"Liberation by Wisdom" (paññā-vimutti)

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Terms; Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Paññā-vimutti means "liberation by wisdom" or "deliverance through understanding."

It signifies, according to the Commentary to A.V, 142, the wisdom associated with the fruition of full enlightenment (arahatta-phala).

In Pug. 31 and similarly in MN 70, it states:

"A meditator may not have reached for oneself the eight liberations (jhānas, meditative absorptions, meditations) but through wisdom the cankers have come to extinction. Such a person is called wisdom-liberated (paññā-vimutta)."

The Commentary to Pug. further states: "One may be one of five persons:

1. either a practitioner of bare insight (sukkha-vipassako) or one who has attained to full enlightenment after rising from one of the absorptions." See S. XII, 7.

The term is often linked with ceto-vimutti or "deliverance of mind."