RE: The Early Schools of Indian Buddhism Series
I was raised as a Theravada Buddhist and this post was fairly accurate, however, the definition of a Bodhisattva isn't totally accurate according to the india tradition. A Bodhisattva is the term used to describe a being who will become a Buddha in a following life, more specifically it is used to describe Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) in his previous lives. Also, it is true that an Arhat (Arahanth) is a being that attains nirvana (enlightenment and ends their cycle of suffering and rebirth upon their death) and a Buddha is an Arhat/Arahanth, because they also end their cycle as well upon death. The difference is that the Buddha teaches and helps others to get on the path to Nirvana. Basically the definition you used for a Bodhisattva is the definition we use for a Buddha and a Bodhisattva is this person in his previous live.
The Bodhisattva (Sanskrit), Bodhisatta (Pali) is on the Bhumi path to becoming a Buddha, depending on the Bodhisattva's path becoming a Buddha takes many, many lifetimes. The Bodhisattva path in Mahayana main text is the Prajnaparamita, which is my favorite sutra! I wrote the ten Bhumis and attainments of the Mahayana Bodhisattva linked at the bottom of this article @shihabiee. My first Buddhist teacher is a Monk from Korea and I took the Bodhisattva vow after six months of study. Sunim could read and write in Pali and Sanskrit. I was taught from the Pali Cannon before I began reading the Prajnaparamita. Sunim said I was suited for Vipassana meditation not Zen meditation the school he was from. That's how I met my first meditation teacher SN Goenka who taught laypeople. He was from Burma and has passed away a few years ago. I was able to meet him and serve at a ten-day retreat back in the late 1990s. Over the years I have done many vipassana retreats with assistant teachers. I started studying Dzogchen with Vajrayana teachers back in 2003 and have learned the Tibetan system a little bit. The teachings from Tibet are vast, I picked Dzogchen and Chod as my main areas of study.