Christian,
mn136 sujato: Mahakammavibhangasutta.
towards the very end is the resume’:
~Now, Ānanda, take the case of the person here who refrained from killing living creatures … and had right view, and who is reborn in hell.
They must have done a bad deed to be experienced as painful either previously or later, or else at the time of death they undertook wrong view.
And that’s why, when their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in a place of loss, a bad place, the underworld, hell.
But anyone here who refrains from killing living creatures … and has right view experiences the result of that in the present life, or in the next life, or in some subsequent period.
So, Ānanda, there are deeds that are ineffective and appear ineffective. There are deeds that are ineffective but appear effective. There are deeds that are effective and appear effective. And there are deeds that are effective but appear ineffective”
On reflection, the meaning behind the words bhabba/abhabba (translated as ‘effective /ineffective’ by Sujato) seems to be more in the sense of: bhabba, with a cause, a seed already existent, and ‘fit’ for the effect to manifest (in the absence of stronger kamma beeja to manifest in those conditions AT THAT TIME). Abhabba, though the deed is there, the conditions are not right because stronger kamma beeja take precedence AT THAT TIME. Is this indeed the meaning of bhabba/abhabba?
‘Immediately effective’ would have been much better because all deeds have the potency for the effect sooner or later, are ‘effective’ (for 91 mahakappas or until Arahanthood is attained within that time).