Core tenet of Theravāda
The arhat completes the path.
Liberation is won individually — the noble person who has done what needed doing.
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
The arhat — one who has ended the defilements and will not be reborn — is Theravada's completed human being, and the Mahayana critique that this is a lesser, self-interested goal is the oldest live argument in Buddhism. The Theravada reply is that an arhat is by definition free of self-interest, so the charge misdescribes the attainment. The disagreement is genuinely about what liberation is for, and neither side has conceded in two thousand years.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
Suffering has a cause, and therefore an end.
Buddhism
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Every soul is already omniscient.
Jainism
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Liberation happens while you are alive.
Sikhism
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Knowledge liberates.
Advaita Vedānta
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The twenty-two years were a classroom.
Heaven's Gate · story
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Liberation can be engineered.
Aum Shinrikyo
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