Icchantika

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Key Term	icchantika
In Tibetan Script	འདོད་ཆེན་; འདོད་ཆེན་པོ་
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	'dod chen; 'dod chen po
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	इच्छन्तिक
Romanized Sanskrit	icchantika
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	döchen; döchenpo
Sanskrit Phonetic Rendering	ichantika
Chinese Script	一闡提
Chinese Pinyin	yī chǎn tí
Japanese Transliteration	issendai
English Standard	incorrigibles
Dan Martin's English Term	Those who are incapable of entering the Path.
Term Type	Noun
Source Language	Sanskrit
Basic Meaning	Literally, "those with great desire," icchantikas could be rendered as hedonists or addicts. However, the term is generally used to refer to those who, due to their insatiable desire, are incapable of enlightenment.
Has the Sense of	Individuals who are so consumed by their desires or by a particular lifestyle that they would never even consider the need for self-improvement. Therefore, they have no interest in following any spiritual path, let alone the path to liberation.
Did you know?	This was a somewhat controversial subject, especially in relation to the tathāgatagarbha teachings that state "all beings have buddha-nature." Whether icchantikas are forever excluded from liberation or that they might eventually change their ways and thus become capable of entering the path is therefore a point of contention.
Definitions
Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism	See page 370: In Sanskrit, “incorrigibles”; a term used in the Mahāyāna tradition to refer to a class of beings who have lost all potential to achieve enlightenment or buddhahood. The term seems to derive from the present participle icchant (desiring), and may be rendered loosely into English as something like “hedonist” or “dissipated” (denotations suggested in theTibetan rendering 'dod chen (po), “subject to great desire”). (The Sinographs are simply a transcription of the Sanskrit.)

Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)."

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.