Why Bodhisattvas Are Never Formally Named Stream-Enterers

T1606 explains that each of these three labels carries a specific, narrow implication the bodhisattva's own path deliberately does not fit. A stream-enterer, by definition, follows a single-minded, exclusive trajectory oriented toward that vehicle's own final release — but a bodhisattva has instead attained the non-abiding path already examined throughout this treatise's account of the Mahāyāna, remaining fully engaged with saṃsāra rather than moving exclusively toward personal exit from it, and so the term simply does not apply, even though the underlying direct realization is genuinely shared. A once-returner is defined by the specific limitation of taking, at most, one further rebirth in the desire realm before final release — but a bodhisattva deliberately takes on countless further existences, precisely in order to continue benefiting beings, and so exceeds this limitation entirely rather than falling short of it. And a non-returner is defined by having permanently left the desire realm behind, remaining always at or above the level of dhyāna — but a bodhisattva who has already mastered dhyāna and could remain there instead deliberately returns to the desire realm again and again, exactly as already examined in Part 93's account of the bodhisattva of the desire and form realms, since the desire realm is where beings still most need direct guidance.

T1606 explains the underlying logic here: a bodhisattva's own path of cultivation across the ten grounds is dedicated specifically to overcoming the cognitive obstruction — the subtle obscuration to complete knowledge that even a liberated arhat has not yet removed — because the afflictive obstruction, though not yet formally and permanently severed, has already been rendered functionally inert by that same bodhisattva's advanced realization. It is precisely this image — a genuinely dangerous poison, still present in substance, but rendered entirely harmless by a counteracting spell — that explains how a bodhisattva can, in every practical respect, already conduct themselves exactly like an arhat throughout the ten grounds, all the while formally retaining, rather than yet severing, the very affliction an arhat has already permanently removed. Both obstructions are then severed together, in a single decisive stroke, at the very moment of complete awakening itself — the same moment that makes a bodhisattva, in that instant, both an arhat and a Tathāgata at once.