Can Arhats Attain Buddhahood? An Issue in the Interpretation of the Lotus Sūtra

The Lotus Sutra is well known for its teaching of the One Vehicle. According to this teaching, although the Buddha preached that there are three paths to buddhahood (the paths of the śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattva), there is in fact only one path of practice in Buddhism: the teaching of the bodhisattva leading to complete enlightenment. This implies that those who have attained the goal of arhathood through the practice of the śrāvaka path must ultimately convert to the bodhisattva path and continue their practices until they attain buddhahood. However, there is a problem since arhats are said to have destroyed all the defilements binding them to continued existence within the realms of transmigration, meaning that they must necessarily enter nirvāṇa at the end of their lives and are therefore prevented from continuing their practices to reach buddhahood. In this paper, I will introduce the theories of Kumārajīva and Fayun who argued, on the basis of the Dazhidulum and the Śrīmālā-simhanāda Sūtra respectively, that arhats are indeed capable of attaining buddhahood since they have not yet destroyed their defilements completely and still retain a subtle form of defilement.The Lotus Sutra is well known for its teaching of the One Vehicle. According to this teaching, although the Buddha preached that there are three paths to buddhahood (the paths of the śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas and bodhisattva), there is in fact only one path of practice in Buddhism: the teaching of the bodhisattva leading to complete enlightenment. This implies that those who have attained the goal of arhathood through the practice of the śrāvaka path must ultimately convert to the bodhisattva path and continue their practices until they attain buddhahood. However, there is a problem since arhats are said to have destroyed all the defilements binding them to continued existence within the realms of transmigration, meaning that they must necessarily enter nirvāṇa at the end of their lives and are therefore prevented from continuing their practices to reach buddhahood. In this paper, I will introduce the theories employed by Kumārajīva and Fayun to explain this conundrum. Kumārajīva, a noted translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese, engaged in an exchange of letters with Huiyuan of Mt. Lu, one of the most respected Chinese Buddhist of his age. In one exchange, Kumārajīva specifically deals with the question of how arhats can attain buddhahood and argues that, although arhats believe they have eradicated all defilements, they have not actually done so. Taking his cue from the Dazhidulum, Kumārajīva argues they still possess what he terms “love towards nirvāṇa and the buddha dharma.” Hence, he concludes, arhats have not actually rid themselves of all defilements but must still remain within the cycle of transmigration undertaking bodhisattva practices until they extinguish these subtle forms of defilements and achieve buddhahood. Fayun, who lived approximately a century after Kumārajīva, was a noted scholar monk who wrote an influential commentary on the Lotus Sutra. In this commentary, Fayun also argues that arhats are capable of achieving buddhahood since they are still encumbered by defilements. However, in making his argument, Fayun relies on the theory of five levels of defilements taken from the Śrīmālā-simhanāda Sūtra. According to this theory, arhats have destroyed the latent defilements, the first four of the five levels of defilements described in the sūtra, but have yet to eradicate the defilements of fundamental ignorance, the final and most profound form of defilements. By availing himself to this theory, Fayun argues that arhats are indeed capable of attaining buddhahood since they still possess the defilements of fundamental ignorance which prevents them from entering extinction in nirvāṇa, allowing them to continue their practices as bodhisattvas until they achieve complete buddhahood.