Can bad karma be created and paid back in the same lifetime

Now, my own children grown, have done the same to me. Am I witnessing Karma in action?

The Buddha specifically warned against trying to speculate about the workings of karma:

“There are these four inconceivables that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about them. Which four? [...] “The [precise working out of the] results of kamma.…

AN 4:77

So it is futile and unhelpful to speculate about karma.

Does Karma that’s played out in the same lifetime mean that you won’t have to carry the consequences into you next lifetime?

Yes, according to the Buddha in AN 3:100:

“Now, a trifling evil deed done by what sort of individual is experienced in the here & now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment? There is the case where a certain individual is developed in [contemplating] the body, developed in virtue, developed in mind, developed in discernment: unrestricted, large-hearted, dwelling with the immeasurable. A trifling evil deed done by this sort of individual is experienced in the here & now, and for the most part barely appears for a moment.

In short, karma may manifest quickly, in the same life. Such manifestation will necessarily mean that you won't carry it to your next rebirth.

The earlier caveat still applies: you can't know with any certainty or precision whether that has happened. To wit, you don't know if what you experienced is the result of karma gained from ignoring your mother, and whether it is manifestation of all the karma you might have gained from that action. In fact, you can't know how much karma - if any - you gained from those past actions.

I see so many examples of direct cause and effect in my own life that I hope that if I deal mindfully with my feelings as a result, that I am paying Karmic debt now .. not in future reincarnations. Is this possible?

I recommend you read the entire Salt Crystal sutta. The Buddha taught that people who are more advanced in their practice will experience karma more immediately, and in that sense "purify" their karmic burden more quickly.

This may or may not apply to your situation, and it's inadvisable to contemplate it too much, much less to get attached to such notions.

Regardless, according to the teachings of karma, if some karma manifests in any life, it is thereby extinguished. Therefore, indeed, if you experience a karmic result, that karma has dissipated.

It can be a result of many factors:

• Consequences of how you treated both your mother and father
• If you raised your children merely with food but without taking the time to instill moral values in them.

• Your current and past behavior with your children

• Children becoming genuinely busy in life after getting jobs or getting married

• Consequences of Karma in a past life

What you can do about it?

• Ask forgiveness from your mother for how you treated her in the past. Whether she cheated on your father is not really your business. It's her Karma. She is still your mother in any case.
• Treat both your parents well and with respect as much as you are able
• Without getting into emotional arguments try to talk to your children nicely and ask if there is a real reason behind them cutting you off
• Practice Upekkha(equanimity) like all parents should when their children leave them after growing up
• Practice Satipatthana mediation to counter your sorrow and expectations. It is the best meditation if you are interested in depleting Karma(Vipaka) and reducing the making of new bad ones within this life itself.

Nope, it is just the result of being born into a mixed up family. You were coping as best you could and that may not have had the best effects on you. At least you can see your problems and try to do something about them. See everyones point of view and try and make amends. Of course I would say that as I don't believe in reincarnation.

I think I understand "kamma" as having two meanings.

One is that it's description of how the present situation (as you see it) came to be -- it results from a (vast) lot of different factors, and not only from your own intentions but other people's too -- for example, whatever your parents' intentions were at the time, had effects and side-effects on you and what you learned from them.

In English there's a phrase "unintended consequences" -- there are, also, "intended consequences" -- so I think of the law of kamma as a law of consequences. It's a very general law? I think it's said that kamma is so complicated than only a Buddha can really understand how it has worked in particular cases.

The other defines kamma as "intentional action" which I think means that we're not helpless to affect the future. The future -- what will happen, how we might feel about and react to that, what we'll do -- is something we have some effect over.

So for example you can intend to be harmless and so on, altruistic, be kind to the people around you -- that is "intention" -- and, acting on that intention should have good (kammic) result.

I think that the four brahma-viharas are recommended as a 'right' way to interact with (a position from which to interact with) people socially.

Sue Hamilton What you called Karma is actually result of Karma ..or the response recieved from commiting a Karma. Karma is a verb not a noun this is a century old mistake ..o k now What you did is DEED Response you recieved ..is REACTION Now I ll explain When you do something you pay then and there not later not in next life How Whatever you do, would intensify your habit of doing that Next time you would commit the same crime with much ease , not so difficult. That is the price you pay for a bad deed. That is ...it becomes easier to repeat

Sue. While I am not suggesting you write an auto-biography, your post is lacking in information. However, making assumptions based on what you wrote and offering mere speculative examples based on what you wrote:

1. Your mother was probably lonely and without support.

2. Having an affair with a married man was possibly a way to have a relationship or gain some companionship and physical affection without the perceived threat of a committed relationship that impinged upon her family and a duty of care she felt she had towards her disabled husband.

3. If you cut your mother out of your life because she had a affair with a married man, this can be perceived as both reasonable and unreasonable.

4. HOWEVER, IMPORTANTLY, you should list or define (to yourself) the reasons why you cut your mother out of your life because these are the actual causes of why you cut your mother out of your life.

5. You should then list or define the reasons (to yourself) why your own children cut you out of their life.

6. These reasons could be related to the mental attitude you had for cutting your mother out of your life; such as you having a lack of forgiveness, a lack of tolerance, being demanding, having a lack of understanding, being morally overzealous, etc.

7. Or the reasons for your children's decision could be due to their own unwholesme mental attitudes.

8. The point is the reasons & causes are either your mental tendencies, your children's mental tendencies or a combination of both.

9. Buddhism teaches various mental attitudes & behaviours are either: (i) wholesome; or (ii) unwholesome.

10. If you get angry a lot or criticise a lot, this can be unwholesome. Therefore, others may reject or avoid you for this.

11. In summary, its all about current attitudes, habitual tendencies & behaviours rather than past & future lives.

12. Therefore, if you have habitual unwholesome qualities that are not changed; the same rejection from others may occur in the future.