How to Train a Happy Mind
Scott Snibbe
The How to Train a Happy Mind podcast brings meditation to modern people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. Each week, host Scott Snibbe and his guests share powerful mind training techniques that go beyond mindfulness to harness our intelligence, emotions, and imagination. Learn how to build a happy mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world through a secular approach to meditation that is based on modern science and psychology, yet grounded in the authentic thousand-year old Tibetan Buddhist tradition of analytical meditation. How to Train a Happy Mind is a project of the nonprofit Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment. Our host, Scott Snibbe, is a twenty-five-year student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Lama Zopa Rinpoche. Snibbe is the author of the popular How to Train a Happy Mind book, and leads meditation classes and retreats worldwide infused with science, humor, and the realities of the modern world.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Jul 22, 2025 • 12min
The Warm Heart of Awareness: A Meditation with Ven. René Feusi #199
Today we’re sharing a guided meditation from the wonderful Venerable René Feusi (Scott Snibbe's long-time teacher). Settle in, find a comfortable seat, and let René’s clear, grounded guidance open the warm heart of awareness within you.Episode #199: The Warm Heart of Awareness: A Meditation with Ven. René FeusiSupport the show
Jul 15, 2025 • 49min
Concentration Makes Us Happy! with Ven. René Feusi #198
It turns out that many of the greatest living Buddhist teachers are also some of the hardest to receive teachings from. Lacking ego, they have no need to promote themselves. This is the case with Scott's closest teacher, Venerable René Feusi. Out of a wish to maintain his solitude and focus on long-term students—and probably mostly out of humility—Venerable René has always declined Scott's invitations to appear on this podcast. But last year he gave a public talk at Tse Chen Ling Center in San Francisco on the benefits of concentrated awareness. We asked him if we could share it here, and he said yes!So here’s Venerable René Feusi on how focused awareness can help us live with joy, not just in formal meditation, but while walking, sipping tea, listening to music, or even playing with your cat.Episode 198: Concentration Makes Us Happy! with Ven. Rene FeusiSupport the show
Jul 8, 2025 • 23min
20 Minute Path to a Happy Mind Guided Meditation #197
This 20 minute guided meditation comes from the sequence Scott shares in the How to Train a Happy Mind podcast and book. The stages are based on the Tibetan Buddhist lamrim, which was created more than a thousand years ago by the Indian Master Atisha Dipankar. Over the past decade, Scott has adapted it to be a non-religious way to transform the mind from states of frustration, craving, and loneliness to states of satisfaction, connection, and meaning. Scott leads live meditations like this every Sunday in our Train a Happy Mind community, which you can join for free or by donation. There's also an archive there of over 100 meditations he's led for the community over the past two years. Episode 197: 20 Minute Path to a Happy Mind Guided Meditation Support the show
Jul 1, 2025 • 17min
Joyful Effort: A Guided Meditation with Tenzin Chogkyi #196
Welcome to this guided meditation on accessing joy with Tenzin Chogkyi. In this practice, we’ll take time to settle the body, connect with the breath, and gently open to the feeling of joy. Episode 196: Joyful Effort: A Guided Meditation with Tenzin Chogkyi Support the show
Jun 24, 2025 • 53min
Beyond Bombs: A Meditation on Ending War and Cultivating Peace #195
Instead of the episode we had planned to share today, a meditation from Tenzin Chogkyi as part of her beautiful conversation on joy, we're postponing that release by a week. In its place, we're sharing a meditation Scott Snibbe led just a couple of days ago with our Train a Happy Mind community. This meditation was recorded the day after the United States launched a new bombing campaign in Iran. In response, Scott reflects on the roots of violence, both in our world and in our minds, and to offer a path toward peace influenced by Tibetan Buddhism.Episode 195: Beyond Bombs: A Meditation on Ending War and Cultivating Peace Support the show
Jun 17, 2025 • 55min
Joy and Enthusiasm—Even When Life's Hard—with Tenzin Chogkyi #194
Today's guest is Tenzin Chogkyi, one of our most popular guests, and she's back to talk about another one of the six perfections that we've been talking with other guests about this year. This one is enthusiasm or joyful effort. She talks about not just the Buddhist ideas of enthusiasm, but how to maintain our joy and enthusiasm in life when things are difficult or even when we get too much of a good thing. Episode 194: Joy and Enthusiasm—Even When Life's Hard—with Tenzin ChogkyiSupport the show
Jun 10, 2025 • 11min
10-Minute Path to a Happy Mind Guided Meditation #193
Scott Snibbe leads a 10-minute guided meditation that is based on the sequence he shares in the How to Train a Happy Mind podcast and book. Many Tibetan Buddhists do this meditation every day. If you don't have much time or want to start small, this is a good place to begin. It touches on the precious life, impermanence, cause and effect, suffering, renunciation, love, compassion, and interdependence.Episode 193: 10-Minute Path to a Happy Mind Guided MeditationSupport the show
Jun 3, 2025 • 45min
The Complete Path to a Happy Mind #192
"I'll tell you something. I've learned it's hard work to be happy." Brian WilsonIn this special retreat episode, Scott Snibbe guides us through the full path to a happy mind—from appreciating the simple miracle of being alive to confronting our deepest mental habits and reconnecting with our capacity for kindness, meaning, and change.It’s not a quick fix or a life hack. It’s the whole path. And it might just shift how you see the world.Episode 192: The Complete Path to a Happy MindSupport the show
May 27, 2025 • 6min
5-Minute Breath Awareness Meditation with Larry Ward #191
Dr. Larry Ward—student of Thich Nhat Hanh and author of America's Racial Karma—leads a short but powerful breath awareness meditation.Episode 191: 5-Minute Breath Awareness MeditationSupport the show
May 20, 2025 • 52min
Healing America's Racial Karma—Larry Ward #190
Scott talks with Dr. Larry Ward, a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, and author of America's Racial Karma. His book is about how we heal from the trauma of racism, not just as a society, but in our own minds and bodies. In our conversation, Dr. Ward shares a profound truth: racism is a fiction, but one with very real consequences, and it lives not only in the structures of our society, but in our thoughts, our speech, and our nervous systems.Episode 190: Healing America's Racial Karma with Larry WardSupport the show
