A Simile of Nibbāna (Enlightenment)

Sāriputta, I understand Nibbāna (Enlightenment), and the path and way leading to Nibbāna (Enlightenment). And I also understand how one who has entered this path will, by realizing for himself with direct knowledge (experience), here and now enter upon and reside in the liberation of mind and liberation by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints (fetters).

Suppose there were a pond with clean, agreeable, cool water, transparent, with smooth banks, delightful, and nearby a dense wood; and then a man scorched and exhausted by hot weather, weary, parched, and thirsty, came by a path going in one way only towards that same pond. Then a man with good sight on seeing him would say: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path, that he will come to this same pond; and then later on he sees that he has plunged into the pond, bathed, drunk, and relieved all his distress, fatigue, and fever and has come out again and is sitting or lying in the woods experiencing exclusively peaceful feelings.

So too, by encompassing mind with mind I understand a certain person thus: This person so behaves, so conducts himself, has taken such a path that by realizing for himself with direct knowledge (experience), he here and now will enter upon and reside in the liberation of mind and liberation by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints.

And then later on I see that by realizing for himself with direct knowledge (experience), he here and now enters upon and resides in the liberation of mind by wisdom that are taintless with the destruction of the taints, and is experiencing an exclusively peaceful mental state.

(Reference: MN 12)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares how the mind of one who has attained Enlightenment will experience an “exclusively peaceful mental state”.

To attain Enlightenment, a Practitioner will need to eliminate all of The Ten Fetters.