Kamma Niyāma is the law of will or intention.

Whenever the mind based on previous investigation and classification (of some sense-sphere phenomena) is thinking a thought, that thought will incline in one direction or another (usually dependent on how something was classified).

When that direction of thought, becomes more and more a consistent choice, a yet other faculty will evolve,..the faculty of will.

As the mind makes more consistent choices, the mind and life (of the body), will less and less just follow only their own nature of going after pleasure and seeking for comprehension. As consciousness will follow a definite trend of choice as to what to pay attention to and what to expel, the organism will learn to respond only to some (particular) kinds of stimulation, while the mind will start to seek to understand only that which is important for the will.

The most primitive forms of choices, will be choices directed towards certain objects (supports of mind), (which may include particular environments, or people or experiences). Thus, the mind having willed, will be inclined to drive the organism into habitual contact with a certain object or environment, establishing a definite relation with that object (condition of sampayutta). This will almost inevitably form the main form of will for a human being in the initial phases of life.

Even in cases wherein the emotions are repelled by a particular object or person, this relation will become established, in that the mind being inclined on something, will drive the organism into habitual contact with that object…even for the purpose of further despising it.

Then, with the progression of the life of the body, there will be actions of body and mind that are repeatedly executed, …habitual actions, practices, occupations, or the various forms of learning…and their repeated performance will create further opportunities for their execution in the future.

So will a habit of smoking, make consciousness see opportunities both for smoking and for the gaining of cigarettes.

Training in a sport like boxing, will make consciousness see opportunities for fighting with somebody.

Having a hobby like drawing, will make consciousness see various things that could aid the imagination.

Seeking to become a religious person or training to be a preacher, will make consciousness see opportunities for preaching the religion.

Or having a habit of meditating, will make consciousness see opportunities for sitting down to calm the mind and reflect on a certain thing of interest.

Then, as the mind gains in experiences, grouping them into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, and starts to make more consistent choices in the direction of ‘good’, or based on an conception of ‘good’, the good roots or certain virtues will become established…that is, a ‘good will’ becomes established. With that, the organism will be less bound to be driven to some particular objects or environment, but rather it will be in easy sympathy with anything and anyone who is/ that is symbolising the mind’s considerations of good. While when the mind, distinguishing into ‘good’ and ‘bad’, makes choices repeatedly based on the conception of ‘bad’, the bad roots are getting established, that is, the will becomes sinful or promiscuous…and the organism will be in easy sympathy with any environment, object or person, that are of like(wise) establishment.

Besides, whether the mind is developing a relation with a certain object (/environment, etc.), or is developing a habit, or reflects on the good and bad of things, …that thought or mental condition or intendedness on things, will usually possess a certain time component to it. That is, the object, idea or habit will not just be considered in the present or in relation to the present, but will also be considered about as something of the past and something in the future.

And it is thus, that the intendedness on outer objects will highly condition the life-circumstances of the unfolding future. The habits and practices of body and mind, will have a strong influence as regards to the opportunities of life. While the mind’s considerations of right and wrong will establish the character of body and mind.

As the body grows old, the will (mind) in many cases will more often seek to revoke consolidating thoughts and images from the past. Often while perceiving them, developing new intentions based on them. Thus, one such old kamma may gain new strength, becoming a desire in the mind’s attempt to cling to the life, even when life is just ceasing.* And as the life of the body is gone,…that desire will hold onto some other material akin to its (own) nature. A desire, being immaterial in nature, but possessing a certain amount of force, if it’s nature is of a human-world kind, …as matured human bodies are usually occupied by some conscious or unconscious processes, may find as a suitable receiver only a fertilised ovum, getting drawn to such even if the latter is at a far distance from the body that is left behind.†

In the sense sphere world making kamma will be usually directed to sense-sphere objects. Thus, a human being acquiring an understanding of the law of cause and effect, will start to make calculations as to his future good in the sense-sphere world. And an alike kamma is likely to come up at the near death moment.

When the mind acquires knowledge of things higher than the things of the 5 senses, with time, it starts becoming intent on them. Then, the mind more and more starts driving the inner parts of the organism into the proximity of those higher things. In that, the organism is seeked to become modified to get a feeling of those higher things.

If the will succeeded in this modification of body and mind, and is able to maintain that condition even until the body’s death, …with the falling away of the body, the mind will seek its counterpart in loftier spheres with bodies whose native condition is subtle from the very beginning.

Then there may be cases, wherein the mind is able to live and move purely in ideas. In such case, at the break up of the bodily form, the mind, if powerful enough, will be drawn to spheres wherein there is no matter and only mind and ideas prevail.

In both of the above cases, will due to the much lesser resistance of the matter to the direction(s) of the mind, the working of time also be quite different from that of the sense sphere world. In that, conceptions or perceptions of time will be of a much grander nature, usually encompassing much more of past, present and future.

But then there are also spheres of existence, that are exceedingly hostile to life, that a kammical seed landing there, finds any life-seeking impulses sprouting from within immediately killed off. As there is only suffering prevailing in such sphere, there will be no possibility for forming concepts, including forming a conception of time. It is usually only those kammical seeds that are ending up here, whose inner nature itself is one of utter hostility to life.

*There are four possibilities as to the kamma which will be decisive for the birth to the next life. Strong kamma, habitual kamma, kamma near the moment of death and random kamma. Strong kamma is any strong experience made during the life, or a strong will at the near death moment that deliberately decides where and/or under what circumstances the next birth shall be. Habitual kamma is the habitual inclination of the mind/will which was there for a longer period of time before the approaching death of the body. Kamma near the moment of death, is an aspiration made recently before the approaching death. And for a mind which lacks both wholesome supportive kamma and decisive will, rebirth will usually happen entirely according to random kamma (The kammical seed falling into any form of existence.

† similar to other immaterial forces as radio waves etc.