Understanding the Fetters
Ways of Dividing Up the Fetters
One way of looking at the fetters is that fetters 1 through 8 are self-referent fetters, whereby we believe there is something we have or are that is participating in experience. By this, the 1st and 8th fetters can be seen to “bookend” the self-referent phase of the path, having to do with who or what we ostensibly are, while fetters 2 through 7 have to do with what we ostensibly have, such as “desire” or “faculty of perception”. In contrast, fetters 9 and 10 are addressed once all sense of a “me” finally evaporates.
Canonical literature regularly describes four different ariya-puggala or “noble persons” at certain junctures of the path. In that scheme, a “Stream Entrant” is one who has broken the first three fetters, a “Once-Returner” has weakened fetters four and five, a “Non-Returner” has broken fetters four and five, and finally a “Worthy One” (arahant) has broken all ten. While these are traditional ways of grouping the fetters, I personally don’t find them useful, since I didn’t grow up in a culture where the number of rebirths is a meaningful or important topic (I have always been a “rebirth agnostic”).
These terms can also be (mis)appropriated or too heavily focused on as titles that are to be bestowed, or as spiritual attainments. There is also the tendency that, if we hear someone talk about (for example) the fact that the illusion of a separate 'self" is gone that they must certainly be claiming to be a "Stream Entrant". However, there is no one that I have worked with or talked to who identifies with these four traditional labels or finds them particularly useful - that there is a certain "claim" being made is typically an assumption on the part of the listener. While it can be useful to talk in terms of “entering the stream” when the first three fetters are broken, by definition there is not the perception that there is now a “Stream Entrant” that has entered that stream.
The Fetters as Cumulative
The fetters can generally be seen as being cumulative in nature, one building upon the previous one. By this, if the most fundamental fetter of not knowing (aka ‘ignorance’) as the tenth fetter prevails, we will tend to pile further fetters on top of it, until all ten are firmly in place. Each subsequent fetter is thus a natural outcome of the fetter before it; for example, if we believe that “desire and ill will” are real as the cause of our pushing and pulling at experience, we will eventually invent and believe in a separate “self” that has “desire and ill will” and does all that pushing and pulling.
This layering effect can be described in a step-wise fashion where, starting with the fetter of “not knowing” (10), we ignore the fact that what we want (permanence and reliability, for example) is not possible or available. As a result, restlessness and the urge to compensate (9) for this inevitable mismatch arise. Since we can’t actually find anything that matches what we want, we need to fabricate it instead.
The illusion that “I Exist” (8) is the first compensation we fabricate, the first place we land as it were to assuage our restlessness, which is ostensibly predictable and reliable. The notion of a “me” is therefore the most fundamental symptom that we are ignoring what is actually happening in experience, believing we know what is happening when in fact we do not.
However, the notion of “me” is still in the abstract, and needs to be compared with something else to further prove that “I exist”. We thus create the notion that there are actual things which exist that we are able to perceive (7), along with notions of time, space and separate sense consciousnesses in which all things exist and in which that perceptual process takes place. In such a world, everything has a certain “somethingness” to it, which of course includes “me”.
Then, we adopt the perspective that everything doesn’t just exist, but that it exists just as we perceive it from our subjective perspective. That is the form we therefore assume that we and all else takes (6), where all things are affirmed to be not just separate from each other, but inherently separate from us, creating a world of form in which these manifold forms have rigid boundaries.
Given the perceived ‘reality’ of all this, as embodied humans with neurological structures that are inevitably triggered we naturally pull at what feels good and push at what doesn’t. By this, the notion of desire and ill will (4&5) is created as the reason we naturally push and pull at the world, lending credence to the idea that there is something about us that makes that pushing and pulling necessary. We want what we want, and get upset if that isn’t the case.
This increased identification with experience leads to attachment to rites and rituals (3), both mundane and spiritual, which takes our pushing and pulling as ‘proof’ of our unique and special characteristics. We thus create a profile of what we like and don’t like, and “the real me” starts to take shape. Confident in what we do and why, we are able to look at teachings and experiences which contradict the notion that this fabricated structure is real, and be either perplexed or outright skeptical of it (2); what is sometimes called the “moat of ignorance” is complete.
With this defense mechanism now in place, we draw an arbitrary dotted line around all we have fabricated, give it a name, and call it “myself” (1). By this, we go from having underlying tendencies toward these fetters and, in the course of perhaps a year or two after birth, become “fully fettered”.
Retracing Our Steps
One way of looking at the fetters is that, prior to undertaking that path, the seven-line sentence below, founded on not actually knowing what is happening in and around us, provides an image of our fettered “reality” of daily life:
One way of looking at the fetters is that fetters 1 through 8 are self-referent fetters, whereby we believe there is something we have or are that is participating in experience. By this, the 1st and 8th fetters can be seen to “bookend” the self-referent phase of the path, having to do with who or what we ostensibly are, while fetters 2 through 7 have to do with what we ostensibly have, such as “desire” or “faculty of perception”. In contrast, fetters 9 and 10 are addressed once all sense of a “me” finally evaporates.
Canonical literature regularly describes four different ariya-puggala or “noble persons” at certain junctures of the path. In that scheme, a “Stream Entrant” is one who has broken the first three fetters, a “Once-Returner” has weakened fetters four and five, a “Non-Returner” has broken fetters four and five, and finally a “Worthy One” (arahant) has broken all ten. While these are traditional ways of grouping the fetters, I personally don’t find them useful, since I didn’t grow up in a culture where the number of rebirths is a meaningful or important topic (I have always been a “rebirth agnostic”).
These terms can also be (mis)appropriated or too heavily focused on as titles that are to be bestowed, or as spiritual attainments. There is also the tendency that, if we hear someone talk about (for example) the fact that the illusion of a separate 'self" is gone that they must certainly be claiming to be a "Stream Entrant". However, there is no one that I have worked with or talked to who identifies with these four traditional labels or finds them particularly useful - that there is a certain "claim" being made is typically an assumption on the part of the listener. While it can be useful to talk in terms of “entering the stream” when the first three fetters are broken, by definition there is not the perception that there is now a “Stream Entrant” that has entered that stream.
The Fetters as Cumulative
The fetters can generally be seen as being cumulative in nature, one building upon the previous one. By this, if the most fundamental fetter of not knowing (aka ‘ignorance’) as the tenth fetter prevails, we will tend to pile further fetters on top of it, until all ten are firmly in place. Each subsequent fetter is thus a natural outcome of the fetter before it; for example, if we believe that “desire and ill will” are real as the cause of our pushing and pulling at experience, we will eventually invent and believe in a separate “self” that has “desire and ill will” and does all that pushing and pulling.
This layering effect can be described in a step-wise fashion where, starting with the fetter of “not knowing” (10), we ignore the fact that what we want (permanence and reliability, for example) is not possible or available. As a result, restlessness and the urge to compensate (9) for this inevitable mismatch arise. Since we can’t actually find anything that matches what we want, we need to fabricate it instead.
The illusion that “I Exist” (8) is the first compensation we fabricate, the first place we land as it were to assuage our restlessness, which is ostensibly predictable and reliable. The notion of a “me” is therefore the most fundamental symptom that we are ignoring what is actually happening in experience, believing we know what is happening when in fact we do not.
However, the notion of “me” is still in the abstract, and needs to be compared with something else to further prove that “I exist”. We thus create the notion that there are actual things which exist that we are able to perceive (7), along with notions of time, space and separate sense consciousnesses in which all things exist and in which that perceptual process takes place. In such a world, everything has a certain “somethingness” to it, which of course includes “me”.
Then, we adopt the perspective that everything doesn’t just exist, but that it exists just as we perceive it from our subjective perspective. That is the form we therefore assume that we and all else takes (6), where all things are affirmed to be not just separate from each other, but inherently separate from us, creating a world of form in which these manifold forms have rigid boundaries.
Given the perceived ‘reality’ of all this, as embodied humans with neurological structures that are inevitably triggered we naturally pull at what feels good and push at what doesn’t. By this, the notion of desire and ill will (4&5) is created as the reason we naturally push and pull at the world, lending credence to the idea that there is something about us that makes that pushing and pulling necessary. We want what we want, and get upset if that isn’t the case.
This increased identification with experience leads to attachment to rites and rituals (3), both mundane and spiritual, which takes our pushing and pulling as ‘proof’ of our unique and special characteristics. We thus create a profile of what we like and don’t like, and “the real me” starts to take shape. Confident in what we do and why, we are able to look at teachings and experiences which contradict the notion that this fabricated structure is real, and be either perplexed or outright skeptical of it (2); what is sometimes called the “moat of ignorance” is complete.
With this defense mechanism now in place, we draw an arbitrary dotted line around all we have fabricated, give it a name, and call it “myself” (1). By this, we go from having underlying tendencies toward these fetters and, in the course of perhaps a year or two after birth, become “fully fettered”.
Retracing Our Steps
One way of looking at the fetters is that, prior to undertaking that path, the seven-line sentence below, founded on not actually knowing what is happening in and around us, provides an image of our fettered “reality” of daily life:
I am a separate self with doubts and rituals
Reacting based on desire and ill will in
A dualistic world of forms with
Things being perceived by
A “me” that exists as a
Compensation for
Not Knowing.
Using this image, the spiritual path entails starting from the top and erasing this sentence line by line, such that what remains still describes our current state of delusion. As a result, we start to retrace our steps, and root out not just these resulting beliefs but also the underlying tendency to develop those beliefs.
For example, if you no longer believe in a separate “self”, and have broken free of the first three fetters, experience will still be characterized by “Reacting out of desire and ill will in a dualistic world of forms with…”, and so down the line. Even once all sense of a “me” is eradicated at the 8th fetter, there is still restless compensation based on not knowing - you’re not quite done with it all just yet. However, once this “life sentence” is finally over, all suffering is over as well.
This also illustrates that, whatever our “shallowest” fetter may be, all “deeper” fetters (all the way down to the tenth) are in place as well. For example, there can be some high expectations as to what a “Stream Entrant” should be like once the first three fetters are broken (thus a good reason to not fixate on that traditional term). However, rather than having a non-deluded awareness of reality in its fullness, which some might believe, the fetters of desire and ill will are still in their unweakened form, and our behavior will reflect that. Therefore, as profound and life-changing as the experience of seeing there is no such thing as a separate “self” can be, the fetters structure or model makes clear that this experience is just the beginning of the path.
For example, if you no longer believe in a separate “self”, and have broken free of the first three fetters, experience will still be characterized by “Reacting out of desire and ill will in a dualistic world of forms with…”, and so down the line. Even once all sense of a “me” is eradicated at the 8th fetter, there is still restless compensation based on not knowing - you’re not quite done with it all just yet. However, once this “life sentence” is finally over, all suffering is over as well.
This also illustrates that, whatever our “shallowest” fetter may be, all “deeper” fetters (all the way down to the tenth) are in place as well. For example, there can be some high expectations as to what a “Stream Entrant” should be like once the first three fetters are broken (thus a good reason to not fixate on that traditional term). However, rather than having a non-deluded awareness of reality in its fullness, which some might believe, the fetters of desire and ill will are still in their unweakened form, and our behavior will reflect that. Therefore, as profound and life-changing as the experience of seeing there is no such thing as a separate “self” can be, the fetters structure or model makes clear that this experience is just the beginning of the path.