How to Train a Happy Mind

Episodios

• Letting Go of Suffering - a Guided Meditation #16 [rebroadcast] 09.06.2026 29m

  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 Meditation: Letting Go of Suffering Join our third annual How to Train a Happy Mind three-day in...
• Am I More Important Than Everyone Else in the Universe #15 [rebroadcast] 02.06.2026 39m

  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 get exactly what we want. This is a modern retelling of the Buddha’s first teaching, T...
• You Are Enough Meditation with Lodro Rinzler #222 26.05.2026 17m

  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: acknowledging difficult feelings while also noticing the goodness that exists alongside them. T...
• You Are Good, You Are Enough with Lodro Rinzler #221 19.05.2026 46m

  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 present in us. It sounds like a self-help slogan, but in fact, it’s something we can directly exp...
• Guided Meditation: Alone Together #13 [rebroadcast] 12.05.2026 34m

  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 in California's redwoods August 13–16. LEARN MORE If you’d like to practice with others and bri...
• What Do You Do When You're Alone? #14 [rebroadcast] 05.05.2026 28m

  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 it. Episode 14: What do You do When You're Alone? [re-record] Join our third annual ...
• Preciousness of Human Life Form: A Guided Meditation with Robert Thurman #220 28.04.2026 12m

  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 still point, the meditation expands your perspective, helping you reflect on the nature of awarene...
• Can AI Teach Happiness? Meet Dharma Bob: Robert Thurman’s AI Avatar #219 21.04.2026 1h 2m

  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: Can AI Teach Happiness? Meet Dharma Bob: Robert Thurman’s AI Avatar Join our third annual How to Train...
• Guided Meditation—Mental Cause and Effect #12 [rebroadcast] 14.04.2026 24m

  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 way, you can sleep better and be your best self the next day. Episode 12: Guided Meditation—Ment...
• Mental Cause and Effect #11 [rebroadcast] 07.04.2026 33m

  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 California's redwoods August 13–16. LEARN MORE If you’d like to practice with others an...
• Equanimity Meditation for Balance and Rest with Margaret Cullen #218 31.03.2026 16m

  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 218: Equanimity Meditation for Balance and Rest Join our third annual How to Train a Happy M...
• Feel More, React Less with Margaret Cullen #217 24.03.2026 37m

  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 discuss how equanimity can help in personal relationships, taking refuge, healthy activism, strugg...
• Impermanence Meditation #10 [rebroadcast] 17.03.2026 22m

  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 build steadiness in the face of uncertainty, feel more present with the people around you, and d...
• Embracing Impermanence #9 [rebroadcast] 10.03.2026 25m

  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 Themes: Accepting changeBecoming presentHow to enjoy lifeBuddhist philosophyThe hero's journ...
• Generative Love: Using AI to Turn Lives Into Song #216 03.03.2026 34m

  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 reflects on how AI art, used skillfully, can transform even painful memories into meaning, lift low moo...
• Music, Imagination, and Meditation with Chris Ballew (Caspar Babypants) #215 24.02.2026 53m

  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 guided him toward a more sustainable, service-oriented life. Along the way, they dive i...
• Guided Meditation: What Is the Mind? #7 [rebroadcast] 17.02.2026 29m

  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 consciousness? Episode 7. Guided Meditation: What Is the Mind? Themes: Watching y...
• What Is the Mind? #6 [rebroadcast] 10.02.2026 20m

  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? Themes: Body-mind dualityInterdependenceConsciousnessNoticing your thoughtsHow ...
• What Would You Do If Someone Pulled A Gun On You? Training the Mind for Nonviolence and Compassion in Crisis #214 03.02.2026 49m

  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 instance, may have saved my life. This episode is a recording of a talk and guided meditation I gave just a few...
• Art & Emptiness: Tsherin Sherpa on Tradition, Identity, & Freedom #213 27.01.2026 1h 25m

  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 world, representing Nepal at the Venice Biennale. For the full 90-minute dialogue, visit trainahappy...