What is the difference between an arahant and a bodhisattva?

An arahant is already free of the defilements; a bodhisattva is still on the way - to buddhahood, that is, to the state of one who rediscovers and proclaims the path. The two categories are hard to compare: “arahant” names an attained result, while “bodhisattva” is rather the name of a path.

First, the terms. Arahant (Pali - arahant; Sanskrit - arhat) comes from the root √arh, “to be worthy”. It is the highest attainment (short of a buddha) from the point of view of Theravada Buddhism.

An arahant has completely uprooted greed, hatred and delusion. He realises Nibbana already in this life, produces no new kamma and is not reborn after death.

Nibbana as the final spiritual attainment is exactly the same for an arahant and for the Buddha. But describing the Buddha as “the very first arahant” is not correct. SN 22.58 puts the difference this way: the Buddha discovers the previously undiscovered path and teaches it to other living beings, while the disciples gain it after him, becoming arahants. This does not mean, of course, that an arahant cannot teach the Dhamma to others; the difference is only that the Buddha is its discoverer.

Bodhisatta (bodhisatta, Sanskrit bodhisattva) as a term in the Pali canon means, as a rule, Gotama himself before his awakening, or more broadly any being on the way to awakening. There is no bodhisattva vow to save all beings yet.

Mahayana (Mahāyāna) made the bodhisattva path its central ideal and developed it, adding the practice of cultivating the so-called bodhichitta (bodhicitta, “the mind of awakening”) and the aspiration to bring all living beings to unsurpassed perfect awakening (anuttarā samyaksaṃbodhi). The bodhisattva path takes many lives and is mapped out in stages (bhūmi; ten in the Daśabhūmika-sūtra, with other schemes in other texts).

The formula “a bodhisattva postpones his own nirvana” is a popular simplification. In the developed Mahayana systems apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa means abiding neither in samsara (saṃsāra) nor in a nirvana understood as departure from the world: wisdom does not let one settle in samsara, and compassion does not let one rest in the peace of nirvana.

Besides the arahant and the bodhisattva there is a third class of spiritual seekers: the paccekabuddha (paccekabuddha, Sanskrit pratyekabuddha). This is a being who, without having met the Dhamma, awakens on his own, through his own work and merit, but does not found a teaching or a community.

Assessments of these paths differ across traditions. Some Mahayana sutras treat the arahant’s path as preliminary: the Lotus Sutra in chapters 2-3 predicts buddhahood for Sariputta, and the Śrīmālādevīsiṃhanāda-sūtra denies that the nirvana of arahants and pratyekabuddhas is final. Other Mahayana traditions venerate arahants. Late Theravadin literature, for its part, distinguishes:

• sāvakabodhi - the awakening of a disciple who reaches liberation thanks to the Buddha’s teaching (in essence, the arahant’s path);
• paccekabodhi - the independent awakening of a paccekabuddha, who finds the path without a teacher but does not open the teaching to the world;
• sammāsambodhi - the perfect independent awakening of a Buddha, who rediscovers the path to liberation and is able to pass it on to others.

Medieval Lankan and Southeast Asian texts and inscriptions testify to the aspiration to buddhahood among some monks, rulers and lay people.

Where to read: MN 26 and MN 36 - Gotama the bodhisatta before awakening; SN 22.58 - how the Tathagata differs from liberated disciples.