Explore every episode of the podcast How to Train a Happy Mind
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Should I Meditate With My Doctor? | Shireen Mansouri #232 | 13 Oct 2026 | 00:38:54 | |
What if your doctor could help you feel better just by being more present? Scott Snibbe talks with Dr. Shireen Mansouri, a Canadian physician and teacher with the Compassion Institute, about how meditation and compassion can transform the experience of healthcare for both doctors and patients. Drawing on her own experience, Shireen shares how a daily meditation practice has helped her become more present, less stressed, and more connected to her patients. She also explains how she quietly practices tonglen, a Tibetan Buddhist compassion meditation, during difficult conversations, and why compassion fatigue might actually be something else entirely. Together, they explore the science behind compassionate care, the role of meditation in healing, and how even a few mindful breaths can change what we say next. Episode 232: Should I Meditate With My Doctor? If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Compassion Meditation #29 [rebroadcast] | 06 Oct 2026 | 00:16:23 | |
A 15-minute guided meditation on compassion: the wish to take away others’ suffering. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| What is Compassion? #28 [rebroadcast] | 29 Sep 2026 | 00:25:39 | |
Compassion is starting to rival mindfulness as the next most popular up-and-coming form of secular meditation. But what is compassion? Compassion, from the Buddhist perspective, is not just empathizing with others’ suffering, but actively wishing to take it away. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| A Compassion Meditation for Difficult Moments — Aproteem Choudhury #231 | 22 Sep 2026 | 00:12:37 | |
In this episode, Aproteem Choudhury offers a gentle compassion meditation for those moments when something difficult is asking for our attention. Rather than turning away from discomfort or trying to fix it, this practice invites us to acknowledge what’s here and meet it with care. Along the way, Aproteem reminds us that we’re not alone in our struggles and encourages us to listen for the wise and compassionate response that may already be available to us. Episode 231: A Compassion Meditation for Difficult Moments — Aproteem Choudhury If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Compassion Means We're Not Alone — Aproteem Choudhury #230 | 15 Sep 2026 | 00:40:46 | |
Can compassion make loneliness less convincing? Episode 230. Compassion Means We're Not Alone — Aproteem Choudhury If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| How Compassion Helps Us Through High-Stress Situations—Stephen Butler #229 | 08 Sep 2026 | 00:43:17 | |
What does compassion look like when we’re facing intense stress, trauma, or pressure? In this episode, we talk with Stephen Butler, Executive Director of the Compassion Institute, about how we can strengthen our innate capacity for compassion and use it to meet difficult situations with greater courage and resilience. Episode 229: How Compassion Helps Us Through High-Stress Situations If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Meditation on Love #26 [rebroadcast] | 01 Sep 2026 | 00:22:03 | |
A guided meditation on love, or loving-kindness, the expansive form of love, wishing happiness not only to friends and family but to all beings everywhere, including our enemies. In the language of Buddhism, it is metta or maitri. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| What is Love? #25 [rebroadcast] | 25 Aug 2026 | 00:21:41 | |
Love is complex in our culture, tied up with finding a single person to satisfy our huge list of needs and dreams, whom we then grant the exclusive gift of our affection. But love—loving-kindness from the Buddhist perspective—is simpler, free from attachment. It's wishing others to be happy. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Healthy Masculinity: A Meditation on Sex, Strength, and Love #228 | 18 Aug 2026 | 00:32:00 | |
A guided meditation led by Scott Snibbe on healthy masculinity, exploring sexuality, strength, compassion, self-acceptance, and emotional connection to help men feel more whole, grounded, and deeply connected with themselves and others. Episode 228: Healthy Masculinity: A Meditation on Sex, Strength, and Love If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity #227 | 11 Aug 2026 | 00:43:01 | |
Karen Brody has a unique perspective on modern masculinity, intimacy, and sexuality. She explores why men and women can misunderstand each other, how sexual confidence differs from neediness, what keeps love alive over decades together, and the surprising parallels between her work and Buddhist practice in transforming desire rather than suppressing it. Episode 227. Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Meditation: Transforming Bias with Equanimity #23 [rebroadcast] | 04 Aug 2026 | 00:20:15 | |
The Buddhist meditation on equanimity teaches a technique to eliminate bias and expand our love and concern from family and friends to strangers and even enemies. It tames our fierce attachment to loved ones and our anger toward enemies for a stabler, happier mind and a more just and equitable world. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Spiritual Democracy #22 [rebroadcast] | 28 Jul 2026 | 00:30:21 | |
In everyday life, we’re torn between fierce attachment to our loved ones and anger at those that give us trouble. But Buddhism, democracy, and social justice tell us that all people deserve the same rights and freedoms: we’re all equal, and we all deserve happiness. The Buddhist meditation on equanimity, applied to our everyday relationships and the painful daily news, teaches us a technique of “spiritual democracy” for developing healthy feelings of connection to others—even those we most despise. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Meditation to Cultivate Hope for the Future | Geshe Legtsok #226 | 21 Jul 2026 | 00:28:00 | |
When uncertainty and bad news pull the mind toward pessimism, how can we cultivate genuine hope without ignoring reality? Episode 226: Meditation to Cultivate Hope for the Future | Geshe Legtsok If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Is This Actually the Best Time to Be Alive? — Geshe Legtsok #225 | 14 Jul 2026 | 00:40:35 | |
What if we've been looking at the modern world all wrong? Despite the headlines, extreme poverty has plummeted, knowledge is more accessible than ever, and ancient meditation practices are spreading across the globe. In this conversation, Geshe Tenzin Legtsok suggests that humanity may not be living in the worst of times, but on the edge of an unprecedented opportunity for wisdom, compassion, and human flourishing. Episode 225: Is This Actually the Best Time to Be Alive? — Geshe Legtsok If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| The Determination to Be Free - Guided Meditation on Renunciation #18 [rebroadcast] | 07 Jul 2026 | 00:24:39 | |
Dostoevsky is often credited with saying, “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.” The practice of renunciation begins by recognizing the ways we're already trapped—by anger, craving, impatience, and the endless search for satisfaction outside ourselves. This meditation helps us see these patterns clearly and turn toward a deeper source of freedom, discovering a refuge within our own mind that no external circumstance can provide. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| The Red Pill of Renunciation: Embracing Reality as It Is #17 [rebroadcast] | 30 Jun 2026 | 00:28:23 | |
What do The Matrix and Jerry Seinfeld have in common with Buddhist wisdom? In this episode, Scott explores the practice of renunciation—not giving up life's pleasures, but letting go of the mistaken belief that lasting happiness comes from external circumstances. Through insights from The Matrix, comedy, and Buddhist psychology, discover how true freedom begins when we stop blaming the world for our suffering and start transforming our own minds. Episode 17: The Red Pill of Renunciation: Embracing Reality As It Is If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Remembering Robert Thurman: Psychonaut, Scholar, and Friend #224 | 23 Jun 2026 | 01:08:22 | |
Following the passing of Robert Thurman, we wanted to revisit one of our favorite conversations with the beloved scholar, teacher, and pioneer who helped bring Tibetan Buddhist wisdom to the modern world. A former monk ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Columbia University professor, bestselling author, and co-founder of Tibet House US, Thurman devoted his life to sharing profound insights on compassion, interconnectedness, and human flourishing. His books, teachings, and joyful spirit inspired generations of students and seekers around the world. In this memorable conversation, we explore the illusion of separateness, the nature of reality, and the possibility that our deepest nature is joy itself. Thurman once said this was one of his favorite interviews, and we’re grateful to share it again in celebration of his extraordinary life and enduring legacy. Episode 224: Remembering Robert Thurman: Psychonaut, Scholar, and Friend If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Our Best Possible Future—Kim Stanley Robinson #223 | 16 Jun 2026 | 00:58:39 | |
So many of us get lost in terror about humanity’s future, but how often do we ask, “What’s our best possible future?” Bestselling author and climate activist Kim Stanley Robinson joined Scott on Earth Day this year for an urgent and hopeful conversation at UC Berkeley’s School of Journalism. Episode 223: Our Best Possible Future—Kim Stanley Robinson If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Letting Go of Suffering - a Guided Meditation #16 [rebroadcast] | 09 Jun 2026 | 00:28:04 | |
This is a clear-eyed meditation on suffering: both what suffering is, and the mental source of suffering in our delusions of attachment, anger, and self-centered ignorance. We practice the antidotes to these delusions, giving us tools for a more balanced, less self-centered view of our experience that offers sustained stability and happiness through life’s challenges and desires. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Am I More Important Than Everyone Else in the Universe #15 [rebroadcast] | 02 Jun 2026 | 00:38:41 | |
Do we each secretly believe we matter just a little more than everyone else? That my happiness, my ambitions, my relationships carry greater weight? From a Buddhist perspective, this deeply ingrained belief is the root of our suffering: a delusion known as ignorance, considered the true source of everything from heartbreak and disappointment to the quiet dissatisfaction that lingers even when we get exactly what we want. This is a modern retelling of the Buddha’s first teaching, The Four Noble Truths, exploring the nature of suffering, its causes, and the path beyond it through a contemporary lens. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| You Are Enough Meditation with Lodro Rinzler #222 | 26 May 2026 | 00:16:12 | |
In this guided meditation, Lodro Rinzler leads you through a gentle practice of mindfulness, emotional awareness, and reconnecting with your basic goodness. Beginning with simple breath awareness, this meditation helps you return to the present moment with kindness and without judgment. In the second half of the practice, you’ll explore your emotional landscape using a powerful “yes, and” approach: acknowledging difficult feelings while also noticing the goodness that exists alongside them. This practice is a reminder that you are more than your emotions, and that peace, beauty, and connection can still be present even in hard moments. Episode #222: You Are Enough Meditation with Lodro Rinzler If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| You Are Good, You Are Enough with Lodro Rinzler #221 | 19 May 2026 | 00:45:39 | |
What if that voice telling you you’re broken or fundamentally flawed is wrong? That’s the radical message of today’s guest, Buddhist teacher and best-selling author Lodro Rinzler. His new book is called Your Good, You Are Enough. Lodro teaches a powerful idea from Tibetan Buddhism called basic goodness, that beneath all our self-doubt, anger, and anxiety, there’s something awake and whole already present in us. It sounds like a self-help slogan, but in fact, it’s something we can directly experience ourselves in meditation and in everyday life. In this conversation, Lodro talks about how to trust your own goodness without using this powerful idea as an excuse to avoid growth. And how to see goodness in difficult people without excusing harm. Episode #221: You Are Good, You Are Enough with Lodro Rinzler If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Meditation: Alone Together #13 [rebroadcast] | 12 May 2026 | 00:33:09 | |
The essence of meditation is getting to know yourself alone, without social stimulus, entertainment, or reputation—what we truly are deep inside ourselves. There, we can find in our mind a place of satisfaction that’s equally at ease when we’re alone or when we’re with others. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| What Do You Do When You're Alone? #14 [rebroadcast] | 05 May 2026 | 00:27:45 | |
What do you do when you’re alone? When you’re scared, anxious, lonely, or afraid, when you feel strong craving? What do you turn to? In this episode, we look at where our mind runs when we feel pain, when we don’t feel balanced or whole. We’ll examine the Buddhist view on this subject that reveals a deep source of strength and support within our own minds accessible to each of us any time we need it. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Preciousness of Human Life Form: A Guided Meditation with Robert Thurman #220 | 28 Apr 2026 | 00:11:15 | |
This guided meditation by Tibetan teacher Dr. Robert Thurman invites you to explore one of the most profound ideas in contemplative practice: the rarity and potential of being human. Episode 220: Preciousness of Human Life Form: A Guided Meditation with Robert Thurman If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Can AI Teach Happiness? Meet Dharma Bob: Robert Thurman’s AI Avatar #219 | 21 Apr 2026 | 01:00:55 | |
Can an AI really teach us how to have a happy life? Robert Thurman, one of the most respected Buddhist scholars, thinks it's possible—and he's testing out the idea with an AI avatar of himself called Dharma Bob that was just released. Scott got a chance to sit down with both of them last week to have a chat about enlightenment, the benefits of AI, compassion, and Buddhism. Episode 219: Can AI Teach Happiness? Meet Dharma Bob: Robert Thurman’s AI Avatar If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Meditation—Mental Cause and Effect #12 [rebroadcast] | 14 Apr 2026 | 00:23:39 | |
This is a guided meditation for self-reflection, so you can take control of the mental cause and effect that's normally unconscious: the habits and activities conditioned by evolution, our upbringing, society, and the media. You can do this at the end of each day: reviewing your day, rejoicing in the positive, and finding ways to sincerely forgive yourself for anything that you regret. This way, you can sleep better and be your best self the next day. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Mental Cause and Effect #11 [rebroadcast] | 07 Apr 2026 | 00:32:34 | |
Evolution, habits, and society all affect our behavior. How do we gain conscious control of our behavior, much less our thoughts? One method is a daily practice of self-appreciation and self-forgiveness that lets us release regret and pain to face each day with renewed presence and joy. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Equanimity Meditation for Balance and Rest with Margaret Cullen #218 | 31 Mar 2026 | 00:15:17 | |
In this guided meditation, mindfulness teacher Margaret Cullen leads us into the practice of equanimity: the steady, balanced heart that can remain open in the midst of life’s constant change. Through gentle breath awareness and reflective phrases, this practice explores how we can care deeply for others while also recognizing the limits of our control over their happiness and suffering. Episode 218: Equanimity Meditation for Balance and Rest If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Feel More, React Less with Margaret Cullen #217 | 24 Mar 2026 | 00:36:42 | |
Meditation teacher and licensed psychotherapist Margaret Cullen recently published her book, Quiet Strength: Find Peace, Feel Alive, and Love Boundlessly Through the Power of Equanimity. In this book she reveals scientific breakthroughs and spiritual intersections that demonstrate how the power of equanimity allows us to live more fully, with balance and wisdom. In her interview with Scott, they discuss how equanimity can help in personal relationships, taking refuge, healthy activism, struggles with mental health, personal integrity, suffering, and how to develop equanimity. Episode 217: Feel More, React Less with Margaret Cullen If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Impermanence Meditation #10 [rebroadcast] | 17 Mar 2026 | 00:21:25 | |
A guided meditation on impermanence that invites you to soften fear and ease anxiety by opening to the natural flow of change in every part of life. Together we explore change at every scale of reality, from particles and possessions to homes and the natural world, and from thoughts and emotions to perceptions and relationships. As you learn to welcome impermanence rather than resist it, you build steadiness in the face of uncertainty, feel more present with the people around you, and discover a deeper appreciation for life’s fleeting, beautiful moments. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Embracing Impermanence #9 [rebroadcast] | 10 Mar 2026 | 00:24:03 | |
We cling to things as if they won’t change, but change is the nature of reality. When we embrace impermanence, we prepare ourselves for changes (big or small). In this episode, we explore how to embrace impermanence in order to let go of fear and anxiety. This way we can become fully present to those around us and more appreciative of life’s fleeting pleasures. Themes:
Watch the episode on our YouTube channel If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Generative Love: Using AI to Turn Lives Into Song #216 | 03 Mar 2026 | 00:33:34 | |
Scott Snibbe explores an unexpected intersection of AI, music, and love. After discovering the generative music platform Suno, he created deeply personalized songs for members of his family—turning their life stories, struggles, and triumphs into hyper-specific “love songs” in the Buddhist sense of wishing others happiness. As he shares the music and the emotional reactions it evokes, Scott reflects on how AI art, used skillfully, can transform even painful memories into meaning, lift low moods, and open the heart. Episode 216: Generative Love: Using AI to Turn Lives Into Song If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Music, Imagination, and Meditation with Chris Ballew (Caspar Babypants) #215 | 24 Feb 2026 | 00:51:52 | |
Scott Snibbe sits down with Chris Ballew—frontman of The Presidents of the United States of America and beloved children’s artist Caspar Babypants—for a wide-ranging and deeply personal conversation about music, meditation, creativity, and walking away from conventional success. Episode #215: Music, Imagination, and Meditation with Chris Ballew (Caspar Babypants) If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Meditation: What Is the Mind? #7 [rebroadcast] | 17 Feb 2026 | 00:28:23 | |
This guided meditation takes us through different ways of observing the mind, first examining its ever-present parts: perception, feeling, will, and awareness. Then we explore the nature of subjective reality itself by asking what is the mind without thoughts? Where is the space of our consciousness? And, how finely can we slice moments of consciousness? Do we ever arrive at a quantum of consciousness? Themes:
Watch the episode on our YouTube channel If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| What Is the Mind? #6 [rebroadcast] | 10 Feb 2026 | 00:19:16 | |
If the mind is our thoughts, then what is it that observes those thoughts? What are we without thoughts? Do we ever truly see an object, or only its mental reconstruction? Though we are all convinced that we have one, science has no agreed definition for consciousness or mind. Even subjectively, the mind is elusive, difficult to pin to any specific mental experience. Themes:
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| What Would You Do If Someone Pulled A Gun On You? Training the Mind for Nonviolence and Compassion in Crisis #214 | 03 Feb 2026 | 00:48:31 | |
What would you do if someone pulled a gun on you? I don't think any of us really know until we're actually put into that situation. Many years ago, someone pulled a gun on me and I was surprised by how I responded. In this episode of How to Train a Happy Mind, I share that terrifying experience and reflect on how an attitude of love and compassion, at least in this one very specific instance, may have saved my life. This episode is a recording of a talk and guided meditation I gave just a few days ago in our train a Happy Mind community, which meets every Sunday morning for live discussion and meditation. If you'd like to become part of that community, you can learn more at trainahappymind.org. Before I play the episode, I want to offer a clear disclaimer. I am not advocating in any way that anyone respond as I did in a situation like this. In general, personal safety guidance emphasizes that if someone threatens you with a weapon, the safest response is usually to stay calm and do what they ask. This story describes a very specific and unusual situation, where what the person wanted would have caused even more harm. Every situation is different, and there’s no single right or safe response. Please don’t take this episode as personal advice about your own—or anyone else’s—behavior. Instead, take it as a story: one that illustrates how we train our minds toward nonviolence, compassion, and love. 📩 Sign up for our free newsletter If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Art & Emptiness: Tsherin Sherpa on Tradition, Identity, & Freedom #213 | 27 Jan 2026 | 01:24:33 | |
Tsherin Sherpa is a remarkable Himalayan artist who draws on Buddhist iconography to explore sexuality, gender, consumerism, and identity. I first met him 25 years ago, when he was teaching thangka painting in the San Francisco Bay Area and I was a young Buddhist hoping to learn how to paint devotional images. Since then, Tsherin has become one of the most respected contemporary artists in the world, representing Nepal at the Venice Biennale. For the full 90-minute dialogue, visit trainahappymind.org and join our Train a Happy Mind community. To watch the 30-minute edited version, featuring images of the art we discuss, go to our YouTube channel. Episode 213: Art & Emptiness: Tsherin Sherpa on Tradition, Identity, & Freedom If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Meditation: The Preciousness of Life #5 [rebroadcast] | 20 Jan 2026 | 00:16:13 | |
A guided meditation on the preciousness of our next 24 hours alive and our unique place in the universe as science understands it: intelligent, self-aware beings at the end of 14 billion years’ cosmic and biological evolution. Themes:
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| The Preciousness of Life, From Cosmos to the Kardashians #4 [rebroadcast] | 13 Jan 2026 | 00:18:47 | |
“It is not more surprising to be born twice than once,” Voltaire once said. In this episode we contemplate the miracle of existing at all, from our place at the end of our universe’s 14 billion years’ evolution to the simple joy of another 24 hours alive that Thich Nhat Hanh describes. Episode 4: The Preciousness of Life from Cosmos to the Kardashians In this talk Scott explores:
Watch this episode as a YouTube video If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Death and Rebirth Meditation with Laurie Anderson #107 [rebroadcast] | 06 Jan 2026 | 00:21:35 | |
Laurie Anderson leads a meditation on death and rebirth, guiding you through the Buddhist understanding of death, the bardo, and a joyous rebirth. These tracks come from Songs from the Bardo, an album inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Meditating on death is a powerful Buddhist practice that enhances gratitude, helps you embrace impermanence, and increases mindfulness. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Laurie Anderson's Buddhism, Art, Meditation, and Death as Adventure [Full Uncut Interview] #212 | 30 Dec 2025 | 01:01:03 | |
One of our most popular episodes of all time is our interview with artist and musician Laurie Anderson. Today, we're sharing a new, unedited version with almost a half hour of additional material. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Meditation on Stabilizing the Mind and Watching Thoughts #3 [rebroadcast] | 23 Dec 2025 | 00:30:35 | |
A complete guided meditation session expanding your compassion, stabilizing concentration on the breath, and observing your thoughts. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| What Is Meditation? #2 [rebroadcast] | 16 Dec 2025 | 00:33:54 | |
Over the past few years meditation has become popular as a way to help reduce stress, be focused at work, sleep better, or simply relax. Yet meditation isn’t just a tool to improve focus or relax, but a way to strengthen the positive qualities we all naturally possess: compassion, kindness, generosity, patience, humor, and finding joy in everyday life. This episode explores this higher purpose of meditation through the less familiar technique of analytic meditation that uses stories, thoughts, and emotions to steer our minds toward happiness, meaning, and benefiting others. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Meditation on the Subtle Body #211 | 09 Dec 2025 | 00:30:21 | |
In this meditation, we explore the subtle body, the energetic connection between body and mind, through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism. It's part of a broader conversation we've been having about art, embodiment, and Buddhist practice. Together, we'll gently guide our awareness through the body, connect with the breath, and reflect on how our mind and body are not separate, but deeply intertwined. We'll also explore how this energy body shows up in movement, creativity, emotion, and everyday life. Episode 211: Meditation on the Subtle Body If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Scott Snibbe's Buddhist Art: Hidden Geometries #210 | 02 Dec 2025 | 01:00:00 | |
We're in the middle of a small series of episodes right now on Buddhism and art, and this one is about our host, Scott Snibbe. Not everyone who listens to this podcast or who’s read How to Train a Happy Mind knows that Scott's main job for most of his life has been as an artist: one who works mostly with computer software and interactive installations. He often jokes that he used to be a part-time Buddhist, and now he's a full-time Buddhist, but he still spends about 25% of his time making art. Earlier this year, Scott was invited to San Francisco's Commonwealth Club to give a talk and have a discussion with Hugh Leeman about his new series of work called Hidden Geometries. These new pieces reveal the hidden geometric diagrams that underlie the thousand-year-old tradition of devotional Buddhist paintings known as thangkas. In the talk, Scott also shares a couple of the greatest hits from his career in interactive art. We also recommend watching this on our YouTube channel so you can see all of the artworks discussed! If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Rethinking Thanksgiving: A Buddhist Perspective #209 | 25 Nov 2025 | 00:39:15 | |
In the United States, we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday this week. It’s a time that brings up a variety of challenges for many people: family conflicts, political disagreements, concerns about overeating, and the painful historical roots of the holiday in colonial exploitation of Indigenous people. In this episode you'll learn: How to Celebrate Thanksgiving In a New Way How to Do the Buddhist Practice of Universalizing What Are the Five Delusions in Buddhism What Are the Antidotes to Buddhist Delusions How To Stay Open Through Both Pleasure and Pain Overview: 01:55 The Problematic Side of Thanksgiving 03:45 A Broader Kind of Gathering 08:02 Universalizing: How to Create a Mind of Sharing and Generosity 11:21 Starting the Meditation: Settling In 12:25 The Five Delusions 16:12 Stabilize the Mind 17:50 Love and Compassion 23:52 Universalizing Thanksgiving If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| What Is A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment? #1 [rebroadcast] | 18 Nov 2025 | 00:18:19 | |
Five years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment (now called How to Train a Happy Mind) to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation. We take a secular approach to meditation that requires no belief beyond our current understanding of science and psychology. It's based on powerful Buddhist mind training techniques that use imagination, intelligence, and emotions to probe our inner and outer realities, and expand our compassion.
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Guided Drawing Meditation with John Simon Jr. #208 | 11 Nov 2025 | 00:21:21 | |
In this guided meditation and drawing practice, artist and teacher John Simon Jr. leads us through a series of exercises designed to connect inner awareness with mark-making on paper. Blending Buddhist principles with intuitive art, this session invites you to notice your sensations, thoughts, and environment while allowing your hand to move freely. No art experience is needed, just a willingness to observe, let go, and explore. Episode 208: Guided Drawing Meditation with John Simon Jr. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||
| Drawing As Meditation with John Simon Jr. #207 | 04 Nov 2025 | 00:38:06 | |
On this podcast, we talk a lot about meditation, but it’s far from the only way to connect with the deepest part of yourself and build a stable, joyful mind. There are so many other paths to reach that same inner stillness: spending time in nature, practicing yoga, exercising, making music, writing, or creating art. Episode 207: Drawing As Meditation with John Simon Jr. If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. | |||