ผลดีที่ยังไม่ปรากฏไม่ได้แปลว่าทำดีแล้วไม่ได้ดี แต่เป็นเพราะกฎแห่งกรรมยังให้ผลไม่เต็มส่วน และทุกอย่างล้วนมีวาระของมันเองA delayed good result doesn't mean doing good goes unrewarded — it's because the law of karma hasn't yet given its full share, and everything has its own turn to arrive.
Someone asked: if we remain established in the system of , good results should surely follow — so why does that result sometimes take so long, or not appear at all?
Pra Ajarn explained there are two reasons. The first is that the law of karma has not yet given its full share of result. It's like saving up to buy a phone that costs ten thousand baht — you save a hundred, then two hundred, accumulating bit by bit until you reach the full ten thousand, and only then can the exchange happen. If you've only saved one or two thousand, no matter how long you've been saving, you still can't buy it, because it hasn't reached its full value yet. The wholesome we accumulate works the same way: if it hasn't reached its full share, the result can't yet be given.
The second reason is that everything has its own turn, its own place in the queue — like buying something or riding the train, where whoever arrives first gets served first. The ripening of good karma is the same: even once the merit is complete, it sometimes still has to wait for its proper turn before the result appears.
Understanding both of these makes clear why doing good for a long time doesn't always show results right away. It isn't that doing good goes unrewarded — it's simply that the merit hasn't reached its full share yet, or its turn hasn't yet come.