The Ten Fetters (Continued)

While the list of ten fetters describes the full range of attachments to be overcome on the path to complete liberation, they are traditionally grouped into stages that correspond with deepening levels of realisation. These stages, known as the four levels of awakening, show how the fetters fall away progressively:

1. Stream-Enterer (Sotāpanna):
– Has permanently cut the first three fetters:
• Belief in self (sakkāya-diṭṭhi)
• Attachment to rituals (sīlabbata-parāmāsa)
• Doubt (vicikicchā)
– No longer subject to rebirth in lower realms.

2. Once-Returner (Sakadāgāmi):
– Has significantly weakened sensual desire and ill-will.
– Will be reborn at most one more time before liberation.

3. Non-Returner (Anāgāmi):
– Has fully cut sensual desire and ill-will.
– No longer returns to the human realm but is reborn into refined realms where final liberation is achieved.

4. Arahant:
– Has severed all ten fetters.
– Fully liberated from the cycle of birth and death.

This framework offers a clear map of progress but should not be mistaken for rigid stages that unfold the same way for everyone. The deepening release from these fetters unfolds organically as insight, practice, and wisdom mature.

“Just as the ocean has but one taste, the taste of salt, so too this Dhamma has but one taste: the taste of freedom.”
— Udāna