Arhat

The term Arhat (Pali: Arahant) designates the liberated individual of Theravāda and early Buddhist tradition — one who has extinguished the defilements and realized nirvāṇa. Within the depth-psychology corpus, the Arhat is treated not merely as a doctrinal category but as a psychological-spiritual type that serves as a point of contrast, critique, and transformation. The dominant tension in the corpus runs between the Arhat as the legitimate but limited ideal of Hīnayāna self-liberation and the Bodhisattva as the expansive Mahāyāna ideal of universal compassion. Zimmer and Campbell frame this contrast historiographically: earlier Buddhist orthodoxy set arhatship — individual enlightenment through rigorous world-renunciation — as the goal, while Mahāyāna repositioned Buddhahood as humanity’s proper end. Armstrong treats the Arahant phenomenologically, exploring the gulf between intellectual knowledge of the Dharma and the full yogic realization it signifies. Trungpa subjects the Arhat’s epistemological stance to Madhyamika critique, noting that the arhat perceives phenomena as momentary and atomistic but errs in conceptualizing entities in relation to one another. Suzuki’s Zen perspective renders the Arhat ambivalent: the term appears in Rinzai’s famous injunction to ‘slay’ all such figures as obstacles to direct liberation. Eliade and Benveniste contribute philological and phenomenological dimensions, grounding the term’s semantic range and its association with miraculous powers.

In the library 11 passages

The arhat views mental events and material objects and begins to see them as momentary and atomistic happenings. Thus he discovers that there is no permanent substance or solid thing as such. This approach errs in conceptualizing the existence of entities relative to each other

Trungpa’s Madhyamika critique identifies the arhat’s perception of impermanence as philosophically incomplete, still entangled in a conceptual atomism that perpetuates subtle forms of dualistic thinking.

Trungpa, Chögyam, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, 1973thesis

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the earlier orthodox view had represented individual enlightenment (arhatship) as the goal to be attained, and this only by means of a literal imitation of the rigorous world-renunciation of the historical princely monk, Gautama Śākyamuni, the newer teaching was that Buddhahood (the status of a World Redeemer) is man’s proper end

Zimmer traces the doctrinal evolution from arhatship as the Hīnayāna goal of individual liberation to the Mahāyāna ideal of universal Buddhahood, establishing the Arhat as a historically superseded but formative spiritual type.

Zimmer, Heinrich, Philosophies of India, 1951thesis

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if you encounter the Arhat or the parent or the relative, slay them all without hesitation: for this is the only way to deliverance. Do not get yourselves entangled with any object, but stand above, pass on, and be free

Suzuki presents Rinzai’s radical Zen injunction — in which even the Arhat must be ‘slain’ — as the quintessential expression of non-attachment to any spiritual ideal, including the highest recognized saint of Hīnayāna tradition.

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series), 1949thesis

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it was when they heard the Buddha explaining anatta that all five bhikkhus attained their full enlightenment and became Arahants. The texts tell us that this teaching filled their hearts with joy.

Armstrong situates the attainment of Arahantship concretely within the psychological event of accepting anattā, presenting it as an experiential liberation accompanied by joy rather than annihilation.

Armstrong, Karen, Buddha, 2000thesis

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Buddhistic texts refer to Arhats who ‘fly through the a[ir]’

Eliade invokes the Arhat’s miraculous flight as evidence for the structural homology between Buddhist mystical transcendence and the archaic shamanic symbolism of ascent, linking the figure to cross-cultural patterns of breakthrough from the human condition.

Eliade, Mircea, The Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, 1957supporting

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His plight during these last days reminds us of the immense gulf that separates the unenlightened from the Arahant. Ananda knew all about Buddhism intellectually, but this knowledge was no substitute for the ‘direct knowledge’ of the yogin.

Armstrong uses Ānanda’s grief at the Buddha’s death to illuminate the psychological depth of the Arahant ideal — the gap between conceptual understanding and the yogic realization that defines full Arahantship.

Armstrong, Karen, Buddha, 2000supporting

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This is no other than ‘the opening of the pure eye of the Dharma’ (virajaṃ Vītamalaṃ dhamma-cakkhum udapādi), frequently referred to in the Āgamas when one attains to Arhatship.

Suzuki identifies the ‘opening of the Dharma eye’ as the canonical experiential marker of Arhatship, situating it within a broader argument about the relationship between Prajñā and enlightenment across Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna traditions.

Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, Essays in Zen Buddhism (First Series), 1949supporting

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even if all those who preserved the words of the Buddha had been Arahans (saints), this would not change the fact that the teachings which they passed on in this form, were conceptually and linguistically time-conditioned formulations.

Govinda employs the Arahat as a hypothetical standard of spiritual authority to argue that even perfect realization cannot exempt canonical transmission from its historical and linguistic conditionality.

Govinda, Lama Anagarika, Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism, 1960supporting

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Skt. arhat ‘a man of particular merit’ brings confirmation of this ancient sense.

Benveniste contributes a philological grounding for the term Arhat, tracing its Sanskrit root to ancient notions of worth and merit that predate its technical Buddhist application.

Benveniste, Émile, Indo European Language and Society, 1973supporting

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Arhan (Pali: Arhat) 60, 101

Watts’s index registers the Arhat as a distinct entry alongside foundational Zen and Buddhist concepts, indicating its role as a structural reference point within his comparative survey of Mahāyāna and Zen thought.

Watts, Alan, The Way of Zen, 1957aside

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Buddha and the Buddhist saints traveled to Anavatapta in an instant, as the rishis of Hindu legend soared through the air to the divine and mysterious land in the north

Eliade places the flight capacities of Buddhist saints — among whom Arhats are included — within a comparative framework of shamanic and yogic magical powers, emphasizing the continuity of ascent symbolism across traditions.

Eliade, Mircea, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, 1951aside

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