Attainment · Arhat’s MasteryPart 5Paper 8 of 8

The Worthy

ARHAT-P08 · v1.0 · 2026-06

The Social Legibility of Mastery, and Why Exhaustion Becomes the World's Unsurpassed Field of Merit

中文主題：應供——自在的社會可見性，漏盡何以成為世間無上福田

I. The Live Question

The Mastery of the Arhat, reaching its closing paper, must add the last piece. All that the prior seven papers treat is the arhat's mastery's "inner" aspects: liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, the unshakable, the distinction of the two kinds, the three knowledges and six powers, cessation-attainment, no-more-becoming — these are the "inward" dimensions of the mastery of exhaustion (the quality of liberation, the pivot of cognition, the depth of concentration, the resolution of birth-and-death). But one dimension remains untouched: what does the arhat's mastery look like "outward"? How does the world see it?

This is not a dispensable appendix. An inner attainment of liberation, were it wholly invisible to the world, would become an unverifiable, ungroundable private claim. And scripture precisely gives the arhat a vivid social identity: the worthy of offerings (arahant, one worthy that offerings be made), the world's unsurpassed field of merit. The Buddha, the taint-exhausted arhat, and the wheel-turning monarch are listed together as "worthy of the world's offerings"; the arhat, on dying, is worthy that a stūpa be raised and offerings made. These are highly concrete social legibilities — liberation is not only within the mind; it leaves a visible mark in the world.

The question takes shape: this social identity, "worthy / field of merit," and the arhat's inner liberation — what is their relation? An honorific added to liberation from without (like a worldly title), or the way liberation itself presents to the world?

This paper argues the latter: the worthy is the social signature of the mastery of exhaustion. Just as the power of exhaustion is mastery's cognitive face (P04) and no-more-becoming is mastery's birth-and-death face (P07), the worthy is mastery's social face — the one and the same mastery of exhaustion, when it falls on the dimension of "how the world sees the arhat," presents as "worthy / unsurpassed field of merit." It is not an honorific added from without but the outwardly legible aspect of inner liberation. Its doctrinal chain has three sections: the name "arhat," etymologically, just means "worthy" — the worthy is intrinsic to the name-and-meaning of arhat; the arhat is the "world's unsurpassed field of merit" — by his accomplishment of the adept's virtue of morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation; and the causal chain liberation → field of merit → the worthy: precisely because of exhaustion (crossing birth-and-death, greed-hatred-delusion exhausted), he is the world's field of merit, the worthy — inner liberation is the cause of social legibility.

A paradox to be clarified here: the "merit" of the field of merit — who seeks it, who generates it? The answer: not sought by the arhat (the arhat seeks nothing, no more becoming) but generated by the world in dependence on his virtue of liberation. And this rests precisely on the arhat's "seeking nothing" — this is the pivot where "mastery" and "the worthy" interlock.

This paper opens the close of Part 5, gathering up the whole division. The argument: §II presents canon and śāstra (the arhat = the worthy by etymology; the unsurpassed field of merit; the causal chain of liberation's social legibility); §III argues in three layers (the worthy as mastery's social signature; the merit of the field of merit resting on seeking-nothing; the worthy gathering the faces back to the single pivot of exhaustion); §IV is cut; §V corrects; §VI concludes (the whole-division gathering).

II. Canonical Basis

2.1 The Arhat = the Worthy: The Etymological Sense Just Is "Worthy of the Offerings of All the Defiled"

The name "arhat," etymologically, has as one of its senses "the worthy" (one worthy that offerings be made). Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 24 (Chapter on the Noble Persons), plainly establishes it:

Because this one alone is to do the work of others, and because he is worthy of the offerings of all the defiled, on this sense the name "arhat" is established.¹

The śāstra is explicit: the arhat is "worthy of the offerings of all the defiled" (worthy that all who are defiled-by-taints make offerings) — taking "the worthy" as one etymological sense by which the name "arhat" is established. See clearly: the worthy is not an identity added to the arhat from without but a sense the name "arhat" itself contains. To call someone an arhat is already to call him the worthy — the two mutually entail in name-and-meaning. The Āgama layer too establishes his place by listing "three worthy of offerings." Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 12 (Chapter on the Three Offerings):

There are three persons worthy of the world's offerings. What three? The Tathāgata, the Truly Worthy, the Fully Awakened, worthy of the world's offerings; the Tathāgata's disciple, the taint-exhausted arhat, worthy of the world's offerings; the wheel-turning sage-king, worthy of the world's offerings.²

Scripture lists three "worthy of the world's offerings": the Tathāgata, the taint-exhausted arhat, the wheel-turning monarch. The taint-exhausted arhat, listed together with the Tathāgata and the wheel-turning monarch as one of the worthy — the worthy is the established identity of the taint-exhausted arhat in the world, with explicit canonical witness.

2.2 The World's Unsurpassed Field of Merit: By the Virtue of the Adept's Morality, Concentration, Wisdom, Liberation

The arhat's being "the world's unsurpassed field of merit" hangs on his accomplishment of the adept's virtue. Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 33 (sūtra 921), uses the four virtues of a fine horse as a simile:

Thus a good man accomplished in four virtues is honored by the world, served and offered to, the unsurpassed field of merit. What four? A good man accomplished in the adept's body of morality, the adept's body of concentration, the adept's body of wisdom, the adept's body of liberation.³

Scripture, by the simile of a fine horse's four virtues, shows the good man accomplished in "the adept's body of morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation" (the arhat's adept virtue) to be the "unsurpassed field of merit" the world serves and offers to. The field of merit is a field of merit by "the adept's virtue" (morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation) — not by the marvelous, not by outer mark, but by the real virtue of liberation. The division of field-of-merit persons, Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 30 (the Field-of-Merit), answers the householder Anāthapiṇḍika:

Householder! In the world there are in all two kinds of field-of-merit person. What two? First, the trainee; second, the adept. The trainees are eighteen, the adepts nine.⁴

The Buddha judges the world's field-of-merit persons as trainees (eighteen) and adepts (nine). The arhat (including the wisdom-liberated, the both-ways-liberated) is subsumed under the "adept field-of-merit person" — the highest class of the world's fields of merit (the adept, with nothing further to learn, the final). The śāstra further clarifies the arhat's self-knowledge of being "supreme among fields of merit." Kośa, fascicle 27 (Chapter on Knowledge, non-contention):

Non-contention means: the arhat, observing that the suffering of beings arises from defilement, knowing his own person to be supreme among fields of merit, fearing that others' defilement might arise again with himself as object, deliberately arouses such an aspect of knowledge.⁵

The śāstra glosses "non-contention" (araṇā): the arhat "knows his own person to be supreme among fields of merit" (knows himself most excellent among fields of merit), and precisely for this, fearing that others might, with himself (the excellent) as object, arouse defilement again, he cultivates the "knowledge of non-contention" (so as not to cause others to arouse defilement with himself as object). There is a deep sense here: the arhat's "supremacy among fields of merit" is not self-conceit but precisely the reason for his cultivating non-contention — knowing himself a supreme field of merit, he the more guards others against arousing defilement with himself as object. The supremacy of the field of merit and the guarding of non-contention mutually entail, not conflict.

2.3 The Causal Chain Liberation → Field of Merit → the Worthy: A World's Field of Merit by Exhaustion

Why is the arhat a field of merit, the worthy? Scripture plainly establishes one causal chain: because of the attainment of inner liberation. Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 12 (Chapter on the Three Offerings), continues the prior passage:

The taint-exhausted arhat, because he has crossed the source of birth-and-death, no more receives becoming, has attained the unsurpassed Dharma, lust-anger-delusion exhausted, never again to be complete — he is the world's field of merit. By this causation, root and branch, the taint-exhausted arhat is worthy of the world's offerings.⁶

Scripture shows the taint-exhausted arhat — "having crossed the source of birth-and-death, no more receiving becoming (no more becoming, continuing P07), lust-anger-delusion exhausted (greed-hatred-delusion exhausted)" — precisely for this is the "world's field of merit"; "by this causation, root and branch," the world should make offerings. The causal chain is plain: inner liberation (crossing birth-and-death, no more becoming, the three poisons exhausted) → is the world's field of merit → the world should make offerings. The worthy is not a groundless honor but arises in dependence on the real virtue of liberation. This social legibility is further realized in the concrete sign of "raising a stūpa." Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 49 (the section on raising a stūpa):

The taint-exhausted arhat monk, his lust for sensuality exhausted, anger and delusion removed, having crossed becoming to the unconditioned, is the world's good-and-protective field of merit; by this causation, for the taint-exhausted arhat a stūpa should be raised.⁷

Scripture answers "by what causation for the taint-exhausted arhat a stūpa (stūpa) should be raised": because, his sensual-anger-delusion exhausted, having crossed becoming to the unconditioned, he is the "world's good-and-protective field of merit," and so a stūpa should be raised and offerings made. The stūpa — the most concrete and enduring social sign of the virtue of liberation: the world commemorates and offers, by the stūpa, to one who has crossed to the unconditioned. The noble community too is a field of merit by its accomplishment of the fivefold dharma-body (morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, the knowledge-and-vision of liberation), Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 30 (the section on recollecting the community):

The Tathāgata's community is accomplished in morality, accomplished in concentration, accomplished in wisdom, accomplished in liberation, accomplished in the knowledge-and-vision of liberation; worthy of reverence and esteem, worthy of being honored and offered to, the world's good field of merit.⁸

The noble community, by accomplishment of "morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, the knowledge-and-vision of liberation" (the fivefold dharma-body), is "worthy of reverence and esteem, worthy of being honored and offered to, the world's good field of merit." The point is consistent: the object of being worthy of offering and reverence is the virtue of liberation (the fivefold dharma-body), nothing else. The world's offering, stūpa-raising, and reverence are directed at the legibility of "liberation," this real virtue — the rounder the virtue of liberation (the fivefold dharma-body accomplished), the more manifest its social legibility (the field of merit, the worthy).

✅ Doctrinally sound: 2.1 (the arhat's etymology = the worthy; the three worthy listed together), 2.2's Field-of-Merit sūtra (the division of trainee/adept field-of-merit persons) and Saṃyukta (the adept's four virtues as the unsurpassed field of merit), 2.3 (a world's field of merit by exhaustion; raising a stūpa; the fivefold dharma-body) are Āgama and Kośa explicit text; 2.1's Kośa etymology and 2.2's Kośa non-contention (supreme among fields of merit) are śāstric precision. The causal chain is consistent: the virtue of inner liberation (the adept's morality-concentration-wisdom-liberation, crossing birth-and-death, the three poisons exhausted) → the world's unsurpassed field of merit → the worthy, raising a stūpa. The merit of the field of merit hangs on the real virtue of liberation, not the marvelous or outer mark. "Supreme among fields of merit" and "non-contention" mutually entail (knowing supremacy, he guards others against arousing defilement with himself as object), not self-conceit.

III. Core Argument

"Worthy / field of merit" and the arhat's inner liberation are in a relation of intrinsic mutual entailment, not an honorific added from without. This must be established first, or "the worthy" is easily read as the world's conferral upon the arhat (like a bestowed rank), losing its sense of "being just the outwardly legible aspect of liberation."

The ground is the etymology of 2.1. The name "arhat," the śāstra plainly establishes, has as one etymological sense "worthy of the offerings of all the defiled" (the worthy). To call someone an arhat is already to call him the worthy — the two mutually entail in name-and-meaning, not two things. The worthy is not "an identity the world separately gives, beyond the arhat" but a sense the name "arhat" itself contains. As the name "physician" contains "able to heal," not an added title of "able to heal" beyond the physician; the name "arhat" contains "the worthy," not an added honor of the worthy beyond the arhat.

At a deeper level, the worthy is intrinsic to the arhat because it just is the way "the mastery of exhaustion" presents to the world. As the axis has argued throughout: the mastery of exhaustion has several faces — the power of exhaustion is its cognitive face (P04, the self-knowing of exhaustion), no-more-becoming is its birth-and-death face (P07, the resolution of the bond of birth-and-death). Now the worthy is its social face: the one and the same mastery of exhaustion, when it falls on the dimension of "how the world sees the arhat," presents as "worthy / unsurpassed field of merit." The three knowledges and six powers present inward as the pivot of cognition, no-more-becoming presents to "birth-and-death, after-death" as the departure from annihilation-and-eternalism, the worthy presents to "the worldly social" as the field of merit. All are signatures of different dimensions of the one and the same mastery, not separate things. So the worthy is the social signature of mastery — mastery is not suspended within; it is legible to the world, and the legible aspect just is the worthy.

3.2 The Merit of the Field of Merit Rests on the Arhat's Seeking-Nothing: Exhausted, Therefore Without Seeking; Without Seeking, Therefore a Pure Field of Merit

The worthy / field of merit has a paradox to be clarified in its own section: the "merit" of the field of merit — who seeks it, who generates it? The answer: not sought by the arhat, but generated by the world in dependence on his virtue of liberation. And this rests precisely on the arhat's "seeking nothing" — this is the pivot where "mastery" and "the worthy" interlock.

The chain of grounds: first, the arhat seeks nothing — the exhausted, greed-hatred-delusion exhausted (2.3), no more becoming (P07), seeks and craves nothing in the world; he does not manifest virtue for the sake of offerings, nor cultivate for the name of a field of merit. Second, precisely because he seeks nothing, he is a pure field of merit: the simile of the field of merit is drawn from a field — a field does not demand of the sower, yet the sower obtains a harvest from a good field. The arhat is like a good field: he does not demand of those who offer (seeking nothing), yet those who offer generate merit in dependence on his virtue of liberation (like a field's fertility). Were the arhat to seek (to seek offerings, to seek esteem), he would be like a field demanding of itself, and so would fail to be a pure field of merit — to seek is itself a taint (greed), and where taints are not exhausted there is no arhat, no unsurpassed field of merit. So "seeking nothing" is not a defect of the field of merit but precisely the cause of the field of merit's being pure and unsurpassed.

The resolution of this paradox displays the deep interlock of "mastery" and "the worthy": the arhat's mastery (exhaustion, seeking nothing) is the ground of his being the worthy (a pure field of merit). The reason the world can obtain unsurpassed merit from the arhat (great fruit from offering) is precisely that the one offered to is a liberated one who "seeks nothing" — to offer to one who seeks has limited merit (like sowing in a demanding field); to offer to a taint-exhausted one who seeks nothing has unsurpassed merit (like sowing in the most fertile field). So the "unsurpassedness" of the field of merit's "merit" hangs on the thoroughness of the arhat's "seeking nothing" (because exhausted). The social legibility of the worthy is then not a legibility the arhat "contends for" but the legibility of his "seeking-nothing liberation" naturally mirrored in the world, taken by the world as the object whence merit is generated.

The non-contention of 2.2 witnesses it: the arhat "knows his own person to be supreme among fields of merit," and his response is not self-conceit or demanding offerings but the cultivation of non-contention (fearing others arouse defilement with himself as object, guarding them). So the arhat's self-knowledge of being "supreme among fields of merit" issues in "guarding others by non-contention" (benefiting others, seeking nothing), not "exalting himself to receive offerings" (benefiting himself, seeking). Supreme among fields of merit yet cultivating non-contention — precisely the witness of "seeking nothing" carried through into the identity of "field of merit."

✅ Doctrinally sound: the merit of the field of merit is not sought by the arhat (exhausted, therefore seeking nothing; no more becoming) but generated by the world in dependence on his virtue of liberation. Seeking-nothing is not a defect of the field of merit but precisely the cause of its purity and unsurpassedness (to seek is a taint; where taints are unexhausted there is no unsurpassed field of merit). The arhat, knowing himself supreme among fields of merit, cultivates non-contention (guarding others, not self-conceit, 2.2), witnessing "seeking-nothing" carried through into the identity of field of merit. The legibility of the worthy is the legibility of seeking-nothing liberation naturally mirrored and taken as the world's object, not a legibility contended for.

3.3 The Worthy Gathers the Faces Back to the Single Pivot of Exhaustion: The Whole-Division Signature

The closing section of the closing paper should gather up the whole division. The worthy, as mastery's social face, is the last of the faces; and like the prior faces, it returns to the single pivot of exhaustion. The whole division here is consummated.

Recall the axis's frame (P01): the exhaustion of taints is mastery — the arhat is not "someone who finished some task" but "a mode of being free," the cessation of taints signed as mastery. The subsequent papers unfold this mastery's faces one by one: P02–03 (the two liberations of mind and wisdom, the unshakable, the distinction of the two kinds) display its "quality of liberation" face; P04–05 (the three knowledges and six powers, the power of exhaustion as pivot, powers not mastery) display its "cognitive" face; P06 (cessation-attainment) displays its "concentration" face; P07 (no-more-becoming) displays its "resolution of birth-and-death" face; this paper P08 (the worthy) displays its "social legibility" face.

Five faces and one pivot: each face is a signature of one dimension of "the mastery of exhaustion," and each face turns about the one pivot of "exhaustion." The power of exhaustion is exhaustion's cognitive face (P04), no-more-becoming is exhaustion's resolution in birth-and-death (P07), the worthy is exhaustion's legibility to the world (this paper) — all signed by exhaustion. This paper's worthy is especially the gathering stroke: it connects "inner liberation" with "worldly legibility" — exhaustion (inner) → field of merit, the worthy (outer), proving mastery is not a suspended private realization but a real virtue that is legible, verifiable, and the object whence merit is generated. The whole division here is consummated: the mastery of exhaustion signs itself in the five dimensions of quality (liberation), cognition (knowledge), concentration (the attainments), death (birth-and-death), and world (the social), and the five signatures are one seal of exhaustion.

So, holding to P01's frame to the end: the worthy is the social signature of the mastery of exhaustion, the last of the whole division's signatures. Mastery is not an inner solitary light; it leaves a visible mark in the world (the field of merit, the worthy, the stūpa); and the root of this legibility is still exhaustion (seeking-nothing liberation). Inner and outer consistent, the faces one pivot — this is the knot in which The Mastery of the Arhat, the whole division, ties together: mastery takes exhaustion as its seal, exhaustion takes mastery as its aspect, the aspect and the seal not two.

⚠️ A note on level: this paper's judgment that "the worthy is mastery's social face, gathering the faces back to the single pivot of exhaustion" is established on this axis's frame ("mastery = the signature of exhaustion"). It does not claim the whole doctrine of "the field of merit and offering" (e.g. the differences in the fruit of offering, the fine classification of fields of merit, the rites of receiving offerings in the saṅgha's formal acts) is subsumed by this paper — these belong to the special topics of the theory of the field of merit and of the Vinaya; this paper takes only the one sense of "the worthy / field of merit as the social signature of the mastery of exhaustion" to gather up the division, the rest marked as-is. Further: this paper is confined to the social legibility of the arhat (the śrāvaka worthy); the Tathāgata's being an "unsurpassed field of merit" by the ten powers and four fearlessnesses belongs to the buddha-stage, the bodhisattva's sense of the field of merit to a later division, neither within this paper's range (deliberately excluded per the PLAN).

IV. Interdisciplinary Convergence

(This paper deliberately omits the interdisciplinary section; the reason is given in §VI. The structure of "an inner virtue legible outward, taken as the object by which society generates effect" does resemble modern sociology's "symbolic capital" or the "social recognition of virtue"; yet these are descriptions of worldly virtue and social exchange, while "the worthy / field of merit" hangs on "exhaustion, seeking nothing," a supramundane liberation — the root of its social legibility being precisely "seeking nothing" (a transcendence of all social exchange, all symbolic capital). To force "symbolic capital" upon "the field of merit" would invert the matter: symbolic capital is "an accumulable, exchangeable social resource," while the merit of the field of merit rests precisely on the arhat's "accumulating nothing, seeking nothing" (because exhausted). To converge them would lead the reader to take the arhat for "one who has accumulated the highest symbolic capital," precisely against his seeking-nothing liberation. Better to leave it out.)

V. Madhyamaka Corrections

❌ Misreading one: "the worthy / field of merit is an honorific the world gives the arhat (like a conferred rank), external to his liberation." 3.1 breaks this. The name "arhat" etymologically just means "the worthy" (2.1), mutually entailing in name-and-meaning — the worthy is intrinsic to the name "arhat," not added from without. The worthy is the social face of the mastery of exhaustion (the one mastery's presentation to the world), as the power of exhaustion is its cognitive face and no-more-becoming its birth-and-death face. To take the worthy for an added honorific mistakes "the outwardly legible aspect of liberation" for "a social conferral beyond liberation."

❌ Misreading two: "the arhat is a field of merit because he has a sacred quality to be extracted, or because he seeks to receive offerings." 3.2 breaks this. The merit of the field of merit is not sought by the arhat (exhausted, therefore seeking nothing; no more becoming) but generated by the world in dependence on his virtue of liberation. To seek is a taint; where taints are unexhausted there is no unsurpassed field of merit; precisely because he seeks nothing (exhausted), he is a pure, unsurpassed field of merit. The arhat, knowing himself supreme among fields of merit, cultivates non-contention (guarding others, not demanding offerings, 2.2). To take the arhat for "one who seeks to receive offerings" falsifies the virtue of exhaustion (seeking nothing) by a mind not yet exhausted (seeking).

❌ Misreading three: "being a field of merit and receiving offerings, the arhat has some worldly pursuit, not truly unconditioned." 3.2 breaks this. Receiving offerings is not pursuit: a field receives sowing yet does not demand sowing, the arhat receives offerings yet does not seek offerings. The world's offering is the world's own sowing of merit in dependence on his virtue, not the arhat's pursuit. The arhat "has crossed becoming to the unconditioned" (2.3), and in the matter of receiving offerings too is unconditioned — receiving without seeking, neither refusing nor craving. To take "receiving offerings" for "pursuit" confuses "the world's own sowing of merit" with "the arhat's seeking."

⚠️ Correction four: this paper is confined to the one sense of "the worthy as the social signature of the mastery of exhaustion" and does not subsume the whole theory of the field of merit and the Vinaya. This paper takes the worthy / field of merit to gather up the division (mastery's social face); as to the differences in the fruit of offering, the fine classification of fields of merit, the rites of receiving offerings, which belong to the special topics of the theory of the field of merit and the Vinaya, this paper does not unfold. Further, this paper is confined to the social legibility of the śrāvaka arhat; the senses of the field of merit at the buddha-stage and of the bodhisattva are deliberately excluded per the PLAN, not within this paper. The reader should not take this paper as a full treatise on the doctrine of the field of merit — it establishes only its one sense as "the social signature of the mastery of exhaustion."

VI. Conclusion

Restatement. The worthy is the social signature of the mastery of exhaustion. The name "arhat" etymologically just means "the worthy," mutually entailing in name-and-meaning — the worthy is intrinsic to the arhat, not an honorific added from without, but the social face of the mastery of exhaustion (3.1). The merit of the field of merit is not sought by the arhat but generated by the world in dependence on his virtue of liberation (the adept's morality-concentration-wisdom-liberation, crossing birth-and-death, the three poisons exhausted); seeking-nothing is not a defect of the field of merit but precisely the cause of its purity and unsurpassedness (because exhausted, seeking nothing; seeking nothing, therefore a pure field of merit), and the arhat, knowing himself supreme among fields of merit, cultivates non-contention to guard others (3.2). The worthy is the last of mastery's faces, and like the prior faces returns to the single pivot of exhaustion: mastery signs itself in the five dimensions of quality, cognition, concentration, death, and world, and the five signatures are one seal of exhaustion (3.3). Holding to P01's frame: the exhaustion of taints is mastery, mastery takes exhaustion as its seal, and its social face presents as the worthy — inner liberation, legible to the world.

Practice guidance. What the practitioner should understand about "the worthy / field of merit" is not the demand "to become an arhat so as to receive the world's offerings and esteem" (which approaches a seeking-nothing fruit with a seeking mind, self-contradictory, falling into taint), nor the one-sidedness "receiving offerings is pursuit, so shun the world and refuse all offerings to keep pure" (which takes receiving offerings for defilement, generating grasping-and-rejecting). The right understanding: the virtue of the field of merit rests on seeking-nothing liberation — when one works toward "exhaustion, seeking nothing" (severing greed-hatred-delusion, no more becoming), the virtue rounded, the aspect of the field of merit manifests of itself, and the world generates merit in dependence on it, not by one's own contriving. In the matter of receiving offerings, learn the arhat's unconditionedness: receiving without seeking, neither craving nor refusing, like a good field receiving sowing without demanding it. Especially imitate the arhat's mind of "supreme among fields of merit yet cultivating non-contention" — if one has some self-knowledge in one's realization, let it issue in "guarding others against arousing defilement with oneself as object" (benefiting others, humble withdrawal), not "exalting oneself to receive offerings" (benefiting oneself, the conceit of self). Thus "the worthy" becomes not the stuff of self-conceit but a deed of non-contention and benefiting others.

Carrying the axis forward (the whole-division gathering). This is the closing paper of The Mastery of the Arhat, and the whole division is here consummated. The whole axis takes P01's "the exhaustion of taints is mastery" as its frame (the arhat is a mode of being free, not one who finished a task), and the subsequent seven papers unfold this mastery's faces one by one, all returning to the single pivot of exhaustion: P02–03 the two liberations of mind and wisdom (quality), P04–05 the three knowledges and six powers (cognition), P06 cessation-attainment (concentration), P07 no-more-becoming (death), P08 the worthy (world). Five dimensions, one exhaustion: each face is a signature of the mastery of exhaustion, each signature turning about the one seal of exhaustion. This paper, by "the worthy," connects inner and outer (inner liberation → worldly legibility), proving mastery is not a suspended private realization but a real virtue legible and to-be-depended-on — the knot of the whole division is here: mastery takes exhaustion as its seal, exhaustion takes mastery as its aspect, the aspect and the seal not two. The Mastery of the Arhat (Division 1 of the Attainment axis) is here complete. Its subsequent two divisions — The Mastery of the Bodhisattva (the mastery of the immeasurable twin requisites), The Mastery of the Tathāgata (the ten masteries) — are, per the PLAN, to follow, not conflated with this division's śrāvaka arhat-mastery (the doctrinal dispute of "turning the lesser toward the great" deliberately excluded), each to open within its own division.

Open questions. First, this paper is confined to the one sense of "the worthy as social signature" and does not subsume the whole theory of the field of merit (the differences in the fruit of offering, the fine classification of fields of merit); these belong to the special topics of the theory of the field of merit and the Vinaya, awaiting a special study. Second, this paper cuts §IV (the field of merit is only superficially like symbolic capital, indeed inverted); whether "the social legibility mirrored by seeking-nothing liberation," distinct in kind from all "accumulable, exchangeable symbolic capital," admits a positively constructible deep structure, is left to a later paper. Third, the similarities and differences of the sense of "mastery" in this division (the arhat's mastery) and the subsequent two divisions (the bodhisattva's, the Tathāgata's) — how the arhat's supramundane mastery, the bodhisattva's twin-requisite mastery, and the Tathāgata's ten masteries are to be distinguished under the one sense of "mastery" without either usurping the other — lies beyond this division's range, to be viewed together when the Attainment axis's subsequent two divisions are unfolded (per the PLAN, this division does not adjudicate across divisions).

Notes

References

Primary Buddhist Sources

Saṃyukta-āgama (雜阿含經). Trans. Guṇabhadra. T02, no. 0099. (Fasc. 33, the adept's four virtues as the unsurpassed field of merit.)
Madhyama-āgama (中阿含經). Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. T01, no. 0026. (Fasc. 30, the Field-of-Merit, the division of trainee/adept field-of-merit persons; the recollecting-the-community section, the fivefold dharma-body as the world's good field of merit.)
Ekottarika-āgama (增壹阿含經). Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. T02, no. 0125. (Fasc. 12, the Three Offerings, the three worthy listed together, liberation as the cause of the field of merit; fasc. 49, the taint-exhausted arhat worthy that a stūpa be raised.)
Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya (阿毘達磨俱舍論). By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. T29, no. 1558. (Fasc. 24, the arhat's etymology = the worthy; fasc. 27, non-contention, the arhat supreme among fields of merit.)

Modern Scholarship

(This paper cites no modern scholarship; its argument rests entirely on the Buddhist canon, in the open-source spirit of "returning to the source." The interdisciplinary section having been cut, there is no associated modern literature.)

Sūtra & Śāstra Index

Citation	Source	CBETA id
The arhat's etymological sense = worthy of the offerings of all the defiled (the worthy)	Kośa, fasc. 24	T29n1558_p0126c28
The three worthy listed together (the Tathāgata · the taint-exhausted arhat · the wheel-turning monarch)	Ekottarika-āgama, fasc. 12	T02n0125_p0607a04
The adept's morality-concentration-wisdom-liberation as the world's unsurpassed field of merit	Saṃyukta-āgama, fasc. 33	T02n0099_p0234a12
Field-of-merit persons divided into trainee/adept · the arhat subsumed under the adept field of merit	Madhyama-āgama, fasc. 30	T01n0026_p0616a10
The arhat knows himself supreme among fields of merit · therefore cultivates non-contention	Kośa, fasc. 27	T29n1558_p0141c25
The causal chain liberation → field of merit → the worthy (a world's field of merit by crossing birth-and-death, the three poisons exhausted)	Ekottarika-āgama, fasc. 12	T02n0125_p0607a14
The taint-exhausted arhat worthy that a stūpa be raised (the world's good-and-protective field of merit)	Ekottarika-āgama, fasc. 49	T02n0125_p0816c01
Accomplishment of the fivefold dharma-body, worthy of being honored and offered to, the world's good field of merit	Madhyama-āgama, fasc. 30	T01n0026_p0616c26

Series Cross-Reference Index

ARHAT-P01, "The Exhaustion of Taints Is Mastery" §3.3: this paper holds to P01's frame in gathering up the whole division — the worthy is mastery's social face, returning with the other faces to the single pivot of exhaustion. P01 sets the frame (the exhaustion of taints is mastery), this paper's 3.3 gathers it (five dimensions, one seal of exhaustion, the aspect and the seal not two).
ARHAT-P07, "The Doctrine of No-More-Becoming" (the part's prior paper): this paper's 2.3, "the taint-exhausted arhat, crossing birth-and-death, no more becoming, is therefore a world's field of merit," directly continues P07 — P07 treats the inward resolution of mastery (no more becoming, the bond of birth-and-death exhausted), this paper the outward legibility of mastery (the worthy, the field of merit); P07's inner realization (no more becoming) is precisely the cause of this paper's social signature (the field of merit) (Ekottarika C1 plainly: a world's field of merit because of no-more-becoming and the three poisons exhausted).
ARHAT-P04, "Exhaustion as the Pivot" §3.3 and P05, "Supernormal Powers Are Not Mastery" §3.3: this paper's 3.2 "the merit of the field of merit rests on seeking-nothing (because exhausted, seeking nothing)" is one with P04–05's "mastery is not in supernormal power (a worldly-shared competence)" — the virtue of the field of merit hangs on the real virtue of liberation (seeking nothing), not the marvelous or outer mark; to take the marvelous as the ground of the field of merit is a transformation, in the field-of-merit domain, of P05's broken "taking powers for mastery."
ARHAT-P06, "Cessation-Attainment" §3.3: this paper's 3.1 "the worthy is mastery's social face (a dimension of the one mastery)" is on the same principle as P06's "cessation-attainment is a face of concentrative mastery" — mastery has several faces (concentration, cognition, death, world), each face a dimension of the one mastery, all turning about the pivot of exhaustion, not separate things.
★ The whole-division gathering: this is the closing paper of The Mastery of the Arhat (Division 1 of the Attainment axis). The whole division's eight papers across five parts take P01's "the exhaustion of taints is mastery" as frame, P02–P08 unfolding the faces of the two liberations of mind and wisdom, the three knowledges and six powers, cessation-attainment, no-more-becoming, and the worthy, all returning to the single pivot of exhaustion. The subsequent divisions, The Mastery of the Bodhisattva and The Mastery of the Tathāgata, are per the PLAN to follow, not within this division's range.

Paper: ARHAT-P08 · 應供 · The Mastery of the Arhat · Part 5 · The Worthy and No-More-Becoming Author: 釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing) · Project: 指月 / Pointing-at-the-Moon · Series: The Attainment Signatures（證自在簽名） License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 CBETA collation: 全文引用均依 CBETA 電子佛典核校（《雜阿含經》T0099、《中阿含經》T0026、《增壹阿含經》T0125、《阿毘達磨俱舍論》T1558）。Pāli 引文採 PTS reference 雙軌標示（vault 未收者俟後補）。 Repository: https://github.com/pointing-at-the-moon/attainment-signatures

Footnotes

Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 24 (Chapter on the Noble Persons, part 3), T29n1558_p0126c28. "Because this one alone is to do the work of others, and because he is worthy of the offerings of all the defiled, on this sense the name 'arhat' is established." Taking "worthy of the offerings of all the defiled (the worthy)" as the etymological sense by which the name "arhat" is established. By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. ↩
Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 12 (Chapter on the Three Offerings), T02n0125_p0607a04. "There are three persons worthy of the world's offerings … the Tathāgata … the taint-exhausted arhat … the wheel-turning sage-king." The taint-exhausted arhat listed with the Tathāgata and the wheel-turning monarch as one of the worthy. Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. ↩
Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 33 (sūtra 921), T02n0099_p0234a12. "A good man accomplished in four virtues … the unsurpassed field of merit. What four? Accomplished in the adept's body of morality, of concentration, of wisdom, of liberation." The adept's virtue of morality-concentration-wisdom-liberation as the unsurpassed field of merit. Trans. Guṇabhadra. ↩
Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 30 (Great chapter, the Field-of-Merit), T01n0026_p0616a10. "In the world there are two kinds of field-of-merit person … the trainee and the adept. The trainees are eighteen, the adepts nine." Field-of-merit persons divided into trainee/adept, the arhat subsumed under the adept field of merit (nine). Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. The XML gloss marks ～Dakkhiṇeyya. ↩
Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 27 (Chapter on Knowledge, part 2, non-contention), T29n1558_p0141c25. "Non-contention means: the arhat, observing that the suffering of beings arises from defilement, knowing his own person to be supreme among fields of merit, fearing that others' defilement might arise again with himself as object, deliberately arouses such an aspect of knowledge." The arhat, knowing himself supreme among fields of merit, cultivates non-contention to guard others. ↩
Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 12 (Chapter on the Three Offerings), T02n0125_p0607a14. "The taint-exhausted arhat, because he has crossed the source of birth-and-death, no more receives becoming … lust-anger-delusion exhausted … is the world's field of merit. By this causation, root and branch, the taint-exhausted arhat is worthy of the world's offerings." The causal chain liberation → field of merit → the worthy. ↩
Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 49 (the section on raising a stūpa), T02n0125_p0816c01. "The taint-exhausted arhat monk, his lust for sensuality exhausted, anger and delusion removed, having crossed becoming to the unconditioned, is the world's good-and-protective field of merit; by this causation, for the taint-exhausted arhat a stūpa should be raised." The social sign of liberation, worthy that a stūpa be raised and offerings made. ↩
Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 30 (Great chapter, the section on recollecting the community), T01n0026_p0616c26. "The Tathāgata's community is accomplished in morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, the knowledge-and-vision of liberation; worthy of reverence and esteem, worthy of being honored and offered to, the world's good field of merit." The noble community, by accomplishment of the fivefold dharma-body, worthy of being honored and offered to, the world's good field of merit. ↩