Arhat
An arhat (also arahat or arahant; Chinese: 阿羅漢, aluohan; Tibetan: dgra-bcom-pa; Jp. arakan) is a highly realized Buddhist practitoner. The term is usually reserved for ancient followers who studied directly with the Buddha. It literally means "foe destroyer" or "worthy of respect".
An arhat is said to have rid his psyche of all desires and defilements, and therefore has transcended affliction and is not destined for further rebirth.
These defilements are sometimes listed as "self-identification views, uncertainty, grasping at precepts and practices, sensual passion, resistance, desire for form, desire for formless phenomena, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.
In early Indian texts, the stage of arhat is described as the final goal of Buddhist practice - the attainment of complete and unexcelled nirvāna. Others consider it to be the fourth and highest stage of the śrāvaka path.
In some texts the term is equivalent to Buddha, for instance, as one of the ten epithets of the Buddha.
In some Mahāyāna texts, the arhat (or the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha who are practicing towards arhatship) is placed in the position of foil for the Mahāyāna exemplar, the bodhisattva. This is seen to disparage practitioners of the two vehicles as adherents of the "lesser vehicle", implying that they are engaged in practices that are self-centered and incomplete in the wisdom of emptiness.
See also: lohan 羅漢 for traditions in China.
