Icchantika
Icchantika'
一闡提 (Skt; Jpn issendai ) One who has no interest in the path to Awakening, or one whose good roots are completely covered.
A person of incorrigible disbelief. Icchantika means one who is filled with desires or cravings. Originally icchantika meant a hedonist or one who cherishes only secular values. In Buddhism, the term came to mean those who neither believe in Buddhism nor aspire for enlightenment and therefore have no prospect of attaining Buddhahood. Many sutras say that icchantikas are inherently and forever incapable of reaching enlightenment, but some sutras hold that even icchantikas can become Buddhas. This discrepancy concerning the potential of such people to attain enlightenment became a source of considerable debate among Buddhist schools over the centuries.The term icchantika also refers to one who slanders the correct teaching of the Buddha and does not repent and rectify the error. The Nirvana Sutra translated by Dharmaraksha says: "Chunda spoke once more, asking, 'What is the meaning of the term icchantika ?' The Buddha said: 'Chunda, suppose there should be monks or nuns, laymen or laywomen who speak careless and evil words and slander the correct teaching, and that they should go on committing these grave acts without ever showing any inclination to reform or any sign of repentance in their hearts. Persons of this kind I would say are following the path of the icchantika. Again there may be those who commit the four grave offenses or are guilty of the five cardinal sins, and who, though aware that they are guilty of serious faults, from the beginning have no trace of fear or contrition in their hearts or, if they do, give no outward sign of it. When it comes to the correct teaching, they show no inclination to protect, treasure, and establish it over the ages, but rather speak of it with malice and contempt, their words replete with error. Persons of this kind too I would say are following the path of the icchantika.'" It also says, "Good man, there are icchantikas, or persons of incorrigible disbelief. They pretend to be Arhats, living in deserted places and speaking slanderously of the correct and equal sutras of the great vehicle. When ordinary people see them, they all suppose that they are true Arhats and speak of them as great Bodhisattvas."
In this sense, icchantika refers not simply to those who have no exposure to or interest in Buddhism, but to those who feign Buddhist faith and understanding for self-serving ends. The Nirvana Sutra, however, says, "All living beings alike possess the Buddha nature," thus revealing that icchantikas can also attain Buddhahood. The Lotus Sutra says, "At the start I [the Buddha) took a vow, hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us, and what I long ago hoped for has now been fulfilled." In this sutra, Devadatta, who symbolizes the icchantika, is assured of becoming a Buddha in the future.
The [[icchantika] is, according to some Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, the most base and spiritually deluded of all types of being. The term implies being given over to total hedonism and greed. In the Tathagatagarbha Sutras, some of which pay particular attention to the icchantikas, the term is frequently used of those persons who do not believe in the Buddha, his eternal Selfhood and his Dharma (Truth) or in Karma; who seriously transgress against the Buddhist moral codes and Vinaya; and who speak disparagingly and dismissively of the reality of the immortal Buddha-nature (Buddha-dhatu) or (essentially the same thing) the Tathagatagarbha present within all beings (including icchantikas themselves, though it is more hidden from their consciousness than in other individuals due to the massive accretions of sinfulness and delusion which conceal it from their sight).
The two shortest versions of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra - one translated by Fa-xian, and the other a middle-length Tibetan version of the sutra - indicate that the icchantika has so totally severed all his/her roots of goodness that he/she can never attain liberation and nirvana. The full-length Dharmakshema version of the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, in contrast, insists that even the icchantika can eventually find release into nirvana, since no phenomenon is fixed (including this type of allegedly deluded person) and that change for the better and best is always a possibility. Other scriptures (such as The Lankavatara Sutra) indicate that the icchantikas will be saved through the liberational power of the Buddha - who, it is claimed, will never abandon any being.
Acchantika and Atyantika
Besides Icchantika, according to some Mahayana Buddhist scriptures there are Acchantika (阿闡底迦) and Atyantika (阿顛底迦). Acchantika are Bodhisattvas who refuse to attain nirvana yet. Atyantika are sentient beings lack the characteristics of nirvana and would never attain nirvana
Asanga's works like Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra classified sentient beings into Gotrastha (住種姓) and Agotrastha (住無種姓) Pudgala (補特伽羅). The Agotrastha Pudgala are said to never attain nirvana.
