1.3.12. Arahant

“The Arahant has done what had to be done, laid down the burden, attained the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge.”

The Arahant represents the pinnacle of spiritual transformation — a being who has achieved complete enlightenment and dwells in Nirvāṇa. This chapter explores the unique characteristics of Arahant consciousness, examining how these fully enlightened beings operate beyond conventional reality while still engaging with the world. We’ll investigate the different types of enlightenment, the nature of functional consciousness, and draw important parallels between Buddhist understanding and alchemical stages of transformation.

The Arahant is the name of a being who has achieved full enlightenment. Rather than holy, which they can be, they are more alien than familiar, and it can be difficult to both spot and certify an Arahant. The Arahant dwells in Nirvāṇa (nibbāna in Pāli). They have transcended all ten fetters (saṃyojana) and found the necessary distinction between mind and primal delusion (avijjā). Now, all phenomena are just phenomena — they arise in the mind of the Arahant but the Arahant doesn’t identify with them. Whilst they are capable of transient discomfort or pain, they no longer identify with it; there is no sufferer.

Liberated from fear, greed and illusion, they exist without choice or volition, for there is no perspective of ‘I’, which is necessary for evaluating choice. Without any ‘I’ in mentation, thoughts cannot get caught up with perception and ‘thinking’ largely ceases, being replaced by jhanic calm and bliss. The Arahant is indifferent to this bliss — yet the prevailing calmness will tend to reverse any disease caused by stress.

Arahants are unpredictable and masters of going with the flow. This means, when they want, they tend to blend in. Whether they still operate out of some sense of self-purpose or they become agents of the universe cannot be known.

Some Arahants will have developed psychic powers (siddhis), but all will have advanced social powers, simply from being detached.

Once Arahantship is achieved, without volition, karma largely ceases. The consciousnesses of the Arahant are no longer classified as wholesome or unwholesome as this pertains to karmic outcome. Instead, the Arahant (and Buddha) uses functional consciousness — i.e. it acts merely as a function rather than acting with a karmic intensity to create future resultant consciousnesses. Externally, most actions will be either benevolent and kind or completely incomprehensible.

In the Abhidhamma therefore, several classes of citta are exclusively for Arahants or Buddhas. Additionally, there is a unique form of functional consciousness called the Arahant’s smiling consciousness. This is a strange consciousness that arises through deep insight into the futility of effort. It replaces previous disappointment or judgement of perhaps unwise action with an increased acceptance as one recognises the dance of life.

Whilst the Arahant has achieved full enlightenment, this can be subdivided into two types.

When full enlightenment is realised, the Arahant still has the material body, perceptions, thoughts and experiences of their prior existence. These are called residues (upādisesa) and remain with the Arahant, normally until physical death, when they dissolve.

Rarely, the Arahant will become a Buddha. However, before this can occur the individual must have mastered the pāramīs, which means perfections. The mastery of the pāramīs can take many, many lifetimes. So, for a Buddha to arise these need perfecting before enlightenment. Why? Because, once one becomes a Sotāpanna (stream-enterer) the ties to saṃsāra weaken and one then has only seven lifetimes to perfect them.

So, for a Buddha to arise, the individual must spend many lifetimes perfecting these ten qualities but refrain from full enlightenment. An individual who follows this path is called a Bodhisattva, who will then often go through all four stages in the lifetime prior to Buddhahood.

Such an individual will therefore achieve Arahantship with residues, and then, through a number of different ways, transform the residues, clearing them.

The second type of full enlightenment is therefore called nibbāna without residue (anupādisesa-nibbāna) and is that of the experience of a Buddha.

Arahants don’t experience the death consciousness and therefore have no rebirth linking consciousness. The Arahant has already established themselves in nibbāna; death is more the transition to Buddhahood, albeit somewhat posthumously!

This, I hope the keen alchemists may have noticed, is our deathlessness or immortality attributed to the stone.

The stage of the stone which correlates to Arahantship is Citrinitas, or yellowing. This probably pertains to a change of perception once the mind is freed from primal delusion. Primal delusion to the mind is like a beguiling light, and once the mind frees itself, material objects, being correctly seen as made of consciousness, glow.

Rubedo, the final stage of the stone, I feel equates to Buddhahood. Only a Buddha has direct control over phenomena, and whilst Arahants can develop psychic powers, the power of a Buddha is incomparable. The red stone, we know, can transmute base metals to gold, and gold in alchemy pertains to the sun.

The sun represents the eternal radiance of divinity. Unlike the white stone, which restores balance, the red stone brings forth divinity directly in ways that are miraculous. Its power is to transform individuals into divine beings through a direct demonstration of magical power. To a Buddha, it is not magic—just a natural state.

Well, that’s the end of part Three of Nigredo. I trust you are still following. My intent is to describe the work that faces the alchemist and explicitly outline what it is.

In the last part, I hope to describe the journey, what challenges we face. The most dangerous and taxing part of alchemy is the first part. So, even when the going gets tough, remember this.

As we conclude this exploration of the Arahant state and its alchemical parallels, we see that the journey of spiritual transformation mirrors the Great Work of the alchemists. Just as base metals are purified into gold, the consciousness is refined through stages of enlightenment until it reaches the ultimate state of liberation. The path may be challenging, but the transformation it promises is nothing less than the complete transmutation of the ordinary into the divine.