The Standard of Liberation of Mind (Cetovimutti)

When the first dhyāna manifests, no matter what circumstances the external world brings, no matter how others treat you, afflictions will not arise in the mind. Although you may sometimes feel sad, that is only on the surface and cannot enter the depths of the mind. At that time the mind is like a wall of bronze and iron—nothing enters from outside, nothing leaks out from within; external humiliation cannot truly touch the inner mind, and the mind has a layer of protective film. This state is called "afflictions cannot invade the mind; the mind does not give rise to afflictions." This is the state described in the Āgama sūtras: the mind being at ease, the mind attaining liberation.

Cultivating to this point, one will benefit life after life. Therefore, before the second fruit, the mind is neither at ease nor liberated, because it is bound up with the afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion. Liberation of mind is centered on the manas: only when the manas is replete with greed, hatred, and delusion does it drive the six consciousnesses to create karmic actions of greed, hatred, and delusion. The mind consciousness is even more liberated, and the first five consciousnesses are also liberated—the eye does not crave forms, and the five consciousnesses do not crave forms, sounds, smells, tastes, or tangibles. As long as the manas, the seventh consciousness, has eliminated the view of self, there is a portion of the merit and benefit of liberation; after self-grasping is eliminated, one is completely liberated from the bondage of the worldly dharmas of the three realms and has the ability to extinguish oneself—that is the state of the third- and fourth-fruit arhats, who at the end of life have the ability to attain liberation from the three realms. True liberation of mind is the fourth fruit: conceit is fully severed, the five higher fetters are all cut off, and one can personally verify that one will have no further becoming.