How to Train a Happy Mind

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 sou...

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 worl...

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 o...

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. This is the third time we've been fortunate enough to have Stan on the podcast, and this time we trace...

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. 16. Guided Medit...

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...

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...

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...

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. Episode 13: Guided Meditation — Alone Together Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat...

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...

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. Through breath, visualization, and focused awareness, you’ll gently shift your attention inward to the center of your being, connecting with a deeper level of consciousness often overlooked in daily life. From this st...

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: C...

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...

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. Episode 11: Mental Cause and Effect Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat...

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...

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 d...

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 buil...

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. Episode 9: Embracing Impermanence T...

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 reflec...

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.  From Grammy nominations and rockstar fame to lullabies and “sonic totems,” Chris reflects on the inner signals that gui...

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 consc...

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. Episode 6. What Is the Mind...

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 inst...

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 wor...

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. Episode 5: Guided Meditation on The Preciousness of Life Themes: Self-awareness Gratitude Stabilizing the breath How to be happy Loving others Watch this episode on our YouT...