Fetter (Buddhism)
In Buddhism, a mental fetter, chain or bond (Pāli: samyojana, saŋyojana, saññojana) shackles a sentient being to saṃsāra, the cycle of lives with dukkha. By cutting through all fetters, one attains nibbāna (Pali; Skt.: nirvāṇa).
Throughout the Pali canon, the word "fetter" is used to describe an intrapsychic phenomenon that ties one to suffering. For instance, in the Khuddaka Nikaya's Itivuttaka 1.15, the Buddha states:
Elsewhere, the suffering caused by a fetter is implied as in this more technical discourse from SN 35.232, where Ven. Sariputta converses with Ven. Kotthita:
The Four planes of liberation
(according to the Sutta Piṭaka)
stage's
"fruit"
abandoned
fetters
rebirth(s)
until suffering's end
1. identity view (Anatman)
2. doubt in Buddha
3. ascetic or ritual rules
...
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