Self-Inquiry Guide to the Seventh Fetter
1. Summary
The 7th fetter is the belief or illusion that there is something we have “in here” that not just perceives, but apprehends or detects tangible “somethings”, whether those be items out in the room or thoughts that go through our minds. This belief gives rise to the (illusory) experience that we have a transparent experience of whatever we observe, as if it already independently exists and is there waiting for us to see it, and that we perceive it “just as it is”. It also makes it seem as though we have a tangible body and mind.
The goal of inquiry is to get yourself into the “gap” where it is convincing that you really must have such a perceiving, apprehending or detecting “something”, and looking to see if you can find it. If not, and you see that the perceiving or detecting process or event doesn’t actually happen, the belief can evaporate. As with previous fetters, this is about something you supposedly have. The inquiry therefore isn't about seeing the way things really are, but merely the way we merely perceive them.
This outline assumes you are using it to guide yourself, and it contains the same information and exercises that I have used to guide someone else.
2. Getting Started
What you will be looking for is much more subtle than the “subject” of the 6th fetter, and is something that you probably haven't ever noticed you believe in.
A starting point can be to clarify what a ”something” is, since it is this apparent quality of all that is perceived that provides the “proof” that you have something that perceives or detects “somethings”, which is the focus of the inquiry. In general, a “something”:
If the sixth fetter is gone, the separateness and uniqueness of what you perceive may well have softened, and perhaps even disappeared, as may its perceived boundary. However, even if that is the case, the seventh fetter still results in the illusion that you are nevertheless still perceiving a "something".
Introductory Questions
Please briefly describe, in writing, what the world looks like or appears to be to you now, in everyday experience (rather than in “direct experience”), in terms of it being populated by existing things.
3. Initial Exercises
To experience what a “something” is, it may be helpful to experience and compare various things that are not (yet) “somethings”, so you get a sense of what automatically and quickly happens during the perceptual process as they are first recognized and then are “somethings”.
Initial Exercise 1 - Turning Toward (explores the “something” threshold)
Initial Exercise 2 (contrasts “somethingness” and not)
After these exercises:
4. Looking for the Perceptor/Thing Detector
The optimal place to look is where you have initially seen and recognized something, be it a book or a thought, and it starts to be experienced as an actual “something”. For example, a book can be first recognized as a “book” image, which can then quickly become an actual, real book.
There can be a “gap” between the initial recognition of something, and the “full” experience of it being a separate “something” that is tangibly real. It might be described as (for example) a book starting to establish itself as “something”. Rather than just habitually go along with “oh, there’s another something”, you can pause and look to see if there is actually something you have that is detecting, apprehending or otherwise perceiving a new “something”. That perceptor, “thing detector”, etc. can feel as if it engages once something such as a book is recognized.
While the tendency may be to focus on this new “something”, inquiry is a matter of mentally turning away from it and looking for what it is “in here” that is making the experience of this new “something” possible. There can also be the tendency to want to focus on and think about the nature of what is perceived, but the focus of inquiry is “in here” and the belief that there is something which perceives or detects things in the first place. Once that belief is dispelled, “what” everything else is will be resolved as well.
Main Looking Instruction
Now that you have a good idea of what “somethings” are, please specifically look for the faculty of perception, the “thing detector”, that is in you somewhere. It's whatever is in you, seemingly pre-existing, that becomes engaged when any phenomena becomes "something" and is recognised or apprehended as a distinct entity. Put another way, if it weren’t for this perceptor or detector, nothing would seem substantial, tangible or real. Of course, it is also a “something”, therefore this might seem like something of a hall of mirrors as it looks for itself, at least at first.
Please close your eyes and allow a thought of something to arise, or start to think of something in particular such as the last automobile in which you traveled. As soon as a particular thought is recognized and seems like “something”, let go of that incipient “something” and scour the entirety of experience for what it is that recognizes that thought as a “something”. What in you seems to be proven or attested to, that allows you to see the thought as separate, distinct and real? Try this with a few thoughts, and please report back how it went.
You can also try this with your eyes open, moving from one item to another in the room and, as you start to look at a new item, notice how it quickly goes from an initial recognition of (say) a chair to the experience of a tangible, real chair. In other words, allow the initial labeling of whatever it is, and focus “in here” on what happens next. It may help to look at something, close your eyes and then open them again in order to start fresh each time. Again, once it seems like “something”, let go of that incipient “something” and scour the entirety of your experience for what it is you have that recognizes that as a “something”.
What do you find?
Things to keep in mind
The above main exercise is the inquiry in a nutshell: put yourself in a perceptual situation where whatever you are aware becomes a “something”, and instead of focusing on that whatever, revert to looking for what it is in you that is now participating by which you are detecting or apprehending that new “something”. Whatever you see or experience as an incipient “something”, allow the realness of it to be convincing, and as real as it might normally seem, by which it most strongly indicates that there has to be something you have which detects it. Please avoid going into “direct experience” where what you experience is deconstructed or unreal in any way, since that makes the inquiry impossible.
If what you see or experience starts to lose it's 'something-ness", by which it isn't very convincing that there's something in you that detects or perceives separate or distinct things, let the inquiry go for a bit, for a few moments or perhaps get on with your day, and come back to it when what you experience starts to obviously be "somethings" again.
Please don't talk yourself out of experiencing a world of separate/distinct things, such as telling yourself "I'm just making these things up", "It's just arbitrary labeling", “I won’t find anything when I look”, etc. Rather, just allow what is happening "out there" to be as separate and distinct as it normally is in daily experience, and look for what it is you have that allows you to see it in that way.
5. Follow-on Exercises
Staying Out There (this artificially suspends or alters the perceiving/detecting experience)
As an exercise, please cast your eyes around a quiet room, stopping at whatever you see: a book, a chair, or whatever. However, instead of scanning for the thing detector or seat/faculty of perception "in here", place all of your attention "out there" with the book or whatever. In fact, try to exclusively stay "out there". How does it feel to not be "in here" at all?
As you stay with it “out there”, what happens to the book, the chair, or whatever you see: does it stay a "something", or does something happen to its unitary-ness? If it changes, look away, and then look back: is it a “something” again? Note if you find yourself looking at different parts of it, darting here and there with your eyes, to take "it" in and keep it a ”something”; if so, try to keep your eyes fixed on a certain point, and see what happens to the “something”.
Does it seem like there is something in you that wants to engage or participate if you stay “out there”? In other words, if you did allow your attention to come back “in here”, to what and where would it go?
Finally, after a period of time, allow attention to come back “in here”, and look for the “thing detector” or "perception" as before. Is there any difference now, in terms of what it seems you're looking for? Does it seem like recognizing a "book" or whatever is proof that there must be something you have that engages to recognize it?
Note: there shouldn't be the sensations or pressure in the sternum area or elsewhere associated with doing this sort of exercise when inquiring into the 6th fetter. The "results" should be rather different.
Searching for Consciousness (this dissects the apparent “thing detector”)
As you perceive something out in the room or in your mind, please try to notice the degree to which your experience takes place within the 6 sensory spheres (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking). These are sometimes called 6 consciousnesses as well. As you sit and take sensory information in, to what degree are these 6 spheres or consciousnesses separately operating?
For example, if something is also making some sort of noise (perhaps turn on a fan, look at a ticking clock if you have one, turn on a radio or TV, etc.), where exactly are the consciousnesses that are involved?
Then, with eyes both open and closed, please search for and locate your mind. Try to avoid conceptuality (e.g., 'it's in my head somewhere'), and look in simple, everyday experience for the mind, the seat of mental functioning. Where do you look, and what do you find? And, more importantly, with what are you doing this looking?
Affirming the Not-Finding (if the penny doesn’t drop)
If and when you don't find what you are looking for, silently drop in the statement "wow, there really isn't anything like that", as if that statement comes as something of a surprise. If you drop in this statement every 10 seconds or so, for how many drop-ins is there a sense of surprise, or even a sense that you are reminding yourself of something that you've temporarily forgotten or ignored?
Then, after a bit, silently drop in every 10 seconds or so "yes, there really isn't anything like that", which is a more matter-of-fact statement, as you continue to scan (and scour) the entirety of your experience. Even if there is no longer the sense of surprise, mystery, or anything else, why isn't this your 24/7 experience? What sort of belief is still in place - how would you word it?
For both statements above, allow the sense of something-ness to snap back, as and when you need to reinforce the sense that there is something “in here” to look for, after which you can “not find” it again. There needs to be a lingering sense that there is in fact something that is being looked for, as steady as a pot of water on a low boil on the stove.
6. Things to Keep in Mind
There may be a “holding pattern” where you search and find nothing, but the penny doesn’t drop.
7. Has the Belief Disappeared?
Possible questions to ask: not intended to be a "confirmation", and not all of these will necessarily be applicable.
The 7th fetter is the belief or illusion that there is something we have “in here” that not just perceives, but apprehends or detects tangible “somethings”, whether those be items out in the room or thoughts that go through our minds. This belief gives rise to the (illusory) experience that we have a transparent experience of whatever we observe, as if it already independently exists and is there waiting for us to see it, and that we perceive it “just as it is”. It also makes it seem as though we have a tangible body and mind.
The goal of inquiry is to get yourself into the “gap” where it is convincing that you really must have such a perceiving, apprehending or detecting “something”, and looking to see if you can find it. If not, and you see that the perceiving or detecting process or event doesn’t actually happen, the belief can evaporate. As with previous fetters, this is about something you supposedly have. The inquiry therefore isn't about seeing the way things really are, but merely the way we merely perceive them.
This outline assumes you are using it to guide yourself, and it contains the same information and exercises that I have used to guide someone else.
2. Getting Started
What you will be looking for is much more subtle than the “subject” of the 6th fetter, and is something that you probably haven't ever noticed you believe in.
A starting point can be to clarify what a ”something” is, since it is this apparent quality of all that is perceived that provides the “proof” that you have something that perceives or detects “somethings”, which is the focus of the inquiry. In general, a “something”:
- Is tangible, real and existing
- Is unitary
- Has an essence and/or something that makes it what it is
- Is separate and unique, especially from you the observer
- Has an inherent shape and boundary
- Is locatable in space (or in the mind, as with a thought)
- It is a distinct entity
- Is perceived just as it is
- It pre-exists and waits for you to detect or apprehend it
If the sixth fetter is gone, the separateness and uniqueness of what you perceive may well have softened, and perhaps even disappeared, as may its perceived boundary. However, even if that is the case, the seventh fetter still results in the illusion that you are nevertheless still perceiving a "something".
Introductory Questions
Please briefly describe, in writing, what the world looks like or appears to be to you now, in everyday experience (rather than in “direct experience”), in terms of it being populated by existing things.
- For example, how do things around the room appear to you? Do they appear to be separate and/or tangible? Even if distinctions aren't as pronounced as they once were, to what extent are they nevertheless there?
- How solid or real do (for example) chairs and books seem? Do they seem to have an obvious or inherent shape to them? Do they seem to have a certain "chair-ness" or "book-ness" that makes them what they are?
- Is there any difference between the nature of a chair in the middle of the room and the thought about what you had for breakfast or lunch earlier today, in terms of them existing?
- And whatever you perceive (see, hear, touch, think, etc.) this or that around you, does it seem as though there is something you that perceives, apprehends, detects, monitors, recognizes, registers, keeps track of, or otherwise knows of all these different things?
3. Initial Exercises
To experience what a “something” is, it may be helpful to experience and compare various things that are not (yet) “somethings”, so you get a sense of what automatically and quickly happens during the perceptual process as they are first recognized and then are “somethings”.
Initial Exercise 1 - Turning Toward (explores the “something” threshold)
- In a quiet, softly lit place, look straight ahead, and notice some item just on the periphery of sight (say, a lamp).
- Notice what you see and how the item is seen - it's probably more or less a blob of color.
- Slowly turn your head, and perhaps the whole body, toward the item - at what point does the item go from being a blob of color to a distinct thing?
- Continuing to turn toward it: what happens, physically and mentally, when the item is straight in front of you. Does it seem as though it is fully “real” as a “something” now? Is its shape, tangibility and/or distinctiveness now evident?
- Does it seem as though something in you now recognizes it as what it really is?
- How does it feel to perceive whatever it is as a “something”? For example, is there a sense of relief or accomplishment?
- Now, slowly rotate your head and/or body back to where you started: does it feel like you "let go" of the item once it is no longer directly in front of you? If so, what quality or feature is let go of? And at what point does it seem to no longer be a "something"?
- And as it recedes back into the periphery of vision, does it seem like a letting-go happens there as well? If so, what quality or feature is let go of?
Initial Exercise 2 (contrasts “somethingness” and not)
- Look at something in the room a few feet away, and experience how it appears as a "something".
- Still looking at it, release your mental attention to it and/or let your vision blur until it’s indistinct or otherwise isn't "something".
- Blink or squint to pop it back into focus, and/or re-engage mentally with it, so that it is a “something” once again. Allowing your eyes to flit here and there on the item can also restore it as a “something”.
- What changed as it became a “something”? Did it once again have solidity, unitariness, dimension, “is what it is-ness” again? Was it tangible, or separate? How would you describe it?
- And did anything in you seem to respond to this renewal of it as a “something”? If so, where exactly is it, and what does it seem to do?
- As the item once again became a “something”, did your own body and/or mind come more obviously into existence as well?
- Try this exercise with several items in the room.
After these exercises:
- You should now have a good sense of what being a “something” is to you, what it is like for whatever you see to be perceived, apprehended or detected as a something, and the degree to which there seems to be (another) something that you have inside that participates in or causes the perceiving of “something”.
- Did you notice if there is what feels an urge to fully identify a “something” once it has been initially recognized. If so, this is analogous to the urge to react in fetters 4&5.
- Did you also have the sense of being in relationship to the “something” as a subject, as with the sixth fetter? If so, please go back to exploring that fetter.
4. Looking for the Perceptor/Thing Detector
The optimal place to look is where you have initially seen and recognized something, be it a book or a thought, and it starts to be experienced as an actual “something”. For example, a book can be first recognized as a “book” image, which can then quickly become an actual, real book.
There can be a “gap” between the initial recognition of something, and the “full” experience of it being a separate “something” that is tangibly real. It might be described as (for example) a book starting to establish itself as “something”. Rather than just habitually go along with “oh, there’s another something”, you can pause and look to see if there is actually something you have that is detecting, apprehending or otherwise perceiving a new “something”. That perceptor, “thing detector”, etc. can feel as if it engages once something such as a book is recognized.
While the tendency may be to focus on this new “something”, inquiry is a matter of mentally turning away from it and looking for what it is “in here” that is making the experience of this new “something” possible. There can also be the tendency to want to focus on and think about the nature of what is perceived, but the focus of inquiry is “in here” and the belief that there is something which perceives or detects things in the first place. Once that belief is dispelled, “what” everything else is will be resolved as well.
Main Looking Instruction
Now that you have a good idea of what “somethings” are, please specifically look for the faculty of perception, the “thing detector”, that is in you somewhere. It's whatever is in you, seemingly pre-existing, that becomes engaged when any phenomena becomes "something" and is recognised or apprehended as a distinct entity. Put another way, if it weren’t for this perceptor or detector, nothing would seem substantial, tangible or real. Of course, it is also a “something”, therefore this might seem like something of a hall of mirrors as it looks for itself, at least at first.
Please close your eyes and allow a thought of something to arise, or start to think of something in particular such as the last automobile in which you traveled. As soon as a particular thought is recognized and seems like “something”, let go of that incipient “something” and scour the entirety of experience for what it is that recognizes that thought as a “something”. What in you seems to be proven or attested to, that allows you to see the thought as separate, distinct and real? Try this with a few thoughts, and please report back how it went.
You can also try this with your eyes open, moving from one item to another in the room and, as you start to look at a new item, notice how it quickly goes from an initial recognition of (say) a chair to the experience of a tangible, real chair. In other words, allow the initial labeling of whatever it is, and focus “in here” on what happens next. It may help to look at something, close your eyes and then open them again in order to start fresh each time. Again, once it seems like “something”, let go of that incipient “something” and scour the entirety of your experience for what it is you have that recognizes that as a “something”.
What do you find?
Things to keep in mind
The above main exercise is the inquiry in a nutshell: put yourself in a perceptual situation where whatever you are aware becomes a “something”, and instead of focusing on that whatever, revert to looking for what it is in you that is now participating by which you are detecting or apprehending that new “something”. Whatever you see or experience as an incipient “something”, allow the realness of it to be convincing, and as real as it might normally seem, by which it most strongly indicates that there has to be something you have which detects it. Please avoid going into “direct experience” where what you experience is deconstructed or unreal in any way, since that makes the inquiry impossible.
If what you see or experience starts to lose it's 'something-ness", by which it isn't very convincing that there's something in you that detects or perceives separate or distinct things, let the inquiry go for a bit, for a few moments or perhaps get on with your day, and come back to it when what you experience starts to obviously be "somethings" again.
Please don't talk yourself out of experiencing a world of separate/distinct things, such as telling yourself "I'm just making these things up", "It's just arbitrary labeling", “I won’t find anything when I look”, etc. Rather, just allow what is happening "out there" to be as separate and distinct as it normally is in daily experience, and look for what it is you have that allows you to see it in that way.
5. Follow-on Exercises
Staying Out There (this artificially suspends or alters the perceiving/detecting experience)
As an exercise, please cast your eyes around a quiet room, stopping at whatever you see: a book, a chair, or whatever. However, instead of scanning for the thing detector or seat/faculty of perception "in here", place all of your attention "out there" with the book or whatever. In fact, try to exclusively stay "out there". How does it feel to not be "in here" at all?
As you stay with it “out there”, what happens to the book, the chair, or whatever you see: does it stay a "something", or does something happen to its unitary-ness? If it changes, look away, and then look back: is it a “something” again? Note if you find yourself looking at different parts of it, darting here and there with your eyes, to take "it" in and keep it a ”something”; if so, try to keep your eyes fixed on a certain point, and see what happens to the “something”.
Does it seem like there is something in you that wants to engage or participate if you stay “out there”? In other words, if you did allow your attention to come back “in here”, to what and where would it go?
Finally, after a period of time, allow attention to come back “in here”, and look for the “thing detector” or "perception" as before. Is there any difference now, in terms of what it seems you're looking for? Does it seem like recognizing a "book" or whatever is proof that there must be something you have that engages to recognize it?
Note: there shouldn't be the sensations or pressure in the sternum area or elsewhere associated with doing this sort of exercise when inquiring into the 6th fetter. The "results" should be rather different.
Searching for Consciousness (this dissects the apparent “thing detector”)
As you perceive something out in the room or in your mind, please try to notice the degree to which your experience takes place within the 6 sensory spheres (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching and thinking). These are sometimes called 6 consciousnesses as well. As you sit and take sensory information in, to what degree are these 6 spheres or consciousnesses separately operating?
For example, if something is also making some sort of noise (perhaps turn on a fan, look at a ticking clock if you have one, turn on a radio or TV, etc.), where exactly are the consciousnesses that are involved?
- Where is the seeing sensory apparatus, as separate from the hearing apparatus?
- Can you find the boundary between seeing consciousness and hearing consciousness?
- Are there separate consciousnesses, or not?
- And, more importantly, with what are you doing this looking?
Then, with eyes both open and closed, please search for and locate your mind. Try to avoid conceptuality (e.g., 'it's in my head somewhere'), and look in simple, everyday experience for the mind, the seat of mental functioning. Where do you look, and what do you find? And, more importantly, with what are you doing this looking?
Affirming the Not-Finding (if the penny doesn’t drop)
If and when you don't find what you are looking for, silently drop in the statement "wow, there really isn't anything like that", as if that statement comes as something of a surprise. If you drop in this statement every 10 seconds or so, for how many drop-ins is there a sense of surprise, or even a sense that you are reminding yourself of something that you've temporarily forgotten or ignored?
Then, after a bit, silently drop in every 10 seconds or so "yes, there really isn't anything like that", which is a more matter-of-fact statement, as you continue to scan (and scour) the entirety of your experience. Even if there is no longer the sense of surprise, mystery, or anything else, why isn't this your 24/7 experience? What sort of belief is still in place - how would you word it?
For both statements above, allow the sense of something-ness to snap back, as and when you need to reinforce the sense that there is something “in here” to look for, after which you can “not find” it again. There needs to be a lingering sense that there is in fact something that is being looked for, as steady as a pot of water on a low boil on the stove.
6. Things to Keep in Mind
There may be a “holding pattern” where you search and find nothing, but the penny doesn’t drop.
- Make sure you are looking for something, rather than someone.
- If you look, and look, and/but don't find anything corresponding to "perception", "thing detector", a perceiving faculty/consciousness, etc., you can silently drop in "nothing here..." a few times, in terms of not finding what you were looking for. What effect does that have?
- Make sure you aren’t starting to think about whether or not what you are looking at is real, is tangible, is a mental construct, etc. There shouldn’t be any conceptual aspect to the looking. It’s easy to “bypass” the looking internally, and instead think about the nature of what you perceive. Again, the inquiry isn't about seeing "the way things really are", but "the way you really are(n't)”
- Make sure you aren’t deconstructing experience, such as in “direct experience”, by which there aren’t or can’t be incipient “somethings”, in which case the inquiry would not be possible.
- Since this more deeply questions what you are, watch out for nihilism, fear etc. as your sense of “me” starts to wobble.
- Health warning: if you have any history of trauma, it can begin to surface during this inquiry, or perhaps there can be a general sense of feeling destabilized. It may in fact be a good idea to pause the whole inquiry process and seek professional help, rather than attempting to press on.
7. Has the Belief Disappeared?
Possible questions to ask: not intended to be a "confirmation", and not all of these will necessarily be applicable.
- What is a “something”?
- What is space? What is time?
- Is there any difference in how the word looks visually, such as the depth of three-dimensional space or the separateness or distinctiveness of things?
- What is your experience of your body? Does it feel like (a) something? Something you have and/or are?
- What is your experience of your mind? Does it feel like (a) something? Something you have and/or are?
- As you look at your right hand, does it seem like (a) something? Is it part of you? And setting the hand on your knee: where is the boundary between hand and knee, and how do you know what and where the boundary is?
- As you look out at the room, across the street, etc., where does all that visual information go? Where is it processed?