How to Train a Happy Mind

Buddhist nun and teacher Venerable Amy shares how we can practically manage anxiety, depression, and other difficult emotions with Buddhist meditation and mind training techniques. Venerable Amy Miller is a Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher who's managed several Buddhist retreat centers, including the Vajrapani Institute in California and Vermont's Milarepa Center. She's the co-autho...

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 Meditation: Le...

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...

Dr. Mark Westmoquette leads a Zen Buddhist meditation to help navigate conflict in your daily life. He uses the story "Cutting the Cat in Two"—a famous Zen koan—to lead the practice and illustrate the importance of embodiment and shifting one's perspective. Episode 114: “Cutting the Cat in Two”: A Guided Meditation for Dealing with Conflict Join our third annual How to Train a Happy...

Dr. Mark Westmoquette is an astrophysicist who became a student of Zen Buddhism and yoga. Now an author and meditation and yoga instructor, Mark has written a new book called Zen and the Art of Dealing with Difficult People. In this podcast episode, we talk about this meaty topic of how to deal with difficult people who Mark calls 'troublesome Buddhas,' from our boss to our partner to wo...

What do you do when you’re alone ? When you’re scared, anxious, lonely, afraid, or feeling strong craving? In our guided meditation we explore the Buddhist view on refuge and how to find a deep source of strength and peace within our own minds. 112. Guided Meditation on Finding Refuge in the Mind Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in California's redwo...

What do you do when you’re alone? When you’re 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. 14. W...

Buddhist psychologist Lorne Ladner leads a meditation on giving and receiving love, a loving-kindness meditation with themes of connection, gratitude, and warmth. Episode 111: Guided Meditation on Giving and Receiving Love with Buddhist Psychologist Lorne Ladner 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...

We talk with clinical psychologist and Buddhist practitioner Lorne Ladner about his patients' top questions, the difference between selfishness and self-compassion, setting healthy boundaries, and treating depression with Buddhist psychology. Episode 110: Buddhist Psychologist Lorne Ladner Read more in Dr. Lorne Ladner's wonderful book, The Lost Art of Compassion.   Join our third annual...

A meditation practice of self reflection, taking control of the mental cause and effect that's normally unconscious: the habits and activities conditioned by evolution, our upbringing, society and the media. This is a practice you can do 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, so you ca...

Science has greater and greater mastery in understanding and controlling physical cause and effect, from planets to particles, but we are only starting to understand cause and effect in our minds. 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 ...

Catholic priest and Benedictine monk Father Laurence Freeman discusses the role of community, meditation, contemplation, and science in his life and his dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He emphasizes his trust in humanity and the importance of wonder in our daily lives. Episode 109: https://www.skepticspath.org/podcast/ meditation-science-and-christianity-with-father-laurence-freeman /...

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 and Buddhism with Dr. Greg Hillis Join our third annual How to Train a...

A guided meditation on impermanence that helps us release fear and anxiety to embrace the constant change at every scale of reality: from particles, possessions, homes, and the environment, to our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, and relationships. When we embrace impermanence, we more easily take on challenges like today’s Coronavirus crisis. We become more fully present to those around us an...

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 big changes, and are able to let go of our fear and anxiety to become more fully present to those around us, to make the most meaningful choices day-to-day, and to more deeply appreciate life’s fleeting pleasures. Episode 9. Embracing Impermanence Two years ago, w...

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. Laurie Anderson is on...

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...

Scott Snibbe becomes the interviewee in this week's episode as Ven. Fabienne Pradelle speaks with him about finding meaning and spirituality through art and creativity, love without attachment, misconceptions about Buddhism, the afterlife, and our infinite potential. Ep. 105: Ten Million Percent Happier - Interview with Scott Snibbe Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in...

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 conscious...

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? T...

Dr. Thupten Jinpa on the intersection of science, Buddhism, and critical thinking; how Buddhist principles can help us solve the climate crisis; and how to lead fulfilling lives at home with our families and relationships. Dr. Thupten Jinpa is one of the most renowned living Buddhist scholars and practitioners. He has served for decades as the Dalai Lama's principal translator and was a Buddh...

Rob Hopkins, climate activist, co-founder of the Transition Network and host of the podcast series From What If to What Next talks about an engaged, passionate form of Buddhism that actively works for positive change in our communities and in the world. 103. From What If to What Next — Rob Hopkins' Climate Optimism Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in-person retreat in...

Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the greatest living science fiction writers, and one of the few people ever to have developed a credible solution to the climate crisis, which he describes in his latest novel, The Ministry for the Future .  In this interview, we talk about climate change solutions, Buddhism in his life and work, sci-fi and cli-fi (climate fiction), colonizing Mars, the outdoors as m...

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. 5. Guided Meditation: The Preciousness of Life Two years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditat...

“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 in Peace Is Every Step. 4. The Preciousness of Life from Cosmos to the Kardashians Two years ago, we created A Sk...