emptyuniverse

Nibbana and the Cessation of Mental Effluents (Asava)

It's important to emphasize that when we speak of the 'unconditioned,' it's not just in regard to phenomena being ultimately empty. For emptiness to have any soteriological value, the unconditioned must also include realizing emptiness experientially. It's this gnosis (nana) that is liberational. It's liberational because it brings to an end the cognitive and affective effluents that bind us to ongoing samsaric suffering. These mental effluents are: the outflows of sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance itself. They are termed 'effluents' because they 'flow' out of the habitual, deluded mind, creating the metaphoric 'flood' of samsaric birth and death.

And so it's in this soteriological context that Nibbana is said to be the 'supreme emptiness,' because as transcendent gnosis it is empty of these very effluents. This liberation is beautifully and profoundly described in the Dhammapada, verse 93:

Effluents ended, independent of nutriment, their pasture — emptiness & freedom without sign: their trail, like that of birds through space, can't be traced.

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