How to Train a Happy Mind

Scott Tusa leads an equanimity meditation—based on the Mahayana Buddhist tradition—that works with three kinds of relationships in our life. The purpose is to cultivate compassion, loving-kindness, and understanding. Episode 149: Equanimity Meditation with Scott Tusa Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in California's redwoods August 13–16. LEARN MORE I...

After ordination by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Scott Tusa spent nine years as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Today, he's an irreverent meditation teacher and a brand-new father. In this episode, Scott and I talk about some hard decisions we've faced in life, and that the world faces today, asking ourselves, What is the right thing to do? Is there a right and wrong from a Buddhist perspective...

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...

Four 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...

Scott Snibbe shares a gentle Buddhist approach to self-forgiveness, letting go, establishing good habits, and rejoicing in all the good we've done. Move into the new year with your best intentions and best self. Episode 147: Letting Go and Looking Forward in the New Year Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in California's redwoods August 13–16. LEA...

Grammy Award winning artist Laurie Anderson, a longtime student of Buddhism and meditation, shares her personal path with Buddhism, approaching art with a beginner’s mind, staying present with suffering without letting it overwhelm you, and making our lives meaningful. Laurie Anderson is one of our greatest living artists. Her work includes spoken word and performance, top-charting albums and musi...

Dan Harris, former ABC News anchor and host of the hit podcast Ten Percent Happier, talks with Scott Snibbe about love, skepticism, Buddhism, and the "cheesy upward spiral." Episode 134: Dan Harris: Love, Skepticism, and the "Cheesy Upward Spiral" This is a rebroadcast of one of the year's most popular episodes. Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-...

Dr. Katherine MacLean leads a meditation practice called RAFT: Remembering to be Aware of Feelings in your body and Trust your experience. Katherine says that mushrooms shared this practice with her as a way to help others access the space of psychedelics from a sober standpoint. Episode 146: RAFT Meditation with Dr. Katherine MacLean Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-pe...

Ten years ago Dr. Katherine MacLean conducted the first scientific study of the combined effects of psychedelics with meditation. The encouraging results of the study showed the long-term beneficial effects these substances can have on our concentration, emotion regulation, openness, wellbeing, and happiness.  In our conversation I learned what psychedelics have in common with meditation and how t...

Psychedelic psychotherapist Dr. Michael Sapiro leads a guided meditation on mindful awareness that connects you with the present moment and your senses. Episode 144: Mindful Awareness Meditation with Michael Sapiro  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...

Psychedelics have been in the news a lot lately as a new way to help people work through otherwise intractable issues of grief depression and PTSD. Dr. Michael Sapiro is a psychedelic psychotherapist and researcher who has worked successfully with psychedelics in his practice for years.  He focuses on helping combat vets and first responders overcome PTSD and other trauma; in his words, transformi...

On several occasions I’ve heard people ask the Dalai Lama how to end war, and he’s always answered the same way: begin by trying to resolve the conflicts in your own life. But how do we do that? This meditation goes through some of the Buddhist approaches to understanding the causes of war, both in ourselves and others, and how we might eventually be free of them. Episode 142. War Meditation Join...

Take an expansive tour through the four foundations of mindfulness in this sweeping guided meditation with Dr. David Kittay: mindfulness of body, feelings, mind, and mental objects. Guided Meditation: Four Foundations of Mindfulness with Dr. David Kittay Listen to our previous interviews with Dr. David Kittay here: Episode 77: Buddhism and Technology (Part 1) Episode 78: Buddhism and Technology (P...

Professor David Kittay talks with Scott Snibbe about whether we should treat AIs with compassion, whether we are living in a simulation, and whether technologically assisted enlightenment might be possible. Dr. David Kittay teaches philosophy, religion, and technology at Columbia University, where his students call his courses life changing. Dr. Kittay is also an author, a translator, and a Tibet...

A guided meditation by Ven. Sangye Khadro (Kathleen McDonald) on the natural goodness of our mind, or Buddha nature. In this meditation we let go of all our negative, disturbing states of mind like anger, anxiety, or fear; and cultivate our positive mental qualities of compassion, wisdom, and courage. 36. Guided Meditation on the Natural Goodness of our Mind — Ven. Sangye Khadro (Kathleen McDonald...

In this episode, I have one of my heroes back for a third time. Dr. Jan Willis is an extraordinary Buddhist scholar and practitioner and today she's talking with me about the question, Are we fundamentally good?  Buddhism sometimes seems quite depressing with its focus on suffering and death. But at the core of Buddhism is the idea that in fact, our nature is fundamentally good. Is there any...

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&...

Tenzin Chogkyi leads a guided meditation to cultivate compassion for yourself and others. Episode 139: Guided Meditation on Compassion with Tenzin Chogkyi   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 into your life, join our weekly meditation community...

In this episode Tenzin Chogkyi dives head on into the challenging topics of hierarchy, patriarchy, gender, and sexism in Buddhism. As a practicing Buddhist since the 1970s who spent 20 years as a nun ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama himself, she has deep, hard-won insights into these topics.  Tenzin Chogkyi is one of the most thoughtful, independent thinkers I know, and a person of extraord...

Artificial intelligence expert Kristian Simsarian joins host Scott Snibbe to discuss how we can create ethical, unbiased and compassionate AI, whether we should be scared of AI, and the implications of AI on the future of work and spirituality. Kristian Simsarian has a Ph. D. in human-robot collaboration and worked as a Robotics and AI computer scientist before holding leadership positions at IDEO...

Host Scott Snibbe offers touching personal stories and a meditation on how to best love our parents and our children using powerful Buddhist teachings and techniques on understanding, listening, and compassion. Episode 76: Loving Our Parents, Loving Our Children 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...

Sujatha baliga leads a guided meditation to work through past traumas in a gentle, loving, and healing manner. 137. Guided Meditation on Healing Trauma with sujatha baliga 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 into your life, join our weekly medit...

Macarthur Award winner sujatha baliga discusses healing trauma, restorative justice, and the power of love and meditation to build a better world. sujatha baliga is a restorative justice educator and advocate and a 2019 winner of the MacArthur fellowship. She has served as the director of the restorative justice project at Impact Justice, a co-founder of Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice, and...

A 20-minute guided analytical meditation on how money exists through parts, causes, and the mind in our interdependent reality, seen through the Buddhist lens of emptiness. Episode 71. Guided Meditation: How Money Exists Previous Episode: Bitcoin and Buddhism 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...