How to Train a Happy Mind

Ayya Dhammadipa leads a 12-minute meditation on empathetic joy, also known as mudita. In this practice, we use joy that is sparked by the joy of other beings to radiate this state of mind, allowing the opportunity to go beyond ourselves and into a much vaster space of joyously relating to the world. This practice is one of the four brahmaviharas, also known as the heavenly dwellings or four immeas...

Ayya Dhammadipa is a Buddhist nun and teacher with a unique background: Before becoming a nun, she got an MBA, worked in investment banking, and was a devoted mother. For twenty years, she studied in the Zen Buddhist tradition, but now practices the earlier Buddhist lineage of Theravada. In this episode, she talks about these interesting turns in her life, where mindfulness fits into a complete pa...

A complete guided meditation session expanding your compassion, stabilizing concentration on the breath, and observing your thoughts. Episode 3: Guided Meditation: Stabilizing the Mind and Watching Thoughts Two years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation in a form that requires no belief beyond what science currently...

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...

Author, mother and meditation teacher Jenna Hollenstein joins us to challenge the stereotype of Buddhist practice as solitary and silent, offering instead an engaged, active form of mindfulness and compassion that mothers can practice in everyday life as a Mommysattva: a warrior of compassion, wisdom, and lovingkindness. Find her latest book here: Mommysattva: Contemplations for Mothers Who Medita...

Even a short 10-minute meditation has the power to calm your body and mind. Here’s a helpful guided meditation that in just 10 minutes a day can improve your well-being. Even though it's short, this is a complete meditation session including establishing proper meditation posture, motivating our meditation to be a force for good, stabilizing the mind on the breath, letting go of thoughts, cul...

Two years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation in a form that requires no belief beyond what science currently accepts. The first 40 episodes of the podcast gradually go through all of these topics, in order, beginning with appreciating the gift of our life and our place in the universe, and gradually moving up to c...

Soto Zen Teacher Ben Connelly leads a guided meditation integrating two ways of meditating in the spirit of the Yogacara tradition of Buddhism. Episode 98: Guided Meditation: Turning Towards with Ben Connelly Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in California's redwoods August 13–16. LEARN MORE If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas...

Soto Zen Teacher Ben Connelly joins us to explore the relationship between science and reality, whether karma really exists, and how to be a Buddhist activist while remaining unattached to "winning." In the process, Ben teaches us about the ancient Buddhist philosopher Vasubandhu and what the Yogacara school of Buddhism teaches us about taming our minds. Episode 97: Esoteric and Everyday...

Dr. Rick Hanson shares powerful insights from neuroscience on how to practically embrace the positive in our lives and grow our extraordinary potential for inner happiness without denying any of our pain.  While speaking authoritatively on contemplative neuroscience, Dr. Hanson also humbly compares our current knowledge of the brain to physics as it was 300 years ago, and shares tantalizing though...

Dr. Robert Thurman touches on some of his most profound points in this special interview rebroadcast: from the nature of time, to what is enlightenment, to why there’s no evidence for “nothing.” He talked about what a psychonaut is and the importance of skepticism in Buddhism and in science. Please enjoy this wonderful conversation with one of the world’s greatest minds. The New York times calls D...

Lifelong human rights activist, writer, and Buddhist practitioner Kiri Westby guides us through a 10-minute guided meditation for fear, drawing upon her days working in war zones and her harrowing imprisonment in China. Whether you're dealing with overwhelming negative thoughts, phobias, fight or flight symptoms, a general feeling of fear, or just want to improve your well-being and relax you...

"In that moment, I literally let go of my life. I was sure that that was the end of my life. There was not a part of me that didn't think I was going to die in that moment." Lifelong human rights activist, writer, and Buddhist practitioner Kiri Westby spoke to us about how her Buddhist practice helped her through imprisonment in China and the role of Buddhism in her humanitarian mis...

How does the Buddhist view on compassion help us think about COVID vaccine controversies? What do the Dalai Lama and the Pope have to say about vaccination? Without arguing for any one position, host Scott Snibbe and Producer Tara Anderson talk about how to stay loving and connected to people we disagree with, how to avoid "compassion fatigue," and how to (not) convince somebody to see t...

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is one of the world’s most revered Buddhist teachers and one of the very first Westerners to become ordained into the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She is best known for having lived in a remote cave in the Himalayas for 12 years. In this 10-minute  meditation, she offers us the invitation to cultivate moment-to-moment inner awareness - the essence of meditation practice. Episo...

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is one of the world’s most revered Buddhist teachers and one of the very first Westerners to become ordained into the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. She is best known for having lived alone in a remote cave in the Himalayas for 12 years. She spoke with us about the role of women in Buddhism from a historical and contemporary lens, the nature of mind and simple, powerful ways to...

In today's meditation, we explore the idea of enlightenment: whether it’s possible, whether its seed is already within us, whether its an end or a beginning, and even whether it’s any fun. If enlightenment is transcending a narrow, separate sense of self, what might a taste of that expansive self feel like? Episode 91: Guided Meditation | The Possibility of Enlightenment Join our third annual...

Is enlightenment really possible for people like you and me? Do we lose ourselves when we become enlightened? Are there people on earth who are enlightened right now? Buddhist scholar Dr. Jan Willis answers these questions and more as we explore what enlightenment (or awakening) really means. Episode 90: What is Enlightenment with Dr. Jan Willis Dr. Jan Willis has a distinguished career as a schol...

A 10-minute mindful awareness meditation led by NYT bestselling author and Buddhist meditation teacher Susan Piver. Encompassing mindfulness of breath, body, and mind, this meditation helps us relax into a peaceful present moment awareness. Episode 89: 10-Minute Mindful Awareness Meditation with Susan Piver Listen to our previous interview with Susan - Episode 88: Four Noble Truths of Love with Su...

NYT bestselling author and Buddhist meditation teacher Susan Piver shares her Four Noble Truths of Love, a framework anybody can use for deeper, more fulfilling, and more connected intimate relationships. Susan Piver is the New York Times bestselling author of nine books, including The Hard Questions : 100 Essential Questions to Ask Before You Say "I Do", the award-winning How Not to Be...

Elaine Jackson guides a heart-warming Buddhist loving-kindness meditation (metta meditation). This meditation uses visualization to bring about our natural state of loving awareness for ourselves and all beings. In addition to today's meditation, Elaine joined us for an interview last week to talk about how to integrate the wisdom of Buddhism into our relationships. Ep. 86 - Buddhist Relation...

How do we integrate the wisdom of Buddhism into our intimate relationships? Elaine Jackson shares Buddhist relationship advice for navigating arguments selflessly, knowing when a relationship is over, dealing with divorce, how to meditate while parenting, and relating to a partner who's on a different spiritual path.  Episode 86: Buddhist Relationship Advice with Elaine Jackson Join our third...

How can we use pleasure in our meditation practice? Buddhism offers specific techniques for meditating on pleasure as a way to deepen our qualities of concentration, fearlessness, loving-kindness, and even our understanding of the ultimate nature of reality. Episode 85: Guided Meditation on Pleasure Episode 84: Pleasure and Buddhism: Food, Sex and Netflix on the Path to Enlightenment Join our thir...

Pleasure is often viewed as a hindrance to the spiritual path, a hotbed of craving and attachment, but what if we told you that pleasure can actually be a positive part of the spiritual path, a portal to love and happiness? Episode 84: Pleasure and Buddhism: Food, Sex and Netflix on the Path to Enlightenment Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in California&...

A daily meditation on the four levels of happiness in Buddhism. Investigate the varying depths of happiness you get from sensory pleasures, positive states of mind, meditation, and the very nature of reality. Episode 73: Guided Meditation: Four Levels of Happiness in Buddhism Episode 72: Four Kinds of Happiness with Sangye Khadro Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person...