How to Train a Happy Mind

One of the most powerful Tibetan Buddhist mind training techniques is universalizing, a practice that transforms everyday pains and pleasures into profound meditations. From arguing with the family to stuffing yourself with a delicious meal, life’s problems and pleasures can bring anger, guilt, and sadness. The meditation technique of “universalization” transforms our everyday experiences of pleas...

Esteemed Buddhist teacher and scholar Dr. Jan Willis leads two meditations on emptiness in this episode. One focuses on the emptiness of the I, this pronoun, this belief that we have that we exist, that there is an I who is Jan Willis. And the other meditation is about  the nature of the mind itself.  She shares the analogy that the mind and the nature of the mind is like the sky.  And this "...

To kick off the new year we're thrilled to welcome back one of our most beloved guests, Dr. Jan Willis, a trailblazing scholar, inspiring practitioner and powerful storyteller.  Dr. Willis guides us through the six perfections: generosity, morality, patients, joyful effort, concentration and wisdom.  Profound practices that were once closely guarded, secret teachings.  In this episode, Dr. Wi...

Today’s meditation focuses on self-compassion, inspired by the teachings of Dr. Kristin Neff. Known as the "self-compassion break," this practice is designed to be quick, accessible, and deeply grounding—perfect for those moments when life feels overwhelming. By bringing mindfulness, common humanity, and self-kindness into focus, this meditation offers a practical way to navigate challen...

We are closing out the year with a special guest, Tenzin Chogkyi—a longtime Buddhist practitioner, teacher, and former nun ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. With decades of experience in both inner growth and social justice, Tenzin brings profound wisdom and a unique perspective. This episode explores self-compassion and how building a loving relationship with oneself creates the foundation...

Today's episode features a transformative meditation known as "Exchanging Self." Originally shared with the Train a Happy Mind community, this practice has deep roots in Tibetan Buddhism. For nearly a thousand years, it remained a closely guarded tradition, recently made accessible to all. If this meditation resonates with you, consider joining the Train a Happy Mind community, whic...

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. Episode 28. What Is Compassion? Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in California's redwood...

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, metta or maitri. Episode 26. Guided Meditation on Love 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...

NPR's Laura Sydell talks with Scott Snibbe about his book, How to Train a Happy Mind, at The Battery in San Francisco. They discuss interdependence (or emptiness) at length and also how great movies and comedians, like Jerry Seinfeld, can capture Buddhism's insights into how to live happy lives. Episode 176: NPR's Laura Sydell Talks with Scott Snibbe Join our third annual How to Tra...

Love is complex in our culture, tied up with finding a single person to satisfy our huge list of needs and dreams who 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. Episode 25: What Is Love? Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in...

The recent U.S. election has left our country more divided than ever, with Donald Trump elected as the next president. Whether this news fills you with hope or despair, today's episode offers a fresh perspective on how we can respond with curiosity, compassion, and a commitment to finding common ground even when it feels impossible. Scott shares his personal reflections on nonviolence, the de...

Kazu Haga leads a powerful guided meditation for letting go of anger and other negative emotions based on the principles of nonviolence. Haga, a renowned nonviolence and restorative justice trainer, combines analytical meditation, visualization, breathwork, and mindfulness meditation to cultivate loving-kindness, inner peace, and compassion. Episode 174: Meditation on Nonviolence with Kazu Haga  ...

Kazu Haga's book, Healing Resistance , explains that nonviolence isn't just refraining from harm, but a sophisticated six-step strategy that begins with research and dialogue and ends, most importantly, with reconciliation. He explains that the purpose of nonviolence is not just to create a change we desire in the world, but to heal relationships and enrich our sense of connectedness, re...

This episode is in honor and celebration of the life of Greg Hillis. Christian Scholar Greg Hillis speaks of the parallels between Christianity and Buddhism, the possibility of universal love, mystical experiences that break through to the beauty and interconnectedness of reality, and social activism that respects—and even loves—those we disagree with. Episode 108: Universal Love in Christianity &...

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. Episode 23: Guided Meditation: Transforming Bias with Equanimity Join our third annual How to Trai...

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...

This powerful guided meditation for letting go of negative emotions with Paula Chichester helps cultivate love, mindfulness, and inner peace. Whether you're a beginner or deepening an existing meditation practice, this session invites you to take deep breaths, visualize love, and be fully present, embracing the flow of life with mindfulness. Episode 172: Loving Yourself, Loving Others, &...

The ancient word yogi, or yogini in its female form, refers to someone who has dedicated their life to inner transformation through meditation. They often spend years or even decades in solitary retreat. My teacher and friend Paula Chichester is one of the vanishingly few modern people who has chosen to live such a life of isolation and inner adventure. It was my honor recently to speak with her a...

Scott speaks with artist and musician Laurie Anderson at New York's Tibet House about Scott's new book, How to Train a Happy Mind. They discuss how the tools of analytical meditation have helped them cultivate lives of meaning and satisfaction, and foster transformation and even joy through tragedy. For those of you unfamiliar with her work, Laurie Anderson is one of our greatest living...

Dostoevsky once said, “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.” This is the point of meditating on renunciation: to gain a clear-eyed sense of our state of mind right now, with many moments of frustration and anger and impatience and craving: feelings that we'd rather be free from. And turning away from these delusions toward liberatio...

What do The Matrix and Jerry Seinfeld have to do with renouncing suffering? Episode 17. The Red Pill of Renunciation: Embracing Reality As It Is Four years ago, we created this podcast 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 t...

Dr. Cornel West combines a formidable intellect with an enormous heart and an unceasing drive for social justice that transcends his multiple identities as an academic, author, philosopher, theologian, political activist, social critic, and public intellectual. Many of you even know him as an actor for his brief, but memorable appearances, in The Matrix films. Of course, Dr. West is also an indepe...

A couple of months ago, Scott Snibbe was in New York City for a conversation with Paul Miller at The Rubin Museum for the release of his recent book, How to Train a Happy Mind . Paul is an old friend who'd be famous enough for his incredible pioneering work with collage hip hop music as DJ Spooky, but he has so many other identities as an author, public intellectual, and artist. Episode 168:...

For this week's episode, we're sharing a recent meditation Scott Snibbe led for our new Train a Happy Mind community on letting go of suffering. Every Sunday morning, he leads a meditation on one of the topics from How to Train a Happy Mind. Sometimes he also expands into other topics or leads practices relating to current events. This topic's chapter is called Am I the Most Importa...

Do each of us believe deep down that we’re just a little bit more important than everyone else? My happiness, my goals, my relationships? The root cause of our suffering from the Buddhist perspective is this belief, a delusion called ignorance, seen as the true source of all our suffering: from disappointment in the face of life’s setbacks, to the dissatisfaction we can feel even when we get exact...