Kevin Schanilec: Teacher on Buddhist Fetters

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Kevin Schanilec, based near Seattle, created the spiritually-oriented website Simply The Seen. Kevin Schanilec shares his personal journey toward awakening—a profound shift beyond the sense of a separate "me"—through tools and insights derived from traditional Buddhist teachings, especially the notion of “fetters."

Kevin Schanilec's Focus: Awakening & The Fetters

The central message is drawn from a fundamental Buddhist instruction—revealed in the dialogue between the Buddha and the monk Bahiya:

“In the seen, there is simply the seen; in the heard, simply the heard...” leading to the insight that there is no “you” present, a realization which leads to the end of suffering.

Awakening then involves perceiving experiences as they are—without an interpreting or owning "me"—stripping away the assumption of a separate self.

This isn't about escaping reality or emotions. Instead, it means suffering eventually no longer arises.

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Kevin Schanilec's Method: The Ten Fetters and Unfettering

Fetters: Beliefs That Obscure Awakening

The Simply The Seen website defines the ten "fetters" as layers of beliefs that sustain a sense of separate self. The fetters are described as follows:

Self-view (belief in a separate self)
Doubt & perplexity
Attachment to rites and rituals
Desire
Ill-will
Subjectivity (sense of experiencer)
Perception (objects perceived as real)
“I Am” illusion (very subtle identity sense)
Restlessness
Not-knowing

These mirror traditional Buddhist lists of fetters and are reinterpreted by Kevin Schanilec in a practical way.

A Quick Overview of The Fetters

1. Self-view – The core belief that there is a separate “me” at the center of experience. This sense of being an individual who perceives, controls, and owns life events gives rise to suffering, since everything is interpreted as happening to me. Letting go of this assumption reveals experience as just happening—without an owner.

2. Doubt & perplexity – The lingering uncertainty about awakening, the path, or whether freedom is even possible. This doubt keeps the mind restless and searching, reinforcing the need for conceptual certainty. Releasing this fetter means trusting direct experience instead of clinging to speculation.

3. Attachment to rites & rituals – The belief that certain external practices, ceremonies, or techniques are inherently necessary for liberation. This includes magical thinking around meditation styles, rules, or traditions. Awakening requires seeing that no practice by itself delivers freedom—the shift comes from insight, not ritual.

4. Desire – The pull of wanting pleasure and clinging to satisfying experiences—whether food, sex, possessions, or even “positive states” in meditation. This desire assumes fulfillment lies outside oneself. When released, pleasures can still be enjoyed, but without the compulsion or grasping that turns them into suffering.

5. Ill-will – The push of aversion, irritation, anger, or resistance toward unwanted experiences. This fetter is the mirror of desire: instead of grasping for what is liked, the mind fights what is disliked. Letting go of ill-will reveals a natural ease with whatever arises, without needing to resist or control it.

Reactivity - Fetters 4 & 5 with Kevin Schanilec

6. Subjectivity (sense of experiencer) – Even after the obvious “self” dissolves, a subtle sense remains of being the subject who perceives objects. There still seems to be a vantage point behind the eyes or inside the head. Releasing this fetter collapses the subject–object split, leaving only raw experience with no perceiver behind it.

Separation Dissolves - Fetter 6 with Kevin Schanilec

7. Perception (objects as real things) – Experiences are still taken as solid, independent “things”—trees, thoughts, sensations—that exist in themselves. This reification sustains a world of apparent separation. When perception is seen through, phenomena lose solidity and become transparent movements, empty of inherent existence.

Form is Emptiness - Fetter 7 with Kevin Schanilec

8. The “I Am” illusion – A very refined identity clinging remains—the subtle sense of pure being or “I exist.” It is not tied to a story or body but to the feeling of presence itself. Seeing through this fetter reveals that even pure being is just another conditioned appearance, not a true self.

Illusion of Self Ends - Fetter 8 with Kevin Schanilec

9. Restlessness – The mind’s subtle tendency to search, seek, and reach for something more—even when gross desires are gone. This can appear as spiritual striving, curiosity, or energetic agitation. Letting go of restlessness allows the mind to settle completely in the immediacy of what is, without any movement away.

10. Not-knowing (ignorance) – The final veil, the inability to see experience as fully unconditioned, empty, and complete. At this stage, there is no longer a self or separation, but the mind still subtly misperceives reality as if something is hidden. When this dissolves, there is complete clarity and liberation—no more distortions.

End of Suffering - Fetters 9 & 10 with Kevin Schanilec

Kevin Schanilec's Approach to Unfettering

Unfettering Practice

The approach is to retrace how identity (self-concept) was built layer by layer, using direct experience to test whether each belief (fetter) actually holds.
The process is often sequential (1 through 10), though nonlinear approaches are possible.

Practical Application & Experience
Readers begin by understanding what awakening is and isn’t, the purpose of the ten fetters, how to recognize shifts in perspective, and how to track progress.

Self-Guiding Outlines
Practical outlines are provided for working through each fetter—either independently or as support for dialogues.

Writings & Essays

Awakening from Conditioning: Kevin offers essays and a translation/commentary on a shorter discourse by the Buddha about emptiness, impermanence, and conditionality.
Reconciling the Heart Sutra: Kevin explores context and meaning through his fresh translation.
The Three Reminders and Going Beyond “I Am”: Kevin offers additional explorations of conditioned/unconditioned experiences.

Signless & Formless States
Advanced teachings delve into subtle meditative states, such as the signless state, where one witnesses perception without grasping, discerning, or “signing” experience.

FAQs & Awakening Guidance

Duration: Awakening timelines vary. It often takes many months at a minimum. Time after each shift is provided to allow integration.
Working Alone or with a Guide: Both paths are possible. Kevin guided many people initially, but currently is not taking new dialogues, and there's no guide network.
Approach Differences: The method emphasizes the complete disappearance of “me,” which is not guaranteed by all Buddhist or nondual teachings.
Mental Health Warning: If you have mental health concerns, seek professional advice before engaging deeply. Agitation, trauma release, or energy surges are common.

Final Thoughts on Kevin Schanilec

Simply The Seen offers a deeply grounded, experiential path to awakening—one that reframes classic Buddhist insights into modern, practical language. By guiding readers through the process of deconstructing the self (fetters), it illustrates how suffering can cease—not as a theoretical ideal, but as a direct, measurable shift in daily experience.

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