Classification of Kamma

There are moral and immoral actions which may produce their due effects in this very life. They are called "Immediately Effective - Dittha Dhamma Vedaniya Kamma." If they do not operate in this life, they become "ineffective - Ahosi".

There are some actions which may produce their effects in a subsequent life. They are termed "Subsequently Effective - Apapajja Vedaniya Kamma". They too become ineffective if they do not operate in the second birth.

Those actions may produce their effects in any life in the course of one's wandering in the Samsara, are known as "Indefinitely Effective - Aparapariya Vedaniya Kamma/"

This classification of Kamma is with reference to the time in which effect are worked out.

There are four classes of Kamma according to function-Kicca.

Every birth is conditioned by past good and bad kamma that predominates at the moment of death. The Kamma that conditions the future birth is called "Reproductive - Janaka Kamma."

Now another Kamma may step forward to assist or maintain the action of this Reproductive Kamma. Just as this Kamma has the tendency to strengthen the Reproductive Kamma, some other action which tends to weaken, interrupt, the fruition of the Reproductive Kammamay step in. Such actions are respectively termed "Supportive - Upatthambhaka Kamma"and "Counteractive - Upapidaka Kamma".

According to the law of Kamma, the potential energy of the Reproductive Kamma could be nullified by a more powerful opposing Kamma of the past which, seeking an opportunity, may quite unexpectedly operate, just as a powerful opposing force can check the path of the flying arrow and bring it does to the ground. Such an action is called "Destructive - Upaghataka Kamma", which is more effective than Supportive and Counteractive Kamma in that it not only obstructs but also destroys the whole force.

There are four classes of Kamma according to the priority of effect.

The first is Garuka, which means weighty or serious. This Kamma, which is good or bad, produces results in this life, or in the next for certain. If good, it is purely mental as in the case of Jhanas - Ecstasies. Otherwise it is verbal or bodily.

The five kinds of Weighty Kamma are:-

i) Matricide

ii) Parricide

iii) the murder of an Arahant

iv) the mounding of the Buddha

v) the creation of a Schism in the Sangha

Permanent Skepticism - Niyata Micchaditthi is also termed on of the Weighty Kammas.

In the absence of a Weighty Kamma to condition the next birth, a death-proximity Kamma - asanna might operate. This is the Kamma one does immediately before the dying moment.

Habitual - Acinna Kamma is the next in the priority of effect. It is the Kamma that one habitually performs and recollects and for which one has a great liking.

The forth is the "Cumulative - Katatta Kamma", which embraces all that cannot be included in the above three. This is as it were the reverse fund of a particular being.

The last classification is according to the place in which the Kamma effects transpire, namely: -

i) Evil Kamma - Akusala, which may ripen in the Sentient - Kamaloka

ii) Good Kammaa - Kuasla, which may ripen in the Sentient Plane.

iii) Good Kamma, which may ripen in the Realm of Form - Rupaloka.

iv) Good Kamma, which may ripen in the Formless Realms - Arupaloka