Doubt and Perplexity – The Second Fetter

The second fetter is doubt and perplexity – the apparent ability to resist or deflect what challenges our idea of who we are. It falls away together with the first and third fetters when the self illusion is seen through.

The second fetter is doubt and perplexity – the apparent ability to distrust what is directly seen and keep it at a distance.

Series: The First Three Fetters of Stream Entry

1. The Self – The First Fetter
2. Doubt and Perplexity – The Second Fetter
3. Rites and Rituals – The Third Fetter

We can resist the truth.

Turn away from it.

Refuse to let it be true.

The Buddha called the second fetter vicikicchā – usually translated as doubt and perplexity or skeptical doubt.

Traditionally, it is described as doubt in the Buddha and his teachings, particularly the Four Noble Truths.

🔹 The second fetter belongs, together with belief in a separate self and attachment to rites and rituals, to the first three fetters of stream entry.
You can find an overview here: Seeing Through the Self Illusion

Doubt and Perplexity

How do we manage to be presented with something true about ourselves and the world – and still not take it in?

The second fetter gives us a good look at how the self is defended when the question arises:

Are we really what we believe ourselves to be?

We have built up plenty of convincing explanations for why we are unique beings, separate from everything else.

And we believe them.

Firmly.

They are taken as facts and no longer questioned.

We can clearly distinguish ourselves from everything else.

Through our rituals, our preferences and dislikes, we have developed our own particular way of moving through life.

We are individual.

Independent.

Free.

We know what “reality” is and see ourselves as autonomous players within it.

The Second Fetter

The second fetter is the assumption that we have the ability to reject the truth.

Because we assume there is an ability to doubt, it seems possible to avoid what is true.

To reject it.

Resist it.

Overlook it.

Look straight past it.

We keep the truth at a distance.

We do not let it come any closer.

This becomes particularly noticeable when something contradicts what we already believe about ourselves and the world.

We doubt what we have seen or heard.

Become skeptical.

Have reservations.

Dismiss it.

Argue against it.

Intervene.

Explain it away.

Distrust it.

Turn our attention elsewhere.

And so we can be presented with something true about ourselves and the world without actually taking it in.

We have built a thick wall of defiance.

The truth is waiting on the other side, but we do not let it through.

This defence mechanism works remarkably well.

Whenever life shows us that we might be wrong about ourselves or the world, we can usually find a perfectly logical explanation for whatever we already believe.

This leads directly to the [first fetter], where we draw a line:

| This is me | This is not me |

The second fetter falls away together with the first and [third fetter] when the illusion of a separate self is seen through.

There is then no longer a self, or a collection of views about a self, that needs to be defended.

And the wall is no longer necessary.

For this reason, the second fetter is not usually investigated separately.

It becomes clear in the investigation of the self illusion – and sometimes only really makes sense in retrospect.

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Further Reading

The Ten Fetters

If you would like to understand how all ten fetters fit together, continue here:

🔹 The Ten Fetters and Stream Entry

The Self Illusion

If you would like to investigate this directly:

🔹 Investigating the Self Illusion

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← The Self – The First Fetter
→ Rites and Rituals – The Third Fetter

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