- The Plateau of Diminishing Returns -
It is only when all effort has been exhausted that the seeker lays down their ordinance and armaments, amounting to their spiritual techniques, their religious paraphernalia, and their pride. This might happen to be a rather elongated and messy affair, but never mind.
From here onwards, one becomes strikingly honest with oneself and receives absolutely nothing in return.
The Ten Fetters to Awakening
AWAKENING
Direct inquiry using the ten fetters is a guiding model that aims to highlight whatever anchors you to the sensory experience, as opposed to focussing on any arcane ideas about enlightenment. Since the fetters are numbered and embarked upon in chronological order, (from 1 through to 10) by its very habitual nature, the mind would like to think of it in terms of time, space, and cause & effect, believing that they’ll be something available at the other end. Hence, it will think, ‘if I do these things, I’ll get - [whatever your ideas are about enlightenment].
Additionally, as a little warning I like to give: what can happen during this looking is that the inner conceptual world will begin to collapse, simply because the illusion of subject & object cannot stand up to conscious scrutiny. Spiritually constructed ego forms are not exempt from this looking; they can collapse, too. This might unearth old memories, traumas, and difficult emotions. It can also cause some odd temporary mind states, and a feeling of destabilization.
The 10 fetters are a helpful scheme that generally guides a person through awakening. The 10 fetters could best be understood as regions that the mind can go through in liberating itself from the illusion of separation. After my sudden awakening, I went through the fetters myself with a guide.
The foundational cause of suffering in the human condition comes directly from believing that you are separate. Another way to write that: it appears to most people as though they are looking out from a central location at something they call the world. For many people, it often feels like they are stuck in this centre, like a dog tied to a post. In this way, it might feel like something is amiss, a subtle or deep unease, or just regular suffering that can’t be reconciled with.
On that note, there are various synonyms for the word 'fetter' that might be more user-friendly, like shackles, manacles, handcuffs, irons, chains, bonds, tethers, ropes, or restraints. Hence, one is shackled to their perception of a body, mind, and world.
Therefore, a mental fetter is something that appears to cause an anchorage between two or more perceptions. This would be understood as subject & object, or the inner world and the outer world, but the outer world is another internal conception, so the anchorage is entirely in the mind and is every bit as illusory as a mirage.
Fetter inquiry is about looking to see if this anchor between subject and object is actually there. Since the subjective/objective experience has been practised with such regularity, it seemingly has a propensity or momentum to keep going as if duality itself were a fundamental reality; in this way the illusion seems very convincing! Thus, the desire to even question it rarely arises, and if it does, the effort is usually half-hearted.
In the first part of the exploration, one might examine how they appear to themselves in their own mind, conceptually and in reference to the world. Some potential avenues of exploration would be:
Could the daily sense of you be an illusion?
Is there really a border partitioning you from the outside world?
When you say “me”, “I”, or “mine” where does the attention go?
The fetter model very simply guides you to look into your own experience and find your own answers, so there’s no background agenda centred on religious principles. Devotional aspects can be very helpful for certain people, but many religions, gurus, and no-duality teachers can create additional problems. This subject is too complex and messy to include in this space, but very briefly all aspects of self must have some conventional acknowledgement, respect, and sensitivity - including what is generally termed as the ego self.
In very succinct terms, the fetter model describes the awakening process, but in manageable chunks, sort of like bite-size Weetabix! In slightly more verbose terms, fetter exploration aims to meticulously guide the person through their experience, region by region, and to see if at all any experience is taking place. Experience here is understood as subject/object interaction.
One works through the fetters starting from the first and through to ten. I follow my outline, which I’ve written for you below, but here they are listed in reverse order, as if a child were growing into the world, acquiring illusion after illusion. The next sections of this mini guide will focus on the first 3 fetters - how to see through the illusion of self.
10th: at the point of conception, something about the true nature is ignored
9th: Now in the physical form, a baby appears with six sense organs (mind is a sense organ) and frantically searches, as if one had been caught off-guard. This is the formation of restlessness, which can only be expressed through the body.
8th: The restlessness needs to find a sense of ease, and since there are six sense organs, the only ease available are sense objects. Mother and father encourage the predisposition to identity view because they operate from that perspective themselves. Gradually you become self-aware. Being self-aware creates a subtle subject and object.
7th & 6th: These two fetters are all about fragmenting the world into more parts: the perception of me, the perception of them, knowledge, items, things, time & space - anything. This becomes the foundation of neurosis.
4th & 5th: Once subject and object are known, and the myriad of things is created in the world, one is now in a quagmire: some things you want and other things you don't want. As such, the restlessness, which is now unconscious, is energized through various conditioned psychosocial behaviours, many of which look rather sophisticated but can be reduced to the simplicity of pushing and pulling at your own internal perceptions, thus strengthening the subject/object dichotomy.
1st, 2nd & 3rd: From all of this mess comes a prevailing sense of self, which is referred to simply as your name, and we all collectively agree on our finalized neurotic state. All the behaviours that stem from your understanding of yourself are an attempt to reconcile with the inner core of restlessness, but this reconciliation can only happen in reference to sensory objects, thus an endless cycle of self-fixing persists. The mind comes full circle, trapping itself in a perpetual state of neurosis, confusion, fear, and anxiety.
I would like to be emphatic about this model not being an exact science; far from it. However, it is a helpful scheme to approaching the many regions generally associated with awakening. The contextual framework is just that: a contextual framework. It shouldn’t in any way replace experience itself, and it certainly should not be used as a belief system.
This model points to certain psychological blockades that keep awareness trapped inside a sensory experience. By that measure, the fetters often correlate with the dynamism of the human condition, rather than following a precisely defined trajectory.
In any case, it is extremely helpful to work with someone who has done the work themselves, as the mind has an entire arsenal of deceptive manoeuvres to keep the illusion of separation going. But it is possible to guide yourself, as in the case of Kevin Schanilec. You can visit his website here, where he has extensive information on the subject.
I offer email guidance using the fetter model. The 1-to-1 dialogue takes place via an email exchange. What we will do is look at the first three fetters, which are about the prevailing sense of self. During the dialogue, I will ask you to look into your experience in certain ways, such that you can see for yourself whether the illusion of separation is true or not.