saṃyojana
Fetters
[ sum-YOH-ja-na ]
Seeing it in life
Sakkāya-diṭṭhi, vicikicchā, sīlabbata-parāmāsa, kāma-rāga, paṭigha, rūpa-rāga, arūpa-rāga, māna, uddhacca, avijjā. Each path uproots specific fetters.
In short
Ten bonds that tie beings to saṃsāra.
The analysis
Ten fetters bind beings to saṃsāra: sakkāya-diṭṭhi, vicikicchā, sīlabbata-parāmāsa, kāma-rāga, paṭigha, rūpa-rāga, arūpa-rāga, māna, uddhacca, avijjā. Each of the four path-moments uproots a specific subset: the first three at stream-entry, kāma-rāga and paṭigha weakened at once-returning and fully abandoned at non-returning, the remaining five only at arahantship.
Where it sits
Saṃyojana provides the structural map underlying the four stages of ariya-hood — 'stream-enterer,' 'once-returner,' and so on aren't titles bestowed for effort, but precise descriptions of which fetters have been severed.
No single everyday example captures the fetters as a set — they're a structural, doctrinal taxonomy describing specific defilements, tracked individually rather than experienced as one unified feeling.
Commonly mistaken for
A single obstacle to overcome all at once. Ten distinct fetters are enumerated, severed in a specific sequence across four separate path-moments.
The same as the unwholesome roots. The fetters are a related but distinct classification, mapped specifically onto the four stages of awakening.
Saṃyojana Sutta (SN 45.180); Abhidhammattha Saṅgaha IX.
Related terms