What do you imagine when you hear the word “awakening”?
Something big?
Something special?
Maybe even something unreachable?
In direct experience, it turns out to be something very different.
understand
Articles that explain context and background.
They offer clarity and understanding of the Buddhist framework, the ten fetters, and direct experience.
Part 2: (My) Dialog – Desire and Illwill
This is the dialogue between Christiane and myself, taken from the Facebook group – with all spelling mistakes and forgotten words.
Self Illusion
You assume that you think, decide, and act.
That there is someone running your life.
But is that actually true?
The Self – the First Fetter
Is there really a self – or is it only assumed?
The first Buddhist fetter is the belief in an “I”.
What becomes visible when this belief is directly examined?
What is the self?
Is there a self that thinks, experiences, chooses, decides, acts?
In the past, I would have answered, “Sure, there is. It’s the self! I think, I decide, I act!”
It is I who am directing my body! I am the decider, the one who says where it goes! The supreme decision center. The pilot.
But then something happened that threw my self off track. I took a closer look.
Seeing through the self illusion
Seeing through the self-illusion is the first step on the path to awakening – the stream-entry.
It’s the moment when it becomes clear that the self you’ve always taken yourself to be has never actually existed.
Nothing mystical, nothing lofty – just simple, obvious, and entirely real.e streamentry.
Am I Awareness? – About a Subtle Difference on the Path to Awakening
Advaita ends at the recognition of pure being – the seventh fetter.
In the ten fetters model, the journey continues: What is the subtle experience of “I am”?
Discover the difference between Advaita and the ten fetters and explore a practical exercise for investigating the eighth fetter.
Through the 10 fetters to awakening
The concept of the ten fetters is one of the Buddha’s discoveries. He called them Samyojana – a word from the ancient Pali language that means fetter. You can find them in the Pali Canon, the earliest preserved discourses of the historical Buddha.