How to Train a Happy Mind
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The How to Train a Happy Mind podcast brings meditation to modern people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. Each week, host Scott Snibbe and his guests share powerful mind training techniques that go beyond mindfulness to harness our intelligence, emotions, and imagination. Learn how to build a happy mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world through a secular approach to meditation that is based on modern science and psychology, yet grounded in the authentic thousand-year old Tibetan Buddhist tradition of analytical meditation.
How to Train a Happy Mind is a project of the nonprofit Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment. Our host, Scott Snibbe, is a twenty-five-year student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Snibbe is the author of the popular How to Train a Happy Mind book, and leads meditation classes and retreats worldwide infused with science, humor, and the realities of the modern world.
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Rob Hopkins is one of the people doing the most to assure that humanity has a healthy, thriving, and happy future. I was blown away by his new book, How to Fall in Love With the Future, which describes a radical new type of climate activism he's invented. Instead of bemoaning the current state of the world, he invites us to imagine the world we want to live in—that's just around the corner—and then do everything we can to make it a reality. Join me now to find out how to fall in love with the...
This episode turns to one of the most universal human struggles: anger. Scott Snibbe explores how Buddhist psychology defines anger as a delusion: an exaggeration of the negative that blinds us to the good and fuels the wish to harm. Drawing on timeless wisdom, this meditation offers parents (and anyone else who wrestles with anger) practical antidotes rooted in curiosity and compassion. Episode 204: Meditation for Angry Parents Support the show
Host Scott Snibbe offers touching personal stories and a meditation on how to best love our parents and our children using powerful Buddhist teachings and techniques on understanding, listening, and compassion. Episode 76: Loving Our Parents, Loving Our Children Support the show
Join Geshe Sherab for a deeply reflective guided meditation on the emptiness of self—one of the core insights of Buddhist wisdom. Gently explore how the sense of “I” arises, appears, and ultimately dissolves under careful examination. This session invites you to rest in the awareness that the self, as it seems, is empty of inherent existence—opening the door to deeper freedom, compassion, and clarity. This guided journey is perfect for both beginners and experienced practitioners looking to d...
We’ve reached the last in our series of episodes this year on Buddhism’s six perfections. The final perfection is described as emptiness, wisdom, or insight. These are all ways of naming the indescribable experience of discovering ourselves to be utterly interconnected with all of life, the universe, and everything. My guest for this profound, but sometimes difficult-to-grasp subject is Geshe Sherab. For those unfamiliar with the title Geshe, it refers to those who have completed a 20-year co...
This rebroadcast episode is in honor of the recent passing of Dr. Larry Ward. May his wisdom live on. *** Dr. Larry Ward—student of Thich Nhat Hanh and author of America's Racial Karma—leads a short but powerful breath awareness meditation. Episode 191: 5-Minute Breath Awareness Meditation Support the show
This rebroadcast episode is in honor of the recent passing of Dr. Larry Ward. May his wisdom live on. *** Scott talks with Dr. Larry Ward, a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, and author of America's Racial Karma. His book is about how we heal from the trauma of racism, not just as a society, but in our own minds and bodies. In our conversation, Dr. Ward shares a profound truth: racism is a fiction, but one with very real consequences, and it lives not only in the structures of our society, but in o...
1What happens when you die? No one knows for sure. But the Tibetan Buddhist system describes a precise series of steps that our consciousness may experience as we die, which we can explore in a meditation to probe the boundary of life and death with curiosity and wonder. Episode 58: What Happens When You Die? Support the show
The idea of past lives may not make sense, and isn’t scientifically verifiable. But still, the question of what we might have been before our conception is one worth asking. Where did I come from? Episode 57: Where Did I Come From? Support the show
Dr. David Kittay stands out as one of the most expansive, intelligent, creative, and warmhearted thinkers of our time. His course at Columbia University, Technology, Religion, Future, is often described as “life-changing” for its exploration of how technology intersects with humanity’s deepest questions. In an earlier conversation with Scott, before the AI boom, he offered insights that felt ahead of their time—making his return now all the more vital as we face a profound question: Can artif...
We can't believe this is our 200th episode! For this special occasion, we wanted to share a talk and meditation Scott Snibbe offered in our Train a Happy Mind community a couple of weeks ago called “Is enlightenment possible?” Over the years, Scott's ideas of enlightenment have evolved as he's interviewed some of the world's foremost teachers and scholars of Buddhism like Dr. Jan Willis, Dr. Robert Thurman, Thupten Jinpa, and Tenzin Palmo. This episode is a reflection of these new under...
Today we’re sharing a guided meditation from the wonderful Venerable René Feusi (Scott Snibbe's long-time teacher). Settle in, find a comfortable seat, and let René’s clear, grounded guidance open the warm heart of awareness within you. Episode #199: The Warm Heart of Awareness: A Meditation with Ven. René Feusi Support the show
It turns out that many of the greatest living Buddhist teachers are also some of the hardest to receive teachings from. Lacking ego, they have no need to promote themselves. This is the case with Scott's closest teacher, Venerable René Feusi. Out of a wish to maintain his solitude and focus on long-term students—and probably mostly out of humility—Venerable René has always declined Scott's invitations to appear on this podcast. But last year he gave a public talk at Tse Chen Ling Center...
This 20 minute guided meditation comes from the sequence Scott shares in the How to Train a Happy Mind podcast and book. The stages are based on the Tibetan Buddhist lamrim, which was created more than a thousand years ago by the Indian Master Atisha Dipankar. Over the past decade, Scott has adapted it to be a non-religious way to transform the mind from states of frustration, craving, and loneliness to states of satisfaction, connection, and meaning. Scott leads live meditations ...
Welcome to this guided meditation on accessing joy with Tenzin Chogkyi. In this practice, we’ll take time to settle the body, connect with the breath, and gently open to the feeling of joy. Episode 196: Joyful Effort: A Guided Meditation with Tenzin Chogkyi Support the show
Instead of the episode we had planned to share today, a meditation from Tenzin Chogkyi as part of her beautiful conversation on joy, we're postponing that release by a week. In its place, we're sharing a meditation Scott Snibbe led just a couple of days ago with our Train a Happy Mind community. This meditation was recorded the day after the United States launched a new bombing campaign in Iran. In response, Scott reflects on the roots of violence, both in our world and in our minds, a...
Today's guest is Tenzin Chogkyi, one of our most popular guests, and she's back to talk about another one of the six perfections that we've been talking with other guests about this year. This one is enthusiasm or joyful effort. She talks about not just the Buddhist ideas of enthusiasm, but how to maintain our joy and enthusiasm in life when things are difficult or even when we get too much of a good thing. Episode 194: Joy and Enthusiasm—Even When Life's Hard—with Tenzin Chogkyi Suppor...
Scott Snibbe leads a 10-minute guided meditation that is based on the sequence he shares in the How to Train a Happy Mind podcast and book. Many Tibetan Buddhists do this meditation every day. If you don't have much time or want to start small, this is a good place to begin. It touches on the precious life, impermanence, cause and effect, suffering, renunciation, love, compassion, and interdependence. Episode 193: 10-Minute Path to a Happy Mind Guided Meditation Support the show
"I'll tell you something. I've learned it's hard work to be happy." Brian Wilson In this special retreat episode, Scott Snibbe guides us through the full path to a happy mind—from appreciating the simple miracle of being alive to confronting our deepest mental habits and reconnecting with our capacity for kindness, meaning, and change. It’s not a quick fix or a life hack. It’s the whole path. And it might just shift how you see the world. Episode 192: The Complete Path to a Happy Mind Sup...
Dr. Larry Ward—student of Thich Nhat Hanh and author of America's Racial Karma—leads a short but powerful breath awareness meditation. Episode 191: 5-Minute Breath Awareness Meditation Support the show
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