ari "enemy" and hanti "he/she kills", where the "enemy" is the poisons of the āsravas. The Tibetan translation dgra.bcom.pa (Foe Destroyer) is based on this etymology.

The term arhat is a synonym for a Buddha and it is listed in the Pali scriptures as one of the ten epithets of a Buddha. It is also commonly used to describe and refer to any completely enlightened disciple of Gautama Buddha. In early Indian texts such as the Pali Canon, the stage of arahant is described as the final goal of Buddhist practice - the attainment of complete and unexcelled Nibbāna. A common definition of an Arahant is one who has completely destroyed greed, hatred and delusion.

In Mahayana Buddhism the usage is similar to the Theravada, except that Mahayana also uses the term Shravakabuddha to refer to the same accomplishment. In both Theravada and Mahayana the Arahant is considered it to be the fourth and highest stage of the Enlightenment of a disciple of the Buddha (also called Sāvaka (in Pali) or Śrāvaka (in Sanskrit)). The first three stages are (in ascending order:) sotapanna, sakadagami and anagami. These three stages represent a kind of partial Enlightenment, which can be compared to the difference between seeing the truth, and being the truth (an example used by the Meditation Master Ajahn Chah). The person who has attained any of the three lower stages sees the truth, but his heart (and mind) is not yet completely aligned with it. Some greed, aversion and delusion remain.

Thus, by their conventional uses, one could readily find the concept of arhat compared to the concept of Buddha, and the concepts of sotapanna, sakadagami and anagami. The concept of arhat may also be compared with that of the bodhisattva.