Download Arhats in Buddhism

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Lauren Fairnot
Asian 325 002
Benjamin Brose
11 March 2015
Topic 1: Arhat
The term “arhat” predates Buddhism in India.1 In pre-Buddhist India, arhat referred to a
saintly person associated with mystic powers and asceticism.2 During the time of the Buddha,
arhat was a title for a person who had become enlightened and would attain nirvana within their
present lifetime.3 In Pāli Canon, the Buddha himself was considered to be an arhat. This belief of
the Buddha being an arhat is honored in Theravada and other early Buddhist traditions, However,
in Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Buddha is considered to be a fully-enlightened bodhisattva;
arhatship is relegated to a separate, lower rung on the Mahāyāna hierarchy.4 With the emergence
of Mahāyāna Buddhism and the bodhisattva path, arhatship fell out of favor, and the bodhisattva
path came to replace arhatship as the main path to buddhahood. In actuality, arhatship was the
original version of the bodhisattva path, and in the earliest Pāli Canon, the Buddha was
considered to be an arhat, rather than a full-enlightened bodhisattva.
According to several early Pāli texts, the Buddha did not teach the bodhisattva path
during his lifetime.5 In Pāli Canon, Buddha is considered to be an arhat.6 As the definition of
arhat changed from the time of the Buddha, so too did the idea of the bodhisattva path and its
superiority begin to emerge. In early Indian Buddhism, the term bodhisattva is mainly used to
refer to a past life of Gautama Buddha.7 In early Pāli texts, such as the Khandhaka, when the
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Buddha recounts his past lives, he often begins with the phrase: “When I was an unenlightened
bodhisattva.” 8 Mahāyāna Buddhism is based on the idea that a bodhisattva is any individual
working for the liberation of all sentient beings from saṃsāra. However, the idea of the
bodhisattva path only began to appear in Buddhist documents dating back to at least a century
after Gautama Buddha’s death.9 In addition, Mahāyāna Buddhism did not emerge until at least
another century after the idea of the bodhisattva path began to appear in Buddhist doctrine.10 The
idea of the bodhisattva path being the true road to buddhahood is not from Buddha’s original
teachings, because the concept of the bodhisattva path emerged long after the Buddha’s death.
In early Indian Buddhism, arhatship was dependent on freeing oneself of the “fetters”--the mental bonds that kept one bound to samsāra.11 However, the difference between the
Theravada arhat and the Mahāyāna bodhisattva is that arhatship placed an emphasis on
individual salvation.12 In Mahāyāna Buddhism, there is a much greater emphasis on group
salvation. One key belief in Mahāyāna Buddhism is that the autonomy of the self is an illusion.
Because the concept of the self does not truly exist, individual enlightenment is impossible, and
all sentient beings must attain enlightenment together.13 In a Mahayanist’s eyes, to follow the
arhat path is impossible because of the inherent interconnectedness of all beings.14 Theravada has
a greater emphasis on attaining liberation through one’s own effort. Therefore, the goal of
Theravada Buddhism was to become an arhat, which was seen as an infallible and incorruptible
state of being. However, in Mahāyāna Buddhism, arhats are considered to be inferior to
bodhisattvas and capable of being corrupted. 15
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, arhatship is still considered to be one of the holy states a
sentient being can reach. However, in Mahāyāna Buddhism, there is a clear hierarchy of holy
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states an individual can achieve, with fully-enlightened buddhas and bodhisattvas being ranked
higher than arhats. 16 There are even some Mahāyāna texts that claim that arhatship is an entirely
separate path, rather than just a lesser holy state.17 The idea of the inferiority of arhatship is the
fundamental idea behind the Mahāyāna story of the ascetic Megha and his encounter with
Dipamkara--- the previous Buddha before Gautama Buddha.18 When Megha was given the
chance to become an arhat, he refused, and instead choose to follow the bodhisattva path to
liberation. This meant he would gradually cultivate Buddhist virtues over countless lifetimes. 19
Megha’s choice to be become a bodhisattva was motivated by his compassion to work for the
liberation of all sentient beings. If Megha had chosen the “self-centered” path of the arhat, rather
than the compassionate path of the bodhisattva, Gautama Buddha would have never come to be.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, it is believed that arhatship is the inferior path to nirvana, and
that all arhats must go on to become bodhisattvas in order to attain true buddhahood.20 An arhat
is capable of reaching enlightenment, but not actual buddhahood. If an arhat fails to become a
bodhisattva before reaching nirvana, they will fall into a “deep sadhmi” of emptiness, until they
are willing to be reawakened and taught the path of the bodhisattva.21 In Mahāyāna Buddhism,
arhatship is seen as a path motivated by fear and selfishness, which renders an arhat unable of
attaining true buddhahood, unlike the more wise and compassionate bodhisattva.
In the earliest Indian Buddhist texts, the Buddha himself was referred to as an arhat. The
Khandhaka is an important text in Pāli Canon, and it is generally agreed upon by historians that it
was recorded at the first or second council of the Buddha.22 Several times within the Khandhaka,
the Buddha refers to his current self as an arhat. In one passage in the second book of the
Khandhaka ---the Mahavagga--- shortly after the Buddha’s enlightenment, the Buddha was
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traveling to meet with five monks, when a wanderer asked the Buddha who he was. The Buddha
replied: “I am the arhat in the world, I am the supreme teacher.”23 In early Indian Buddhism,
arhat had a similar meaning as the Mahāyāna definition of the bodhisattva. An arhat was an
enlightened being who would achieve nirvana in their present life.24 Although, Pāli Canon
considered Buddha to be an arhat, he was distinguished from other arhats by a number of factors
that made him supreme among the arhats. Gautama Buddha was the first in his historical epoch
to attain nirvana and buddhahood, so he served as the supreme arhat by paving the way for those
after him to attain nirvana. Buddha alone knew the path to nirvana in its entirety, and his role as
the creator and guide of the path to buddhahood distinguished him from other arhats.
Arhatship is one of the oldest Indian conceptions of a saintly being. As Buddhism
developed in India, the term was adapted to refer to an individual who would attain nirvana
within their lifetime. Until the advent of the bodhisattva path and Mahāyāna Buddhism, the
Buddha himself was referred to as an arhat. He was distinguished from other arhats by being the
first in his epoch to reach buddhahood. However, with the emergence of the bodhisattva path and
Mahāyāna Buddhism, arhatship was displaced from its original status as the main path of
buddhahood. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, arhatship was demonized as an inferior, separate path to
enlightenment, and it was believed that anyone who became an arhat would not reach
buddhahood. The differing status of arhatship is a major point of divergence between earlier
Indian Buddhism and Mahāyāna Buddhism.
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Notes
1. Bhikkhu Bodhi. "Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas." (A Theravada
Library,1998.)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/arahantsbodhisattvas.html.
2. Ibid.
3. A. G. S. Kariyawasam. “The Bodhisattva Concept.” (Kandy, Sri Lanka:
Buddhist Publication Society, 2002.)
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha238.htm#bp
4. Anthony Tribe, and Paul, Williams. Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction
to the Indian Tradition. ( Abingdon, VA: Routledge, 2000), 102.
5. Ibid.,137.
6. Bhikkhu Bodhi. "Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas."
7. Wendy Doniger. Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions. (Chicago:
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2006)
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34073/arhat
8. Bhikkhu, Bodhi. "Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas."
9. A. G. S., Kariyawasam. “The Bodhisattva Concept.”
10. Rupert, Gethin. The Foundations of Buddhism. (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1998), 225. https://ctools.umich.edu/access/content/group/4e5458a0-e4de-4bcb837e-83f4fad77452/4.%20Emptiness/Gethin%20-%20The%20Mahayana.pdf.
11. Bhikkhu Bodhi. "Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas."
12. Wendy Doniger. Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions.
13. A. G. S. Kariyawasam. “The Bodhisattva Concept.”
14. Anthony Tribe, and Paul Williams. Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to
the Indian Tradition, 101.
15. Ibid.,102.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.,138.
18. Rupert Gethin. The Foundations of Buddhism, 227.
19. Ibid.,228.
20. Bhikkhu Bodhi.. "Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas."
21. Ibid.
22. Wendy Doniger. Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions
23. Bhikkhu Bodhi.. "Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas."
24. Ibid
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Bibliography
Bodhi, Bhikkhu. "Arahants, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas." A Theravada Library, 1998.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/arahantsbodhisattvas.html.
Doniger, Wendy. Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions. Chicago: Encyclopedia
Britannica, 2006. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34073/arhat.
Gethin, Rupert. The Foundations of Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
https://ctools.umich.edu/access/content/group/4e5458a0-e4de-4bcb-837e83f4fad77452/4.
%20Emptiness/Gethin%20-%20The%20Mahayana.pdf.
Kariyawasam, A. G. S. "The Bodhisattva Concept." Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication
Society, 2002. http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha238.htm#bp
Tribe, Anthony, and Paul Williams. Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian
Tradition. Abingdon, VA: Routledge, 2000.