Your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.
Khalil Gibran
In the below linked video Thich Nhat Hanh describes at least six of the Ten Fetters (flames that destroy). I had to look this up because I am only counting six. This is what I discovered.
Fetters are knots...Sanyojana...that keep us bound and clinging to that which does not serve. We are not born with the fetters, but the underlying tendency towards them. The fetters bind us and push us to do things we do not want to say or do. For true spiritual liberation, we must untie them.
So, I took what Thich Nhat Hanh taught in his video and using another article on the subject tried to piece together the ten fetters. The first of the initial six to be listed are from Thich Nhat Hanh, the others are from Dr. Ari Ubeysekara
- Craving (Hanh)/ Sensual Desire/Kama Raga (Ubeysekara)...We to need to practice concentration, looking deeply into seeing the danger of running after the object of our craving. Most of us are not feeling happy in the here and the now. If we look deeply, according to Hanh, we would see we have all the conditions to be happy in the here and the now but the flame of craving keeps us from doing that. He said it is like holding a burning torch against the wind- the hand will get burned. It is like a dog chasing a bone with no meat or marrow -the bone will not satisfy or nourish once it is caught and the energy expended chasing will not be fed. It is like the fish chasing the bait on a hook. Once the fish catches its desire, it is trapped. We need to look deeply, beyond appearances, into the true nature of the object of craving.
- Violence/anger/Ill Will/ Patigha-Again we need to practice concentration-looking deeply into this fetter. This flame can not only harm others, it can destroy the holder. We need to practice in such a way that unties the knot of anger before it destroys.
- Ignorance/Avijja- wrong views...Hanh tells us "we are confsed we do not know where to go or what to do...we do not know what is right or wrong."
- Inferiority, superiority and equality complex/conceit/mana-We have a notion of self and we compare this notion of self with other selves. I think of shamer and redeemer ego.
- Doubt/Skeptical doubt/ Vicikicca- Hanh tells us that suspicion can come from our ignorance or wrong view (don't have all the truth)
- Wrong views/- 5 kinds of wrong view: Hanh tellls us that we believe that this body is self, (we won't exist without the body), we believe in opposites (dualistic thinking/dichotomy)-right other than left, birth other than death, inside-outside...sameness-otherness...self-other etc. Buddha taught the middle way is to walk between these opposites; we have attachment to views and notions -knowledge as obstacle for knowledge(when we think we are right and we know all there is to know about something- this closes the mind and stunts the growth and learning)...We are encouraged to never consider everything the absolute truth...to keep mind open; Ta Kien- perverted views- Hanh relays an example of a perverted view as being our belief in randomization; this idea that there is no cause and effect. It is like assuming that when we plant corn seeds they have the potential to grow into any random crop other than corn. Many of us do not believe that suffering comes from a direct cause. And we have attachment to taboos and rituals.
I only counted six of these fetters from Thich Nhat Hanh's video but after reading another article or two I have come to see this as a possibility.
Maybe we can say :
6. Wrong views including Self identity view/sakkaya ditthi- wrong view of self as body, mind, seperate from others. Five aggregates/skandas of clinging to form, feeling/sensation, perception, mental formation, and consciousness.
7. attachment to mere rites and rituals (silabbata parmasa)
8. desire to be born into a fine material world ( ruba raga)
9. desire to be born into a formless existsence ( aruba raga)
10. restlessness
Hmm! I do not understand them all but it makes sense that we untie the knots so we can be free of the way they are controlling us in a less than wholesome way.
All is well!
Thich Nhat Hanh (2023?) Liberating Our Minds: Untying Knots; The Ten Fetters.
Dr. Ari Ubeysekara/Drarisworld (August 19, 2018) The Ten Fetters ( Dasa Samoyana) in Theravada Buddhism https://drarisworld.wordpress.com/2018/08/19/the-ten-fetters-dasa-samyojana-in-theravada-buddhism/
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