Arahant

Arahant: Encyclopedia - Buddhist terms and concepts

Several Buddhist terms and concepts lack direct translations into English that cover the breadth of the original term. Below are given a number of important Buddhist terms, short definitions, and the languages in which they appear. In this list, an attempt has been made to organize terms by their original form and give translations and synonyms in other languages below the definition. Languages and traditions dealt with here: English (Eng.) Pāli: Theravāda Buddhism Sanskrit (or Buddhist Hybrid S ...

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Arahant: Encyclopedia - Buddhist texts

There are a great variety of Buddhist texts. Buddhists place varying value on them: attitudes range from worship of the text itself, to dismissal of some texts as falsification of the ineffable truth. They therefore cannot be called "scripture" in the sense of other religions. The texts can be categorized in a number of ways, but the most fundamental division is that between canonical and non-canonical texts. The former, also called the Sutras (Sanskrit) or Suttas (Pali), are held to be, literally or metaphoricall ...

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Buddhist texts - Mahayana texts

Buddhist texts - Vajrayana Texts

Arahant: Pali Buddhist Buddhism Dictionary on Brahman

brahman (from Pali braahmaa.na): The brahman (brahmin) caste of India has long maintained that its members, by their birth, are worthy of the highest respect.

Buddhism borrowed the term brahman to apply to those who have attained the goal, to show that respect is earned not by birth, race, or caste, but by spiritual attainment. Used in the Buddhist sense, this term is synonymous with arahant.

(See also: Brahman, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Arahant: Pali Buddhist Buddhism Dictionary on Nibbana

nibbana (nibbaana; Skt. nirvana): Liberation; literally, the "unbinding" of the mind from the mental effluents (see asava), defilements (see kilesa), and the round of rebirth (see vatta), and from all that can be described or defined.

As this term also denotes the extinguishing of a fire, it carries the connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. (According to the physics taught at the time of the Buddha, a burning fire seizes or adheres to its fuel; when extinguished, it is unbound.) "Total nibbana" in some contexts denotes the experience of Awakening; in others, the final passing away of an arahant.

(See also: Nibbana, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Arahant: Pali Buddhist Buddhism Dictionary on Parinibbana

parinibbana (parinibbaana): Total Unbinding; the complete cessation of the khandhas that occurs upon the death of an arahant.

(See also: Parinibbana, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Arahant: Zen and Buddhism Dictionary on Arahat

Arahat: (Arahant) One who has reached the final stage of spiritual progress, meaning "the worthy." This is a Pali word used in Buddhism, ranking an individual equivelantly to the brahmin caste of Hinduism. That means that the arahat is capable of moksha, nirvana, the escape from samsara.

(See also: Arahat, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Arahant: Pali Buddhist Buddhism Dictionary on Anupadisesa-nibbana

anupadisesa-nibbana (anupaadisesa-nibbaana): Nibbana with no fuel remaining (the analogy is to an extinguished fire whose embers are cold) - the nibbana of the arahant after his passing away. See:. sa-upadisesa-nibbana.

Arahant: Pali Buddhist Buddhism Dictionary on Sa-upadisesa-nibbana

sa-upadisesa-nibbana (sa-upaadisesa-nibbaana): Nibbana with fuel remaining (the analogy is to an extinguished fire whose embers are still glowing) - liberation as experienced in this lifetime by an arahant.

Cf. anupadisesa-nibbana.

Arahant: Encyclopedia II - Theravada - Philosophy

Theravada promote the concept of Vibhajjavada (Pali), literally "Teaching of Analysis" which uses critical methods of investigation as opposed to blind faith. With this method the answer has to be discovered by the aspirant, after being convinced by valid thought and experience, in order to reach the first glimpse of the goal. The Theravadins goal is the achievement of the state of Arahant (lit. "worthy one", "winner of Nibbana"), a life where all (future) birth is at an end, where the holy life is fully achieved, where all that has t ...

, an arhat being a slayer of the foe of craving, the entire range of passions and desires, mental, emotional, and physical. Buddhists in the Orient generally define arhat in this manner, while modern scholars derive the word from the verbal root arh. Both definitions are equally appropriate (Buddhist Catachysm 93).

As a noun, originally one who had fully attained his spiritual ideals. In Buddhism arhat (Pali arahant) is the title generally given to those of Gautama Buddha's disciples who had progressed the farthest during his lifetime and immediately thereafter; more specifically to those who had attained nirvana, emancipation from earthly fetters and the attainment of full enlightenment. Arhat is broadly equivalent to the Egyptian heirophant, the Chaldean magus, and Hindu rishi, as well as being generally applicable to ascetics. On occasion it is used for the loftiest beings in a hierarchy: "The Arhats of the 'fire-mist' of the 7th run are but one remove from the Root-base of their Hierarchy -- the highest on Earth, and our Terrestrial chain" (SD 1:207).

Arhat is the highest of the four degrees of arhatship or the fourfold path to nirvana, of which the first three are srotapatti (he who has entered the stream), sakridagamin (he who returns to birth once more), and anagamin (the never returner who will have no further births on earth).

Arhat is both the way and the waygoer; and while the term is close philosophically to anagamin, the distinction between the two lies in their mystical connotations rather than in their etymological definitions. Arhat has a wider significance inasmuch as it applies to those noblest of the Buddha's disciples who were "worthy" of receiving, because comprehending, the Tathagata's heart doctrine, the more esoteric and mystical portions of his message.

As early as one hundred years after the Buddha died and had entered his parinirvana, differences in the doctrines and discipline of the Order become manifest. In the course of the centuries two basic trends developed into what has become popular to call the Hinayana (the lesser vehicle or path) or Theravada (doctrine of the elders), and Mahayana (the greater vehicle or path). The Theravada emphasized the fourfold path leading to nirvana, total liberation of the arhat from material concerns. The Mahayana held the bodhisattvayana as the ideal, the way of compassion for all sentient beings, culminating in renunciation of nirvana in order to return and inspire others "to awake and follow the dhamma." It is this fundamental difference in goal that characterizes the Old Wisdom School (arhatship) from the New Wisdom School (bodhsattvahood).

See also BUDDHAS OF COMPASSION, PRATYEKA BUDDHAS

Arahant: Encyclopedia II - Theravada - Criticisms

The diversity of Buddhist thought has sometimes led to criticism of Theravada by other schools, although it is important to note that such criticism is far from universal, and that Buddhists of different schools often interact on terms of mutual respect. Common critiques of Theravada made by Mahayana Buddhists are that Theravada monks aim to achieve enlightenment only for themselves, and that they lack compassion. However, supporters of Theravada emphasize that their religion does not recognize a self at all—famously, as noted in the canon ...

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