Notes on MN 2 Sabbāsava Sutta - All the Effluents
In the Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2), “All the Effluents,” The Buddha teaches that purification comes from knowing how to look. When attention is inappropriate, the mind feeds effluents like sensuality, becoming, and ignorance. When attention is appropriate, those streams dry up. He gives seven methods to remove different toxins in the mind: by seeing, restraining, using, tolerating, avoiding, destroying, and developing. The lesson is simple and sharp: guide attention wisely, apply the right tool to the right problem, and suffering ends.
Summary
Etymology
Sabbā means all or entire.
Āsava means outflow, effluent, fermentation, or taint. It points to streams that leak from ignorance and soak the mind.
Sabbāsava means the ending of all effluents.
Setting
At Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, the Buddha addresses monks and centers the teaching on appropriate attention.
Core Thesis: Appropriate vs Inappropriate Attention
Inappropriate attention fuels unarisen effluents and enlarges those already present.
Appropriate attention prevents the arising of effluents and abandons those present.
Inappropriate attention fixates on speculative identity questions such as “What was I, what will I be, am I something permanent.” This produces a thicket of views and bondage to suffering.
Appropriate attention turns to the Four Noble Truths: this is stress, its origin, its cessation, and the path.
Effluents Named
Sensuality
Becoming, the momentum of identity and existence seeking
Ignorance, not seeing things as they are
Seven Methods, i.e. The Tool Kit
Abandoned by Seeing
See clearly what is fit for attention. Attend to the Four Noble Truths. This cuts three fetters: self identification view, doubt, and grasping at mere rules and rituals.
Primary toxins targeted: ignorance and wrong views.
Abandoned by Restraining
Guard the sense doors, eye through intellect. Meet forms and ideas with mindfulness and composure rather than grasping.
Primary toxins targeted: sensuality and the agitation that follows unguarded contact.
Abandoned by Using
Use robes, food, lodging, and medicine for their true purpose, not for vanity or intoxication.
Primary toxins targeted: sensuality and becoming through craving for requisites.
Abandoned by Tolerating
Patiently endure heat and cold, hunger and thirst, harsh words and painful feelings. Let them pass without retaliation.
Primary toxins targeted: aversion and the ignorance that mistakes discomfort for a command to act.
Abandoned by Avoiding
Steer clear of dangers and unhelpful company. Do not put yourself where the mind is easily stained.
Primary toxins targeted: prevent sensuality and delusion from gaining a foothold.
Abandoned by Destroying
Do not tolerate thoughts of sensuality, ill will, or harmfulness. Drop, replace, and wipe them out when they arise.
Primary toxins targeted: the active fires of greed, hatred, and cruelty.
Abandoned by Developing
Cultivate the seven awakening factors: mindfulness, investigation of qualities, energy, rapture, calm, concentration, equanimity. Depend on seclusion, dispassion, and cessation, with letting go as the fruit.
Primary toxins targeted: the roots of ignorance and becoming, through stable insight and balance.
Result
When each class of effluent is met with its proper method, one is restrained with respect to all effluents, craving is severed, fetters are dropped, and suffering ends.
Practicing During Meditation
Begin with Appropriate Attention
Silently label the frame, “This is stress, its cause, its ending, its path.” Let this question guide you, “Is what I am doing now leading toward ending or toward more fuel.”
See & Name the Effluent
Sensual Pull: notice the stickiness and the mental image planning for pleasure.
Becoming: notice the impulse to narrate a self or a future win.
Ignorance: notice dullness, guessing, or muddledness.
Apply the Right Tool
If the mind is confused, return to the Four Noble Truths and the breath. This is abandoning by seeing.
If contact with a sound or thought keeps snagging attention, narrow the sense field and soften the reaction at the door. This is restraining.
If the posture, breath, or a sip of water is needed, use it for stability, not for indulgence. This is using.
If pain or restlessness spikes, soften the breath, widen awareness, and bear it with kindness for a few cycles. This is tolerating.
If a memory or fantasy keeps derailing you, choose not to enter that alley. Redirect to simple sensation. This is avoiding.
If lust or ill will breaks in, replace the theme: switch to body scanning, metta, or contemplation of impermanence. Drop, relax, reapply attention. This is destroying.
As the mind steadies, deliberately develop the awakening factors: brighten mindfulness, gently investigate, apply just enough energy, allow rapture and calm, settle into collectedness, then evenness.
Close by reviewing: Which effluents arose, which method worked, what to strengthen next session.
Off the Cushion
Attention hygiene
Before news, social feeds, or meetings, ask, “Is this fit for attention.” Choose sources and times that reduce agitation.
Sense restraint at work
Single task. Hide visual clutter. Use notification schedules. Let the eye and ear have fewer hooks.
Wise use of requisites
Food: eat for health and clarity. Pause before eating and set the purpose. Tech: buy and use tools for function, not status. Housing and clothes: choose enough, not excess.
Patient endurance
When discomfort hits, do three things: name it, lengthen the exhale, relax the belly. Do not answer pain with unwise speech or clicks.
Strategic avoidance
Do not test your willpower at midnight in front of an open browser. Change routes, block sites, choose company that uplifts.
Active removal
When resentment starts, write a candid, never sent draft, then replace with a clear, kind message or drop the topic. For craving spirals, stand up, breathe, feel the soles of the feet, switch tasks.
Daily development
Short morning sit to spark mindfulness and investigation.
Midday micro resets for calm and concentration.
Evening gratitude to incline the mind to rapture and equanimity.
Conclusion
Attention is the gate. Aim it well and the mind unfurls.
Use the right method for the job. See, restrain, use, tolerate, avoid, destroy, and develop.
Keep the Four Noble Truths in view. They are the measuring stick for appropriate attention.
Practice on the cushion to learn the moves. Live them off the cushion to keep the mind clean.
Do this steadily and the effluents dry up. What remains is a mind that does not leak.