- 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.
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.
I offer email guidance using the fetter model. The 1-to-1 dialogue takes place via an email exchange, where we 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.
Sample dialogues will soon be uploaded to this site.