In Buddhism, an arhat or arahant is one who has gained insight into the true nature of existence and has achieved Nirvana and liberated from the endless cycle of rebirth.
Gautama Buddha statue and 500 arhats at the courtyard of Shanyuan Temple (善緣寺), Fushun, Liaoning province, China.
Gohyaku rakan - five hundred statues depicting arhats, at the Chōkei temple in Toyama
Seated Luohan from Yixian, around 1000, one of a famous Group of glazed pottery luohans from Yixian
Nirvana is the extinguishing of the passions, the "blowing out" or "quenching" of the activity of the grasping mind and its related unease. Nirvana is the goal of many Buddhist paths, and leads to the soteriological release from dukkha ('suffering') and rebirths in saṃsāra. Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on "cessation of dukkha" in the Four Noble Truths, and the "summum bonum of Buddhism and goal of the Eightfold Path."
Aniconic carving representing the final nirvana of a Buddha at Sanchi.
The Bhavachakra, an illustration of the cycle of rebirth, with the three poisons at the hub of the wheel.
In the cosmology of Jainism, which is a closely related sramana tradition, liberated beings abide in an actual realm (loka) or abode (sila) associated with nirvana. Some scholars have argued that early Buddhism held a similar view.
Buddhist sculpture of the final nirvana of the Buddha in greco-buddhist Gandharan style from Loriyan Tangai.