How to Train a Happy Mind

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 ThoughtsSupport the show

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 meditation through the less familiar technique of analytic meditation that uses stories, thoughts, and emotions to steer our minds toward happiness, meaning, and benefiting others.Episode 2: What Is Meditation?Support the show

In this meditation, we explore the subtle body, the energetic connection between body and mind, through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism. It's part of a broader conversation we've been having about art, embodiment, and Buddhist practice.Together, we'll gently guide our awareness through the body, connect with the breath, and reflect on how our mind and body are not separate, but deeply intertwined. We'll also explore how this energy body shows up in movement, creativity, emotion, and everyday life.Episode 211: Meditation on the Subtle Body Support the show

We're in the middle of a small series of episodes right now on Buddhism and art, and this one is about our host, Scott Snibbe. Not everyone who listens to this podcast or who’s read How to Train a Happy Mind knows that Scott's main job for most of his life has been as an artist: one who works mostly with computer software and interactive installations. He often jokes that he used to be a part-time Buddhist, and now he's a full-time Buddhist, but he still spends about 25% of his time making art. Earlier this year, Scott was invited to San Francisco's Commonwealth Club to give a talk and have a discussion with Hugh Leeman about his new series of work called Hidden Geometries. These new pieces reveal the hidden geometric diagrams that underlie the thousand-year-old tradition of devotional Buddhist paintings known as thangkas. In the talk, Scott also shares a couple of the greatest hits from his career in interactive art. We also recommend watching this on our YouTube channel so you can see all of the artworks discussed! Support the show

In the United States, we celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday this week. It’s a time that brings up a variety of challenges for many people: family conflicts, political disagreements, concerns about overeating, and the painful historical roots of the holiday in colonial exploitation of Indigenous people. In this episode, we share a private talk and meditation Scott gave to the Train a Happy Mind community last Thanksgiving. In it, he grapples openly with these issues, while exploring how we can still make the holiday meaningful. How can we use the deeper spirit of Thanksgiving—generosity and gratitude—to expand compassion and awareness to include all beings across the planet? In this episode you'll learn:How to Celebrate Thanksgiving In a New WayHow to Do the Buddhist Practice of UniversalizingWhat Are the Five Delusions in BuddhismWhat Are the Antidotes to Buddhist DelusionsHow To Stay Open Through Both Pleasure and PainOverview:01:55 The Problematic Side of Thanksgiving03:45 A Broader Kind of Gathering08:02 Universalizing: How to Create a Mind of Sharing and Generosity11:21 Starting the Meditation: Settling In12:25 The Five Delusions16:12 Stabilize the Mind17:50 Love and Compassion23:52 Universalizing ThanksgivingSupport the show

Five years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment (now called How to Train a Happy Mind) to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation. We take a secular approach to meditation that requires no belief beyond our current understanding of science and psychology. It's based on powerful Buddhist mind training techniques that use imagination, intelligence, and emotions to probe our inner and outer realities, and expand our compassion.Episode 1: What Is A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment?Support the show

In this guided meditation and drawing practice, artist and teacher John Simon Jr. leads us through a series of exercises designed to connect inner awareness with mark-making on paper. Blending Buddhist principles with intuitive art, this session invites you to notice your sensations, thoughts, and environment while allowing your hand to move freely. No art experience is needed, just a willingness to observe, let go, and explore.Episode 208: Guided Drawing Meditation with John Simon Jr. Support the show

John Simon Jr., an artist and author of "Drawing Your Own Path," shares how drawing can serve as a powerful form of meditation. He explains his daily drawing routine that fosters mindfulness using techniques like sensory noting and non-dominant hand drawing. John discusses how his practice has led to self-acceptance and healing, revealing insights about identity and ego. He highlights the importance of expressing emotions through drawings and offers a simple mindfulness exercise for listeners to connect with their creativity.

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 PleasureSupport the show

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 EnlightenmentSupport the show