What is effluent?

The [Brahmana Sutta](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn51/sn51.015.than.html) , for example, mentions "effluent": > So it is with an arahant whose mental effluents are ended ... Or in [Adhimutta](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/thag/thag.16.01.than.html) , > One gone to the far shore without clinging without effluent his task completed, welcomes the ending of life, as if freed from a place of execution. This [Glossary](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/glossary.html#asava) gives a definition but I don't really understand it, > āsava: Mental effluent, pollutant, or fermentation. Four qualities — sensuality, views, becoming, and ignorance — that "flow out" of the mind and create the flood of the round of death and rebirth. There's a longer (perhaps easier to understand) article on Wikipedia: [Āsava](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asava) --- - What is "effluent" (do you have anything to add to the Glossary and Wikipedia definitions above)? - What is the difference (or connection) between "karma" and "effluent"? - Is there a specific practice for ending "effluents"? Are they an effect or a cause? - Three of these effluents (ignorance, becoming, and sensuality) are also listed as 'defilements' ... what kinds of 'views' are considered effluent? If this is too many questions, please feel free to answer just one or two.