arhat ［阿羅漢］ (;  arakan): One who has attained the highest of the four stages that voice-hearers aim to achieve through the practice of Hinayana teachings, that is, the highest stage of Hinayana enlightenment. Arhat means one worthy of respect. In Chinese Buddhist scriptures, it is interpreted in several ways: one worthy of offerings; one who has nothing more to learn, meaning that an arhat has completed his learning and practice; destroyer of bandits, meaning that an arhat has repelled the “bandits” that are the illusions of thought and desire; and a person of “no rebirth,” because an arhat has freed himself from transmigration in the six paths. Of these, “one worthy of offerings” is among the ten honorable titles of a Buddha, thus indicating that arhat was originally synonymous with Buddha. With the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, the term arhat came to refer exclusively to the sages of Hinayana Buddhism.