More info here: http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/karma.htm
....According to Buddhism, there are five orders or processes
(niyama) which operate in the physical and mental realms.
They are:
1. Utu Niyama - physical inorganic order, e.g. seasonal phenomena
of winds and rains. The unerring order of seasons, characteristic
seasonal changes and events, causes of winds and rains, nature of
heat, etc., all belong to this group.
2. Bija Niyama - order of germs and seeds (physical organic order),
e.g. rice produced from rice-seed, sugary taste from sugar-cane or
honey, peculiar characteristics of certain fruits, etc. The
scientific theory of cells and genes and the physical similarity of
twins may be ascribed to this order.
3. Karma Niyama - order of act and result, e.g., desirable and
undesirable acts produce corresponding good and bad results. As
surely as water seeks its own level so does Karma, given
opportunity, produce its inevitable result, not in the form of a
reward or punishment but as an innate sequence. This sequence of
deed and effect is as natural and necessary as the way of the sun
and the moon.
4. Dhamma Niyama - order of the norm, e.g., the natural phenomena
occurring at the advent of a Bodhisattva in his last birth.
Gravitation and other similar laws of nature. The natural reason
for being good and so forth, may be included in this group.
5. Citta Niyama - order or mind or psychic law, e.g., processes of
consciousness, arising and perishing of consciousness, constituents
of consciousness, power of mind, etc., including telepathy,
telaesthesia, retro-cognition, premonition, clairvoyance,
clairaudience, thought-reading and such other psychic phenomena
which are inexplicable to modern science.
Every mental or physical phenomenon could be explained by these
all-embracing five orders or processes which are laws in
themselves. Karma as such is only one of these five orders. Like
all other natural laws they demand no lawgiver.
Of these five, the physical inorganic order and the order of the
norm are more or less mechanistic, though they can be controlled to
some extent by human ingenuity and the power of mind. For example,
fire normally burns, and extreme cold freezes, but man has walked
scatheless over fire and meditated naked on Himalayan snows;
horticulturists have worked marvels with flowers and fruits; Yogis
have performed levitation. Psychic law is equally mechanistic, but
Buddhist training aims at control of mind, which is possible by
right understanding and skilful volition. Karma law operates quite
automatically and, when the Karma is powerful, man cannot interfere
with its inexorable result though he may desire to do so; but here
also right understanding and skilful volition can accomplish much
and mould the future. Good Karma, persisted in, can thwart the
reaping of bad Karma, or as some Western scholars prefer to say
action influence, is certainly an intricate law whose working is
fully comprehended only by a Buddha. The Buddhist aims at the final
destruction of all Karma....
