With regard to the time of the taking place of the karma-result (vipāka), one distinguishes, as mentioned above, 3 kinds of karma:
- karma ripening during the life-time (dittha-dhamma-vedanīya kamma);
- karma ripening in the next birth (upapajja-vedanīya-kamma);
- karma ripening in later births (aparāpariya-vedanīya-kamma).
The first two kinds of karma may be without karma-result (vipāka), if the circumstances required for the taking place of the karma-result are missing, or if, through the preponderance of counteractive karma and their being too weak, they are unable to produce any result. In this case they are called ahosi-kamma, lit. ‘karma that has been’, in other words, ineffectual karma.
The third type of karma, however, which bears fruit in later lives, will, whenever and wherever there is an opportunity, be productive of karma-result. Before its result has ripened, it will never become ineffective as long as the life-process is kept going by craving and ignorance.