nonreturning (anagami marga), and (4) the path
of the arhat. The division of the path into these stages
extending over many lifetimes served to make the ideal
of arhatship more viable for ordinary people.
The Buddhist CANONcontains many sutras that spell
out in detail the nature of the perfections that must be
accomplished at each of the stages of the path in order
to progress toward arhatship. The perfection of moral
conduct (s ́lla) constitutes the first requirement of the
path. In the Visuddhimagga(Path to Purification),BUD-
DHAGHOSA(fifth century C.E.) explains that a person
on the path must fulfill the PRECEPTS, living by com-
passion and nonviolence, living without stealing and
depending on the charity of others, practicing chastity,
speaking truth, and following all of the major and mi-
nor precepts. Having made progress in slla,the aspir-
ing arhat moves to perfect the restraint of sense
faculties. Controlling the senses rather than allowing
the senses to control him or her, the aspirant experi-
ences a state of peace. The next stage involves the de-
velopment of samadhi, or concentration, and here the
chief obstacles to be overcome are the five hindrances
(nlvarana), which include sensual desire, ill will, sloth
and torpor, excitement and flurry, and DOUBT.
Closely related to this formulation of the states to
be conquered is the list of mental fetters (samyojana)
that must be abandoned in order to progress from the
stage of stream-enterer to that of arhat. A person at-
tains the fruit of stream-entry by eliminating the first
three fetters: mistaken belief in a self, doubt, and trust
in mere rites and RITUALs. To progress to the stage of
the once-returner, a person must reduce lust, ill will,
and delusion. The third noble person, the non-
returner, completes the destruction of the first five
fetters by completely destroying sensual desire and ill
will. To become an arhat one must proceed to elim-
inate the five remaining fetters, called higher fetters:
desire for material existence, desire for immaterial ex-
istence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance.
Having eliminated these negative states, the arhat-
to-be enters the successive jhanas(Sanskrit, dhyana)
or trance states of samadhi, and attains the mental fac-
tors ending in pure MINDFULNESSand equanimity. The
Dlghanikayacontrasts persons who have reached this
stage with ordinary persons by stating that those who
attain this level are as happy as prisoners who have
been set free or as people who have found their way
out of the wilderness to safety (D.1.72f.). To move be-
yond this stage, the potential arhat perfects the six
ABHIJN
A (HIGHER KNOWLEDGES). The first three ofthese comprise what can be called miraculous powers:
the ability to do the miraculous deeds traditionally at-
tributed to Indian holy persons, such as becoming in-
visible, flying through the air, walking on water, and
other physical and psychic powers. The three remain-
ing abhijñacomprise the three knowledges: knowledge
of one’s previous lives, the “divine eye” (divyacaksu)
that allows one to see others’ past lives, and knowledge
of the destruction of the cankers. Having reached this
stage, the arhat is described throughout the Pali canon
as “one who has destroyed the cankers, who has done
what was to be done, who has laid down the burden... and is liberated.”
The detailed and somewhat formulaic canonical de-
scriptions of the arhat’s path serve both to present the
path as an imitable goal and to emphasize how distant
this goal is from the ordinary person. Theravada sup-
plemented these normative descriptions of the path to
arhatship with hagiographical accounts of the great
arhats who had completed this path. The difficulty of
the path implied that the figures who had completed it
were greatly to be venerated. The canonical and com-
mentarial stories of the great arhats describe them as
performing meritorious deeds in their previous lives,
which led to their having opportunities to hear and fol-
low the dharma. Through hearing the dharma and
practicing the path, these arhats reached the perfection
of wisdom and compassion. Theravadin accounts
praise these arhats for attaining various forms of per-
fection in relation to the world. Free from the snares of
desire, the arhats were not attached to the material
world. For example, the female arhat, Subha, who had
overcome all attachments and was living as a nun in
the forest, plucked out her eye and gave it to a pursuer
who said that he was attracted to her because of her
deerlike eyes. The stories of other arhats stress their per-
fection of qualities such as equanimity, nonattachment,
and peace. Great arhats like Mahakassapa (Sanskrit,
MAHAKAS ́YAPA) and Añña-Kondoñña were revered for
their ability to teach the dharma, and other arhats were
remembered for serving as advisers and counselors to
the people. Veneration of these great arhats by ordinary
persons at the lower levels of the path both leads to and
is in itself imitation of the arhats’ path to development.
Although the arhat plays a primary role in Thera-
vada Buddhism, the ideal is also found in some MA-
HAYANAtexts that mention a group of sixteen (or
sometimes eighteen) great arhats. Mahayana sutras
teach that the Buddha requested these sixteen arhats
to remain in the world to teach the dharma until the
next Buddha, MAITREYA, appears.
ARHAT