Scarborough Weekend: Karma and Everyday Life
13-14 September 2025
Grasping the key of Karma sets you free!
Karma is a mythical word. For some, it means fate or lack of free will. For others, it is a sort of cosmic judgment. But for Buddhist practitioners over two millennia, looking deeply into the workings of cause and effect is a central tool in freeing us from unnecessary suffering.
In this 2-day course at the lovely Londesborough Lodge KSD in Scarborough, Alistair will emphasise the transformative impact of working with karma in our day-to-day lives.
You'll learn:
the various teachings of karma in all three Buddhist traditions
how cause and effect work on macroscopic and microscopic levels
how intention is the key to karma
what happens when we pay attention to our karma in a fearless way
how everyday life can improve with a little karma maintenance
what it means to be a karmic person in the 21st century
So, join the wonderfully warm Scarborough group and make friends with one of the most powerful forces in the universe.
Why should I care about karma?
Some of the Buddhist writing about literature is fiendishly complex and the Buddha himself warned that obsessing too much about the complexities of cause and effect can be a hindrance.
We can never know the infinitely tangled reasons why something happens in our life. As Carl Sagan famously pointed out, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."
That said, just because karma is complex doesn't mean we should ignore it. Understanding the basics of karmic connection and cause and effect sheds so much light on the tangles we can get into mentally and physically.
The genius practitioners of Buddhism traced the most minute movements of cause-and-effect in the compendium of Buddhist psychology called the Abdhidharma. And Alistair will be drawing on this foundational teaching to begin our journey.
But this is not an esoteric exploration of the mind. Understanding Karma makes us calmer (if you'll excuse the pun). This weekend will do the following:
reduce needless guilt
increase sympathy with others and forgiveness
massively reduce proliferating mental discursiveness
sharpen our ability to show remorse and make repair
allow us to relax and enjoy good things
increase our tolerance of discomfort and sickness
prepare us for a peaceful deathbed
Pricing and concessions
Mindsprings is well aware that many people are having to tighten their belts at the moment, financially. So we offer two prices for this weekend. A full, supporters fee which helps us cover our costs and a subsidised concessionary rate for any of you who are struggling financially.
Paying the full fee allows us to invite more people on the lower rate. But if you would even struggle to pay that reduced ticket rate then please do drop us a line.
We never want people to miss out on meditation because of poxy old money. We can sort something out for you.
• The course begins at 10am and finishes at 5pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday. We'll have an hour for lunch and a couple of 15 minute tea-breaks. If you can get to Londesborough Lodge early on Saturday to make sure we can start promptly that would be great. We'll have time for tea and biscuits!
• The postcode of the centre is YO11 2PW and their website is yorkshire.samye.org and their email is admin@yorkshire.samye.org.
• The centre has a kitchen with a microwave so some people like to bring their own lunch but there are also several nice eateries in the town.
• We'll be using the beautiful Shrine Room (upstairs) and sitting in chairs in a circle.
• The weekend will consist of practice sessions, some instruction and discussion, working in smaller groups and some individual processing.
• We'll provide electronic notes after the course so you don't need to write things down though it would be great if you could bring a pen and some paper or a notebook for some of the exercises. Recordings of the teaching will also be sent out after the course.
• The Shrine Room can be a little cool so please bring some layers, especially if you feel the cold.
• If you have any specific psychological concerns, are on prescription psychiatric medication or have a condition that you think I should know about before the course then please do let me know in a private email.
About the teacher
Alistair is a broadcaster, psychotherapist and meditation teacher.
He's worked for the BBC for more than 20 years and works as a UKCP-accredited therapist in East Sussex. Since 2004, he's run Mindsprings, his therapeutic meditation organisation which teaches body-based and Buddhist solutions to many of our everyday problems.
Mindsprings offers popular meditation-based courses on many subjects:
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helping people with anxiety, dissociation, stress.
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working with mental health in the LGBTQ community.
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exploring the growing field of embodiment and somatic practices.
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teaching Buddhist practices for mental health and well-being
Alistair teaches in England, Wales, Scotland, Belgium, Ireland, Sweden, Iceland and the Netherlands.
The Scarborough Centre is in the beautiful Georgian Londesborough Lodge in the Crescent. There is some parking at the centre or in the Crescent. The two nearby hotels The Crescent and the Bike & Boot offer accommodation very close by, so you might like to make a weekend stay - or add it to a Yorkshire trip exploring the Moors, the Brontë's Haworth, the ancient city of York and the magical coastal town of Whitby.