How to Train a Happy Mind
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© 2025 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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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 From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind...
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? From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper ca...
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? From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It ...
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 From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deep...
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 From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving r...
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 From A...
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 From August 28 to 31, Scott Sn...
"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 Fro...
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 From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of ...
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 our thoughts, our speech, and our nervous systems. Episode 190: Healing America's Racial Karma with Larry W...
Who am I? From the Buddhist perspective, there’s a systematic way of asking this question of who you are in the form of a meditation on the ultimate nature of the self, or "emptiness." This meditation is said to be the strongest antidote to our disturbing states of mind and a cause for greater self-awareness, happiness, and connection with others. Episode 43: Guided Meditation — The Interdependent Self From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani...
Are you your body? Are you your mind? Are you a collection of thoughts, memories, and neural connections that could be uploaded into a computer to live forever? Or are you an old-fashioned soul? This episode probes the nature of the self using the Buddhist notion of emptiness, searching for the partless, independent, unchanging "I" that ordinarily appears to us, and finding a self that's far richer and interconnected with reality and with others. Episode 42: Who am I? From August 28 to 31, ...
Susan Piver leads a short breath awareness meditation in this week's podcast episode. If you were to go down the Buddhist path, you would start with this practice before starting with visualizations, guru yogas, mantras, mandala practices. It's a simple practice that is suitable for all. Episode 189: Mindfulness Awareness Meditation with Susan Piver From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, a...
This year, we're using the framework of Buddhism's Six Perfections to guide most of our episodes. Our last one with returning guest and activist Kazu Haga, focused on patience or not returning harm. This week, another favorite of the podcast is back, Susan Piver. She and I talk and riff on her new book, Inexplicable Joy, which explores one of Buddhism's most famous and mysterious texts, the heart sutra. This profound text is all about the perfection of wisdom, emptiness, and the ultimat...
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