There is Nothing Like Experience

Ideas and notions, Direct experience, reality, Buddha's Teachings

Let us use an example that is easy to understand, of a tangerine or a durian fruit.
If there is a person who has never eaten a tangerine or a durian fruit, however many images or metaphors you give him, you cannot describe to him the reality of those fruits.

You can only do one thing: give him a direct experience. You cannot say: "Well, the durian is a little bit like the jackfruit or like a papaya." You cannot say anything that will describe the experience of a durian fruit.
The durian fruit goes beyond all ideas and notions. The same is true of a tangerine. If you have never eaten a tangerine, however much the other person loves you and wants to help you understand what a tangerine tastes like, they will never succeed by describing it.

The reality of the tangerine goes beyond ideas.

Nirvana is the same; it is the reality that goes beyond ideas.
It is because we have ideas about nirvana that we suffer. Direct experience is the only way.

~Thich Nhat Hanh