Awareness in Buddhist Meditation

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an entity, free from the opposition of a ‘self’-subject against the
sense-object, and free from conflict caused by such opposition.
But theoretical knowledge of these conditions is hardly a beginning
of the process of emancipation. Even the wish for understanding
and deliverance is a binding factor, which too must become an
object of awareness to be freed from it.
The ten Fetters
The ten fetters (saṁyojana) which prevent progress on the path
are therefore also mentioned as mental objects for awareness
(dhammānupassanā). The study of these ten fetters in full can be
found in the present author’s monograph ‘Fetters’ (1946) under his
religious name, Bhikkhu Dhammapāla.
The ten fetters are grouped according to the four stages of sainthood,
and the release from those fetters accords with the gradual
realisation of arahantship.
The first group according to the four stages of sainthood, and
the release from those fetters, the overcoming of which marks the
entrance on to the path of holiness (sotāpanna), consists of three
fetters: misconception of individuality (sakkāya-diṭṭhi), sceptical
doubt (vicikicchā) and attachment to rules and rites (sīlabbataparamāsa).
There are twenty kinds of misconception of individuality
(sakkāya-diṭṭhi). They are the beliefs that there is a permanent entity
which is identical with any of the five groups (pañcakkhandha)
of the body-mind combine, namely the physical body (rūpa), sensations
(vedanā), perceptions (saññā), ideations (saṅkhāra) or consciousness
(viññāṇa); or the five kinds of belief that the individual
as an entity is contained in any of those five groups of matter and
mind; or the five kinds of belief that the individual as an entity
is independent of those five groups; or the five kinds of belief that
the individual entity is the owner on those five groups. How does
consciousness become ‘self’ delusion (sakkāya-diṭṭhi)? For, it is not