This is the difference between a Realized One, a perfected one, a fully awakened Buddha, and a mendicant freed by wisdom.

The Buddha declares that a mendicant is freed by wisdom by non-attachment to the aggregates, in just the same way as he himself. He then explains that the difference between himself and another awakened mendicant is simply that he was the first to discover the path and teach it to others.

Mendicants, when a mendicant’s mind has been well consolidated with wisdom it’s appropriate for them to say: ‘I understand…’

Nine reflections by which a mendicant knows their mind has wisdom.

With the fading away of ignorance and the arising of true knowledge, ‘I am’ does not occur to him; ‘I am this’ does not occur to him; ‘I will be’ and ‘I will not be’…

When you identify anything as self, you always identify one or another of the five aggregates.

Bhikkhus, this body is not yours, nor does it belong to others. It is old kamma, to be seen as generated and fashioned by volition, as something to be felt.

Is this venerable one restrained without fear, not restrained by fear, and does he avoid indulging in sensual pleasures because he is without lust through the destruction of lust?

The Buddha gives a thorough and exacting method for those who wish to investigate his qualifications as a spiritual teacher.

[He] who is released through right gnosis often dwells with a mind well-established in these four establishings of mindfulness.

Sāriputta asks why Anuruddha looks so bright, and he replies that it is due to developing the four kinds of mindfulness meditation, explaining that (and demonstrating why) even Arahants continue to practice the Four Satipaṭṭhāna.

someone who has gained a footing
and stands on dry land
need not strive

Dāmali the god suggests that a true brahmin must strive to abandon desire. The Buddha disagrees, saying that a true brahmin already has.

In a dramatic continuation of the story, Ven. Vakkali is then taken to the Black Rock on Isigili, where he declares that he has no attachment to the aggregates and proceeds to take his own life.

Now on that occasion the following pernicious view had arisen in a bhikkhu named Yamaka: “As I understand the Dhamma taught by the Blessed One, a bhikkhu whose taints are destroyed is annihilated and perishes with the breakup of the body and does not exist after death.”

Convinced by the Venerable Sāriputta that the aggregates are already not-self, Yamaka lets go of his mistaken view and sees the Dhamma.

Sensual search, the search for being,
The search for a holy life …

But those who have abandoned craving…

The three cravings and what it’s like to be beyond their grasp.

And they live having realized it with their own insight due to the ending of defilements. But they don’t have direct meditative experience of the eight liberations. That’s how a person is a white lotus ascetic.

The confirmed ascetic, the white lotus ascetic, the pink lotus ascetic, and the refined ascetic of ascetics.

… four things are born of love and hate

And how to not be burned by them.

… why bother a renunciate?

When a mendicant falls asleep in the middle of the day, a deity tries to rouse them. But not all is at it seems.

… the Nikāyas do not see Nibbāna as a form of consciousness, including such exceptional kinds of consciousness as anidassana viññāṇa and appatiṭṭhita viññāṇa. Nor can Nibbāna be regarded as equivalent to mind, or any particular state of mind.

Nibbāna isn’t something you accidentally fall into: it’s the culmination of intense, deliberate renunciation.

The book includes detailed descriptions of the qualia of the different stages of enlightenment, along with the insights and practices relevant to each stage. Far from a technical manual though, this book is a hugely inspiring and approachable series of straightforward conversations. A beginning practitioner will benefit immensely from hearing how possible enlightenment is, but it is the most advanced practitioners (think: sakadāgāmī / anāgāmī already) who will reap the highest reward from Arahattamagga: Arahattaphala.

… sensual pleasures are time-consuming, full of suffering and despair, and the danger in them is greater still

A deva tried to convince a young monk to enjoy sensual pleasures and the Buddha rebukes the angel with a series of verses explaining that this young monk is already an arahant.

Reverend Sāriputta, what things should an ethical mendicant properly attend to?

Mahākoṭṭhita asks and Sāriputta replies that if they focus on the aggregates as impermanent, etc. they may become a stream-enterer.

They focus on the cessation of identification, and their mind is eager, confident, settled, and decided about it. You’d expect that mendicant to stop identifying.

A rare sutta about cessation attainment and the final leap.