Sense desire is the fourth fetter and ill will or hatred is the fifth of the ten fetters. Thus we wonder why there are Five Hindrances and Ten Fetters. These fourth and fifth fetters are the same as the first two hindrances.
According to the Pali canon, if we can break the first three fetters of sakkaya ditthi (the first hindrance is sense desire but sense desire can arise only in the context of a false/wrong sense of self), doubt (the fifth hindrance), and belief in the efficacy of rites and rituals, and at least weaken the fourth and the fifth fetters, we become a “once returner.” That sounds better than a mere “stream enterer” who still faces seven lifetimes!
As we learn in Intermediate Zen, the antidote to sense desire is jhana practice, and as we learn in Beginning Zen, the antidote to ill will is metta/lovingkindness meditation.
One who has completely broken each fetter of the first five fetters is a “non-returner.” I guess that means that a deluded self is then experiencing its last sojourn in the human dharma realm. However, there are still five more fetters to break before one becomes an Arhat or Arahant.
And, according to the Mahayana sutras, even the Arhats have more work to do. They have transcended the human dharma realm, only to arrive in the lowest of the four heavens because they obtained enlightenment for their own benefit, not the benefit of others.
That seems unfair. To break the ten fetters obviously includes breaking the first fetter, that of sakkaya ditthi. So to become an Arhat requires a Right View of self, i.e., understanding the First Noble Truth. One who has understood the First Noble Truth has the right sense of self, samma ditthi, and does everything for the benefit of others. To assert that Arhats attain enlightenment for a selfish reason doesn’t hold water.
So let’s work on at least weakening the fetters of sense desire, which includes everything from wanting to go to Disney World, wanting a big fat sandwich, to wanting to have babies and raise children. Master Hsuan Hua said that when he overcame sense desires, he was a walking dead man. As Mary Poppins would say, that doesn’t sound attractive at all to my way of thinking. But he just meant that he was happy because he desired nothing.
It is not difficult to weaken the fifth fetter/second hindrance of ill will and hatred, except when in the society of Tea Party ignoramuses who vote against their own self-interests or other right-wingers with nasty views that only the mean-minded can embrace. W can try to remember that they see the world through paranoid, fearful eyes, and we can be glad that our own world view, although admittedly still deluded, is at least more holistic.
When thoughts of self and other have evaporated under the dint of daily practice of the Buddhadharma, even the most racsist and mis-informed members of the body politic will be seen differently. They are incredibly mean, out to dominate everyone, and unable to see their own stupidity because they are trapped, as once were we, by ill will and hatred arising from the strong and wrong sense of self, the power of sakkaya ditthi.
