I’ll answer in three parts, using core Jain concepts: 1) the “experiential gap” at keval‑jñān and mokṣa 2) discipline vs. “letting go” of perfectionism 3) what actually changes in an enlightened being’s behavior

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1. The experiential gap – sudden or gradual?

In Jainism there are two key thresholds:

1. Keval‑jñān (omniscience) – complete destruction of the four ghātī karmas (those that block knowledge, perception, conduct, and energy). The person is now Arihant / Kevalī, still embodied.
2. Mokṣa – at death, when all remaining karmas are destroyed. The soul becomes Siddha, bodiless, in Siddhaśilā.

From the Jain side, “what it feels like” can only be described very indirectly, because scriptures say:

• The experience is ananta jñān, ananta darśan, ananta sukha, ananta vīrya – infinite knowledge, perception, bliss, and energy.
• This state is said to be beyond comparison with ordinary pleasures or experiences.

Sudden vs gradual

From the Jain karmic model:

• Purification is gradual: through right faith, knowledge, and conduct, and through austerities and inner purification, karma is thinned and destroyed step by step.
• But keval‑jñān itself is a “cutting point”: at one precise moment, the last particles of the obstructing karmas are destroyed, and omniscience arises fully and at once.

So in Jain terms:

• The path is gradual.
• The attainment of omniscience is sudden: when the last veil goes, everything is known, without remainder.

For mokṣa (final liberation):

• At the exact moment of death of an omniscient Arihant, the last nondestructive karmas fall away and the soul instantly rises to Siddhaśilā and remains in unchanging bliss.
• There is no intermediate, fluctuating state after that.

Jain texts don’t dwell on subjective “feelings” in a modern psychological sense; they speak more in ontological terms: what karmas are gone, what powers manifest.

You can read a very simple explanation of mokṣa and keval‑jñān here: You can read more here

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2. Discipline vs. letting go of perfectionism – what actually liberates?

Your Buddhism question translates nicely into Jain language.

In Jainism, liberation comes through:

• Samyak darśan – right faith / right worldview
• Samyak jñān – right knowledge
• Samyak chāritra – right conduct

together called Ratnatraya (Three Jewels).

Role of discipline

Jainism is very clear:

• You cannot reach liberation by “just relaxing effort” while remaining in mithyātva (wrong belief) and kashāya (passions).
• Rigorous discipline (vows, restraint, meditation, austerities, truthfulness, non‑violence, non‑attachment) directly reduces and destroys karma.

So, Jainism would say:

• Without discipline, no true inner freedom.
• Discipline is not merely a support; it is structurally part of the path that actually burns karmic matter.

But what about “grip” and perfectionism?

Jain texts also warn against māna (ego/pride), loka‑saṅga (concern with how the world sees you), māyā (deception), etc.

If “trying to be perfect” is driven by:

• pride (“I must be the best ascetic”),
• attachment (wanting status, praise, spiritual reputation), or
• fear/aversion,

then that very inner grip is mohanīya karma in action (deluding karma), and it blocks real progress.

So, from a Jain perspective:

• Liberation comes through right, ego‑free discipline.
• At advanced stages, one lets go of the subtle ego of being a “doer” or “achiever,” while outwardly continuing very precise conduct.
• The practices remain, but the inner ownership and agitation drop. Actions become more and more a spontaneous expression of a purified soul, not a tense project of the ego.

So if we put it in your language:

• It’s not “discipline OR release”;
• It’s discipline purified of egoic clinging.
• You still follow vows minutely, but with deep equanimity (samatā), not anxious perfectionism.

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3. What gets left behind? How does an enlightened Jain relate to the world?

Here we mainly mean the Arihant / Kevalī (omniscient, but still in a body).

3.1 What karmically changes

At keval‑jñān, four ghātī karmas are gone:

1. Knowledge‑obscuring
2. Perception‑obscuring
3. Deluding (passion‑creating, wrong‑belief creating)
4. Obstructive (that blocks energy, generosity, etc.)

As a result:

• No wrong belief ever again.
• No kashāya (anger, pride, deceit, greed) at all.
• No inner conflict or confusion.
• Infinite, errorless knowing and seeing of all substances and their modes.

Other karmas (like life‑span, body‑making, status, feeling) may remain until physical death, so the Arihant still appears human.

3.2 Behaviorally, what is different?

From outside, you don’t see “magic tricks” so much as purity, stability, and total non‑violence.

Some key points:

1. They still act and make choices.

- They walk, sit, teach, accept alms, observe discipline. - But their choices are not driven by passion, hatred, or attachment. Choice is a pure expression of perfectly clear knowledge and total compassion, not a struggle.

1. They are free from emotional disturbances as we know them.

- No anger, jealousy, ego‑hurt, depression, craving. - Jain texts describe total equanimity (samatā). - Compassion is there, but it is vitarāga‑dayā: compassion without attachment or inner turmoil.

1. No new bondage‑creating action.

- They may appear to act, but new karmic bondage does not arise, because there is no passion, no delusion behind the action. - This is the state of vitarāga – completely beyond attachment and aversion.

1. Relation to pleasure and pain of the body.

- Heat, cold, hunger, insult, even physical violence may still happen to the body (because of past karmas). - The Kevalī’s inner state remains unshaken; there is awareness but no reactive suffering in the way we experience it.

1. How they move through life.

- With utter simplicity, complete harmlessness, and unbroken awareness. - Their speech (divya‑dhvani, in the idealized description) is flawlessly truthful, beneficial, and non‑hurtful. - They live out the remaining span of life like a lamp that continues to burn steadily until its oil is finished, without any new smoke being created.

3.3 After death – the Siddha

When that Arihant dies:

• All remaining karma is destroyed.
• The soul instantly becomes a Siddha:

- No body - No movement - No doing, no reacting - Only eternal existence in pure knowing and bliss

After this point there is no “behavior” or “relation to the world” in our ordinary sense at all.

For simple descriptions of what happens in mokṣa and after mokṣa, see: You can read more here and here

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Bringing it together with your questions

• Experiential gap: Gradual purification, but a definite, sudden breakthrough at omniscience and at final liberation. Language about “what it feels like” is minimal; instead Jainism speaks in terms of which karmas are gone and what powers manifest.
• Role of doubt and searching:

- Jainism values rigorous, precise practice, but only when rooted in right faith and free from egoic grasping. - “Letting go” means dropping pride, fear, and possessiveness around practice, not relaxing vows or effort.

• What changes in an enlightened being:

- From the outside: a life of flawless non‑violence, total equanimity, and steady compassion, still engaging in simple actions, but without passion or new bondage. - From the inside (as doctrine describes): all‑knowing, all‑seeing, utterly peaceful awareness, untouched by mental disturbance.