The Awakening Curriculum

When you let go of all your assumptions
everything is different and nothing has changed.

“People are intent on the idea of I-making
and attached to the idea of other-making.
Some don’t realise this,
nor do they see it as an arrow.
But to one who, having extracted this arrow,
sees, the thought “I am doing” the I doesn’t occur;
”Another is doing”, the another doesn’t occur.
This human race is possessed by conceit
bound by conceit,
tied down by conceit.
Speaking hurtfully
because of their views
they don’t go beyond
the wandering-on”

— Tittha sutta - Read it here

USING FETTERWORK IN THE AWAKENING CURRICULUM

The teachings about the 10 fetters originates from Buddhism and is regarded as “The Noble Quest” however; you do not need to be a Buddhist to understand them or gain insight about them.

You can easily learn them, reflect on them and actively make use of them in your every day life.

By itself the Samyojana sutta, where you find the 10 fetters, does not make much sense nor give you any indication of how to make use of the knowledge.

Look here:

“There are these ten fetters.
Which ten?
Five lower fetters & five higher fetters.
And which are the five lower fetters?
Self-identity views, uncertainty, grasping at precepts & practices,
sensual desire, & ill will.
These are the five lower fetters.
And which are the five higher fetters?
Passion for form, passion for what is formless,
conceit, restlessness, & ignorance.
These are the five higher fetters.
And these are the ten fetters.”

— Samyojana Sutta, AN 10.13 Pali & translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu here

As you see the sutta does not really give us much to work with other than letting us know that these are the aspects we need to be aware of.

So to find out how you work with them you have to find all the clues spread around in all the canonical texts. The first place you look is in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta, you can read it here, where you will see that FetterWork is referred to as a part of “The Noble Quest”. However, it is still not giving us many direct pointers on what to do, when and how.

So to make it more useful I have created “antidotes” for every fetter so it is easier for you to notice where you are coming from and bring awareness into the direction you are going.

The fetters are mind made hooks into mind made suffering.

The antidotes can pull you from fantasy into reality if you use them with awareness in the now.

The now is only place reality is.

I have therefore made this overview for you:

The 10 Fetters are pointers to bring your awareness from illusion, towards reality into Awakening.

IMAGINE THIS:

Imagine a life where you deeply in you know that you are as you are supposed to be.

There is no feeling of you not being ok.

Nor any feeling of being lesser than.

You might remember once believing that you had a low self-worth but now you can hardly remember how it was waking up to that feeling.

That is released with the 1st Fetter.

Now imagine having a life where you never get the thought that you need to do something to be better.

Never again are you doubting anything you do or any choice you make.

You feel calm and are just resting in being.

That is the 2nd fetter.

When the 3rd Fetter fall you no longer think that something you do will lead you to something better.

Harmful routines/rituals are everything you do with a purpose of doing it.

So dieting for the purpose of losing weight.

Exercising for the purpose of improving yourself.

Accumulating wealth for the purpose of securing your future.

Meditating for the purpose of becoming awake.

Searching to learn.

When the 3rd Fetter fall you have no longer any urge to diet, exercise, meditate or change anything in your life with the purpose of improving yourself.

You eat what you feel like, you exercise for the fun of it, meditation is something that happens all by itself and material possessions seems pointless to accumulate.

Things are there to help, not to prove anything.

You experience presence.

You are now aware and awake and right here.

Now imagine how that spreads into all your relations.

Imagine a life where you never again feel envious of what other people have or what happens to other people.

You never feel left out or missing out.

You know that all the good that is happening to other people is happening to you by the ripple effect.

So the need to compare yourself to others simply makes no sense!

It is just not there anymore.

You never get angry or sad because of what someone have done “against you”.

You might feel “shaken” or pulled out of your presence by a feeling of getting startled either by something or by what another person does, but just like any other sensory experience it evaporates all by itself and you are naturally flowing back into a body with a calm pulse, with a deep breathing and are back to seeing life around you in full Technicolor.

That is life after the 4th and the 5th Fetter fall.

Imagine now that your eyes suddenly see what really is and never again let your mind shape a reality based on what you think you see.

You now clearly see what is.

You see people, animals, nature, things completely as they are.

What appears to be is just as it appears, mostly in 2-dimensions.

You see energy, the wave of life, coming and passing all at the same time.

You see the world around you with complete clarity and with no assuming of a depth.

No part of you want to influence what is happening because you feel deeply connected and know that being is already influencing in the most beautiful way.

That happens when the 6th fetter fall.

Now imagine that expanding from the experience of no-space into time.

You look back at your past and see so clearly that none of it actually happened as you remember it.

It never was.

You see clearly that the illusion of future is the same.

It is just a formless concept you have made into form.

You have a pure presence in NOW and now and now and now.

The illusion of time and space is dissolved when the 7th Fetter fall.

You now no longer believe yourself to be special in any way.

You are on par with a wave, a cloud, a leaf or a puppy.

Very unique and important and completely without any significance.

There is no God to rely on.

There is no Universe “having your back”.

There is no “something bigger than me”.

There just is and everything is a part of that is-ness.

Every thought that arise is evaporated as soon as it is.

That clarity comes when the 8th Fetter fall.

The no-thought-ness is completely naturally dissolving the need to plan anything.

Instead you now know that things just happen.

Grocery runs are not planned, but just happen.

Food is not planned but is just prepared.

Cleaning, washing, eating, bathing is not planned or postponed, they obviously cant be when they just happen.

There is only an awareness with what is alive right now.

Things easily fall into place all by themselves.

You never know how to solve anything and you know you dont need to.

Solutions will show themselves when it is time for them so show themselves.

Just like autumn is showing itself when it is time for it to show itself.

So if a solutions is not showing itself it is just not showing itself.

There is no reason for it to not show itself just like there is no reason for it to show itself.

It just is.

So there is a complete trust and relaxation into the wave of events.

There is just awareness of the aliveness.

Any part of planning or procrastination falls with the 9th fetter.

Things and being just is.

There is no clinging to any sensory experience, they just are.

The seen is just the seen.

The heard is just the heard.

The smelled is just the smelled.

The tasted is just the tasted.

A thought is just a thought.

The perceived is just the perceived.

The being is just the being.

There is no preference to what is or what isn’t.

Pain is just pain.

Joy is just joy.

There is no preference towards one or the other.

It just is.

There are no hooks in any thoughts about anything happening.

Imagine knowing that nothing needs to happen because it already is.

If you cant see that it already is just means you cant see that it already is.

Imagine a connection with being and non being at the same time.

Life and death are the same at the same time.

It is simply a wave of exchange of what is.

Nothing is substantial in a form but that does not make it formless either.

It just is.

Nothing is permanent in any form or in any formlessness but that does not make everything impermanent in any form or in any formlessness either.

It just is.

Nothing is separated or not separated.

It just is.

It is like a wave or a wind being one place and no place at the same time.

Like everything is coming into being while being observed and yet there is no one or no thing that can observe it or be observed.

It just is.

This is the presence when the 10th fetter fall.

How to do FetterWork.

The first point I need to make completely clear is that all the Fetters are concepts pointing in the direction of clarity.

They are not meant to keep using or to even replace a previous dogma.

They are tools you use and when you have understood what you needed to understand you leave them.

Ready for next step?

If you are still with me and ready for next step then start with the How To page before starting with The 1st Fetter.

There are some groundwork that will make the process easier.

Read it here: