What This Concept Is Saying
"All fetters" (一切結, sarva-saṃyojana) is not a checklist of every affliction, but a name given from the standpoint of what afflictions do: any affliction that can conjoin causes, actions, and painful results—so that suffering keeps accumulating and continuing—is called a "fetter" (結, saṃyojana). The *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* (瑜伽師地論) states it with utmost concision: "能和合苦，故名为结。" *"Because it can conjoin suffering, it is called a fetter."*
This "conjoining" (和合) is crucial. An affliction is not merely a momentary discomfort in the mind; it strings together several things that might otherwise have ended right there: an object touches you, an affliction arises; afflictions draw one another along and propel speech and action; action causes immediate harm and also seeds a stronger habitual tendency for the future, even forming the power to continue rebirth and continued suffering. The "fetter" is like tying knots along an entire production line of suffering, segment by segment, so that it does not easily come apart on its own.
Therefore, "all fetters" has two scopes:
- Broadly speaking, the essential nature of fetters is measureless; every affliction that has the function of conjoining suffering is included. - Focusing on those of strong function and representative prominence, the *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* says, "结虽无量而约胜略说九结" — *"though fetters are measureless, by way of the eminent, nine fetters are briefly taught"* — taking the nine fetters (九結, nava-saṃyojanāni) as a summary, not as the claim that human afflictions are mechanically only nine in kind.
The nine fetters are: the fetter of craving (愛結), the fetter of aversion (恚結), the fetter of conceit (慢結), the fetter of ignorance (無明結), the fetter of views (見結), the fetter of grasping (取結), the fetter of doubt (疑結), the fetter of envy (嫉結), and the fetter of stinginess (慳結). This list also appears in the *Abhidharma-prakaraṇa-pāda-śāstra* (阿毗達磨品類足論) and the *Abhidharma-saṃgīti-paryāya-pāda-śāstra* (阿毗達磨集異門足論); the latter gives fairly clear definitions of each member. The *Fo Guang Dictionary of Buddhist Terms* (佛光大辭典), entry "九結" ([nine fetters](https://buddhaspace.org/dict/fk/data/%25E4%25B9%259D%25E7%25B5%2590.html)), summarizes as follows:
1. Fetter of craving (愛結): Not all affection or care, but the greed-craving in the desire realm (欲界, kāmadhātu), form realm (色界, rūpadhātu), and formless realm (無色界, ārūpyadhātu) that carries the flavor of defilement, indulgence, possessiveness, and continued pursuit. Loving one's child is not necessarily a fetter; insisting that the child fulfill "my ideal," being unable to rest until the child matches one's wishes—the possessiveness in that is the fetter of craving.
2. Fetter of aversion (恚結): Repulsion and hostility toward sentient beings or adverse circumstances, even the wish to harm the other. It manifests not only as rage, but also as cold punishment, repeated humiliation, or secretly hoping others fail. Clearly pointing out harm and stopping injustice is not necessarily aversion; the key is whether the mind takes delight in harming.
3. Fetter of conceit (慢結): Elevating and defending the position of "I" through comparison of self with others. Classical treatises subdivide it into seven types: pride (慢, māna), arrogance (過慢, atimāna), pride-in-excess (慢過慢, mānātimāna), self-pride (我慢, asmi-māna), exaggerated pride (增上慢, adhimāna), false humility (卑慢, ūnamāna), and wrong pride (邪慢, mithyā-māna). Thus conceit is not just self-importance: "I am worse than everyone; no one can understand my failure," if it becomes a hardened self-specializing, may belong to false humility. Its core is not confidence but using comparison to fortify the image of self.
4. Fetter of ignorance (無明結): Not lacking knowledge or education, nor temporarily not knowing a fact, but not truly understanding suffering (苦, duḥkha), its origin (集, samudaya), its cessation (滅, nirodha), and the path leading to its cessation (道, mārga), along with the fundamental confusion about dependent origination (緣起, pratītyasamutpāda), impermanence (無常, anitya), and non-self (無我, anātman) that follows from that. A person may be very intelligent and still take impermanent things as eternal refuges, or take the conditioned mind-body as a substantially controllable self.
5. Fetter of views (見結): Not "having a view" per se, but views that are defiled, inverted, and grasped as real. In the scheme of the nine fetters, three kinds are usually subsumed under the fetter of views: the view of substantial selfhood (薩迦耶見, satkāya-dṛṣṭi), extreme views (邊執見, antagrāha-dṛṣṭi), and wrong views (邪見, mithyā-dṛṣṭi): grasping the five clinging aggregates as self or belonging to self; falling into eternalism or annihilationism; denying karma-and-result, the path of practice, and other causal and value truths that should be affirmed. It is a pair of glasses already worn without knowing it.
6. Fetter of grasping (取結): Specifically the grasping of views (見取, dṛṣṭi-parāmarśa) and the grasping of precepts and practices (戒禁取, śīla-vrata-parāmarśa). Grasping of views is holding a wrong or inferior view as supreme; grasping of precepts and practices is holding precepts, rituals, or taboos that cannot actually lead to liberation as the cause of liberation. Its distinction from the fetter of views is: the fetter of views leans toward "what wrong thing is seen," while the fetter of grasping leans toward "seizing this view and declaring it supreme, most able to save me." Thus stubbornness does not automatically equal the fetter of grasping; there is a clear background of views and soteriology here.
7. Fetter of doubt (疑結): Not inquiry, carefulness, or scientific skepticism, but indecisiveness about the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, and the four truths of suffering, origin, cessation, and path, such that one cannot enter into observation and practice. Healthy questioning drives verification; the fetter of doubt keeps the mind suspended in a state of "neither verifying nor acting."
8. Fetter of envy (嫉結): When others gain benefit, reputation, ability, or wholesome qualities, the mind cannot bear it and is unwilling to rejoice. Envy is not "I also want to improve"; it is "better that he not have it." It converts another person's bright experience into one's own loss.
9. Fetter of stinginess (慳結): The mind is secretive and withholding, unwilling to share resources, opportunities, dwelling, reputation, or even the meaning of the Dharma that one has mastered. Stinginess is not reasonable saving or protecting privacy; it is closing off due to possessive clinging when one is able to give appropriately. The classical classifications even speak of "Dharma-stinginess" (法慳): wishing that important teachings, knowledge, or explanatory ability be held only by oneself, not wanting others to understand them.
These nine fetters are not isolated from one another. Ignorance prevents one from seeing things as they are; the fetter of views builds theories for mistaken experience; the fetter of grasping tightens hold of those theories; craving and aversion operate around favorable and adverse circumstances; conceit incorporates everything into self-comparison; envy and stinginess defend "my position, my resources." In a single episode of affliction, several fetters often draw one another along rather than a single label lighting up.
The *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* uses the "conjoining of five matters" (五事和合) to explain how a fetter truly becomes a structure of suffering:
1. The matter of the bound object (所結事): The object that the fetter takes up, such as fame, wealth, the body, an opinion, or a person. 2. The matter of the binding activity (能結事): The fetters draw one another along in succession; it is not the object that binds you, but the chain of afflictions—craving draws conceit, conceit draws envy, envy draws aversion—that binds. 3. The matter of transgression (罪過事): With the fetter as cause, one presently commits bodily, verbal, and mental deeds that harm oneself, others, or both. 4. The matter of habitual outflow (等流事): This episode of affliction and action becomes the cause of future, more violent craving, aversion, and the rest; each repetition makes the next occurrence more familiar and faster. 5. The matter of destiny (趣向事): These defiled actions (有漏業, sāsrava-karman) and afflictions do not merely shape character and circumstance; within the full Buddhist teaching of karma and result, they become the power that courses toward the five destinies (五趣, pañca-gati) and continues birth-and-death.
These five matters cannot be compressed into "negative emotions make me uncomfortable." They run from the object of cognition, through the mutual reinforcement of afflictions, to present karmic action, future habitual tendencies, and the direction of birth-and-death, showing where the fetter stands within the whole path of liberation: it connects delusion (惑), action (業), and suffering (苦). Affliction is "delusion"; impelled by delusion one commits "action"; action in turn brings about and maintains "suffering." Exhausting the fetters is not simply improving one's mood; it is dismantling the joints of this cycle.
The treatise also speaks of the "binding of marks" (相縛, nimitta-bandhana) and the "binding of coarseness" (粗重縛, dauṣṭhulya-bandhana): "相缚缚众生，亦由粗重缚。" *"The binding of marks binds sentient beings, and also by the binding of coarseness."* One may cautiously understand: on one hand, the mind is pulled and grasped by the marks presented by the object of cognition; on the other, affliction leaves behind deep, unwieldy habitual traces and burdens of body and mind. Therefore one cannot rely only on temporarily suppressing thoughts, nor only on abstract analysis; one must cultivate both calming and insight (止觀, śamatha-vipaśyanā): calming makes the mind settle and pliable; insight makes the mind truly see the object and the subject, no longer grasping in the old pattern. Here "calming and insight" is not emotional anesthesia but the mutual support of concentration (定, samādhi) and wisdom (慧, prajñā).
There is also the classification of the "five lower fetters" (五下分結, pañcāvara-bhāgīya-saṃyojana) and "five upper fetters" (五上分結, pañcordhva-bhāgīya-saṃyojana). "Lower" and "upper" are not moral rankings of persons but are established by the domain of attachment and the stage of severance: relative to the form and formless realms, the desire realm is called the lower part; relative to the path of cultivation, the path of seeing is called the lower part. The tradition commonly lists the five lower fetters as the view of substantial selfhood (薩迦耶見, satkāya-dṛṣṭi), grasping of precepts and practices (戒禁取, śīla-vrata-parāmarśa), doubt (疑, vicikitsā), craving for desire (欲貪, kāma-rāga), and aversion (瞋恚, vyāpāda); and the five upper fetters as craving for form (色貪, rūpa-rāga), craving for the formless (無色貪, ārūpya-rāga), conceit (慢, māna), restlessness (掉舉, auddhatya), and ignorance (無明, avidyā). This shows that liberation is not merely shedding coarse evident desires: even if one is no longer controlled by coarse craving and aversion in the desire realm, attachment to pure meditative states, subtle existence, superiority, and even fundamental ignorance can still remain. The nine fetters and the upper/lower fetters are two different classificatory schemes; the two lists cannot be mechanically mapped one-to-one.
A Walkthrough in Daily Life
Suppose you work overtime to complete a key proposal. The next day on your commute, you open your phone and see that your supervisor praised a colleague in the work group but did not mention you; the colleague's social media is celebrating the project's success. Let us walk through this strictly according to the classical definitions.
The first step is the matter of the bound object (所結事). The phone, the message, the colleague, the praise, the position, even the images that arise in your mind—all can be objects taken up by the fetters. But these objects are not themselves "fetters." The most common mapping error is to call "the person who makes me uncomfortable" a fetter directly; what the classics call a fetter is the affliction that arises in dependence on an object and conjoins suffering—not that person.
Next, the fetter of ignorance (無明結) prevents the mind from seeing the full dependent origination: the project was completed by many people, institutions, timing, and numerous conditions together, and praise is also impermanent and limited; yet the mind quickly believes "not being seen this time proves I have no worth." This is not lack of knowledge; it is mistaking a conditional evaluation for a verdict on a fixed self.
From this arises the fetter of views (見結): "The workplace is only about credit-grabbing; there is no cause and effect or integrity" and "I, being overlooked, am a failure." If one further believes "the only correct way to survive is to step on others and take all the credit," and enshrines this view as supreme, that shifts from wrong view into the fetter of grasping (取結). Ordinary workplace judgments are not necessarily the fetter of views; absolutizing and reifying a partial experience is the key.
At the same time, the fetter of craving (愛結) clings to recognition, position, and the image of "everyone must see me." Wanting fair evaluation is not itself affliction; the inability to rest unless it is obtained, and the belief that one cannot abide without it, reveals the defilement.
When the fetter of craving is thwarted, the fetter of aversion (恚結) appears: you want to mock the colleague sarcastically in the group, or deliberately withhold important materials from him. Note that aversion is not merely a racing heartbeat or feeling wronged; if you are only identifying injustice and preparing to communicate calmly, that is not necessarily the fetter of aversion. Wanting the other to be embarrassed or harmed is what hits its definition.
Then comes the fetter of conceit (慢結): you compare repeatedly—"my contribution is clearly greater than his," "none of them deserve it." Another possibility: "Only I am always treated unfairly; I am the most miserable person on the team." The former is easy to see as conceit; the latter may also, in the mode of false humility, continue to fortify a special, hardened self.
Seeing the colleague praised and not wanting him to have it belongs to the fetter of envy (嫉結); hiding the key documents for fear that others will learn may become the fetter of stinginess (慳結). If you know you could verify the facts and clarify the division of labor, yet repeatedly think "does practice even work? people are just like that," neither verifying nor acting, you may fall into the fetter of doubt (疑結). But if you check the project records and ask about the supervisor's evaluation criteria, that is careful inquiry and should not be mislabeled as the fetter of doubt.
At this point, the binding activity (能結事) of "the fetters drawing one another along" has formed: ignorance supports wrong views, wrong views rationalize craving and grasping, thwarted craving turns to aversion, and conceit, envy, and stinginess reinforce one another.
If you then publicly humiliate the colleague and withhold information, and spend the whole day in agitation while team cooperation suffers, that is the matter of transgression (罪過事) in the present: harm to self, harm to others, harm to both. If every time you encounter evaluation you respond with attack and withholding resources, and the mental path becomes increasingly well-worn so that next time you are hostile even before verifying the facts, that is the matter of habitual outflow (等流事)—this episode's action becomes the cause of future, more violent affliction.
In the full Buddhist vision, if this defiled action continues to accumulate, it does not merely determine workplace habits; it also becomes defiled action (有漏業) and participates in the matter of destiny (趣向事) of future lives. This layer belongs to the Buddhist teaching of karma, result, and rebirth; it cannot be arbitrarily rewritten as "psychology has already proven a next life." Modern psychology or neuroscience can at most help explain that habits strengthen through repetition, but cannot thereby prove the Buddhist rebirth into five destinies. Analogy is suggestive, but the scope of proof differs.
Then how does one begin to untie the fetter? Not by commanding oneself "don't be angry," but by examining the five matters in reverse: What am I taking as object right now? Which fetters are drawing one another along? If I follow them, what present harm will result? What kind of next time am I training? Does this path ultimately carry life toward greater freedom, or toward greater entanglement? Then first let body and mind settle a little, and do not rush to send the message; then truthfully discern the facts, feelings, desires, and fixed views; if you need to assert your rights, communicate clearly; if you need to apologize, apologize; if you need to share, share. This is not indulging injustice, but no longer letting the handling of injustice be taken over by fetters.
Why Contemporary People Need It
Contemporary algorithmic life is especially good at providing "bound objects" (所結事): likes, rankings, trending topics, consumption recommendations, and endlessly refreshed objects of comparison. But algorithms have not conjured all afflictions from nothing; the same message causes one person to set it down after reading, while another is swept up by craving, conceit, envy, and grasping views. The Dharma moves the focus of observation from "the platform makes me angry" to "how the object and the fetters in my mind together conjoin suffering." This neither absolves platforms of responsibility nor abandons the initiative that can be cultivated; it returns a portion of it to us.
The value of "all fetters" also lies in not shrinking human problems to emotion management. Temporarily calming emotions is beneficial, but if the underlying view remains "my worth equals external feedback," the fetters of craving and conceit will simply look for the next object; if one only analyzes views while the body and mind remain coarse and heavy, losing control the moment circumstances touch, one is still not free. Therefore precepts (戒, śīla) keep action from further reinforcing transgression; concentration (定, samādhi) keeps the mind from being immediately dragged off by environmental marks; wisdom (慧, prajñā) sees through ignorance, wrong views, and grasping. The three trainings (三學, triśikṣā) work together on the entire production chain of the fetters.
It also reminds practitioners: feeling comfortable is not liberation. The *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* uses the alluring sensual pleasures of a prison to illustrate an abnormal kind of bondage—if a prison contains delights one is addicted to, the bound person may not even want to escape. The modern version might be endless information stimulation, identity identification, or the circle of "always being right." The hardest cage to detect is often not one painful enough to make one want to flee, but one that gives enough immediate gratification to make one forget one is still unfree.
Thus the path of liberation is not about destroying everything pleasant in life, but about the mind no longer being driven by craving to "must have it," no longer wishing harm through aversion, no longer defining itself through conceit, no longer closing off wholesome things through envy and stinginess, and no longer defending bondage through ignorance, views, and grasping. The treatise points to the end as "exhaust all fetters, transcend all suffering" (盡一切結，越一切苦): not trimming a few embarrassing habits, but causing every affliction that can continue birth-and-death suffering to lose its power. When bodhisattvas teach sentient beings, this is also the ultimate aim—helping beings not merely to feel better temporarily, but gradually to attain the freedom of no longer being bound by the causes of suffering.
Common Misreadings and Clarifications
Misreading one: A fetter is a negative emotion.
Inaccurate. The fetter of craving can accompany excitement and sweetness; the fetter of conceit can accompany a sense of achievement; the fetter of grasping can even bring the certainty of "I have grasped the ultimate truth." The criterion is not whether the feeling is pleasant, but whether, conditioned by defilement, inversion, and fabrication, it performs the function of conjoining suffering.
Misreading two: The nine fetters are nine mutually independent psychological disorders.
No. They are a "brief teaching by way of the eminent" about afflictions, and they draw one another along. What Buddhism offers here is an affliction-classification for the path of practice, not a contemporary psychiatric diagnosis; one cannot use "fetter of craving" or "fetter of doubt" to replace professional assessment of depression, anxiety, and other conditions.
Misreading three: The fetter of craving shows that Buddhism opposes love.
What the Dharma cuts off is greed-craving and possessive stickiness, not loving-kindness (慈, maitrī), compassion (悲, karuṇā), sympathetic joy (喜, muditā), and equanimity (捨, upekṣā). Compassion wishes the other to be free from suffering and to attain happiness, without necessarily requiring the other to belong to me or obey me; the fetter of craving often turns "for your own good" into control. Being intimate without possessing, caring without making the other an extension of the self—that is the more mature relational capacity after untying the fetters.
Misreading four: The fetter of doubt demands blind faith.
Quite the opposite. The fetter of doubt is the indecision that prevents the mind from entering into truthful observation; reading scriptures, investigating meaning, and testing a teacher's words and deeds are all necessary care. The issue is not "whether there are questions," but whether one is willing to verify by proper means and to practice. Blind faith may even nourish the fetters of views and grasping.
Misreading five: The fetter of grasping is grasping any rule whatsoever.
In the nine fetters, the fetter of grasping has a specific domain: grasping of views and grasping of precepts and practices—holding a wrong view as supreme, or holding precepts and rituals that are not the cause of liberation as the cause of liberation. Following traffic rules, work procedures, or Buddhist precepts does not automatically become the fetter of grasping; if one does not understand the purpose and absolutizes some form as "doing only this will surely bring liberation," that approaches the grasping of precepts and practices.
Misreading six: Conceit is only "thinking oneself better than others."
The sevenfold scheme of conceit shows that conceit can also operate through inferiority. As long as the mind keeps manufacturing a self that must be defended through comparison—whether placed at the highest, lowest, or most special position—it may be bound by conceit. Healthy self-esteem can acknowledge strengths and weaknesses without denigrating others, and without casting one's deficiencies into a fixed identity.
Misreading seven: Fetter (結, saṃyojana), binding (縛, bandhana), tethering (繫, paridāna), hindrance (蓋, nīvaraṇa), latent tendency (隨眠, anuśaya), and entangling (纏, paryavasthāna) are synonyms.
They all relate to affliction, but each is named from a different function: the fetter emphasizes conjoining suffering (和合苦); binding emphasizes the mind's inability to attain freedom according to its wholesome wishes—the *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* briefly speaks of the three bindings of craving, aversion, and delusion; tethering emphasizes difficulty in being released; hindrance emphasizes covering and obstructing; latent tendency emphasizes the latent, following character of affliction; entangling emphasizes affliction's present manifestation tangling the mind. The same affliction can be described from different angles, but the conceptual boundaries cannot be flattened away.
Misreading eight: As long as one stays away from triggers, the fetter is cut.
Leaving the situation is sometimes necessary protection, but it is not cutting the fetter. When no one praises you, the fetter of craving for fame may simply be not currently manifest; it appears again in a different environment. This is precisely the reminder of the binding of marks and the binding of coarseness: one must both handle present dragging by environmental marks and gradually transform the deep habits through precepts, concentration, and wisdom. Suppressing is not cutting off; not manifesting temporarily is not ultimate freedom.
In the end, "untying the fetters" is not remaking oneself into a person without feelings or positions, but one who can like without being kidnapped by possessiveness, can refuse harm without repaying aversion with aversion, can achieve without existing through comparison, can raise questions without lingering in doubt, and can use views without casting them into a prison. At this point, "exhaust all fetters, transcend all suffering" is no longer a distant slogan: each time one clearly sees the object, cuts off mutual drawing-along, and does not follow affliction into action, one is untying a joint of suffering; and the path of liberation is to cultivate this temporary loosening until it no longer re-knots.