
How to Train a Happy Mind
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.
Latest episodes

Aug 24, 2021 • 43min
Compassionate AI with Kristian Simsarian #80
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, the California College of the Arts, Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center and many other organizations. He helped found Humans for AI and helped grow the Center for Humane Technology in its early years. His work has appeared in NYT, Business Week, Huffington Post, along with several best-selling business books on innovation. He's also a board member for A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment.Episode 80: Compassionate AI with Kristian SimsarianSupport the show

Aug 17, 2021 • 27min
Guided Meditation: Four Foundations of Mindfulness with Dr. David Kittay #79
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 KittayListen to our previous interviews with Dr. David Kittay here:Episode 77: Buddhism and Technology (Part 1)Episode 78: Buddhism and Technology (Part 2)Support the show

Aug 10, 2021 • 23min
Buddhism and Technology with Dr. David Kittay (Part 2) #78
Dr. David Kittay discusses science fiction, emptiness, whether life is a simulation, whether we should treat AI robots with compassion, and whether the singularity might be another term for enlightenment.Part 2 - Episode 78: Buddhism and Technology with Dr. David Kittay (Part 2)Part 1 - Episode 77: Buddhism and Technology with Dr. David Kittay (Part 1)Support the show

Aug 3, 2021 • 40min
Buddhism and Technology with Dr. David Kittay (Part 1) #77
Dr. David Kittay joins the show to talk about whether technologically assisted enlightenment is possible, the nature of time, whether our phones and our social media accounts have become part of ourselves, and how to deal with tech addiction. Dr. 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 House board member. His latest publication is the Vajra Rosary Tantra, available from Wisdom Publications.Episode 77: Buddhism and Technology with Dr. David Kittay Support the show

Jul 27, 2021 • 37min
Loving Our Parents, Loving Our Children #76
Host Scott Snibbe offers a touching personal talk and 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 ChildrenSupport the show

Jul 20, 2021 • 10min
10-Minute Meditation to Relax the Mind with Dza Kilung Rinpoche #75
Tibetan Buddhist Lama Dza Kilung Rinpoche leads a 10 minute meditation to relax into the vast spaciousness of heart and mind.Episode 75: 10-Minute Meditation to Relax the Mind with Dza Kilung RinpocheThe extraordinary Tibetan Buddhist Lama and teacher Dza Kilung Rinpoche talked to us in Episode 74 about his short yet profound book, The Relaxed Mind. In this episode, he leads us in a guided meditation to open the mind. Dza Kilung Rinpoche was born in 1970 and is head of Tibet's Kilung Monastery, which he has been working to reestablish as a center of learning and practice since he was a teenager. Since 1998, Rinpoche has taught all over the world and we spoke with him from his home on Whidbey Island near Seattle, Washington. Support the show

Jul 13, 2021 • 48min
The Relaxed Mind with Dza Kilung Rinpoche #74
Tibetan Buddhist teacher Dza Kilung Rinpoche shares seven meditation practices for a relaxed mind, heart, and body.The extraordinary Tibetan Buddhist Lama and teacher Dza Kilung Rinpoche talks to us in this episode about his short yet profound book, The Relaxed Mind. This book is the culmination of his decades teaching in the west, where Rinpoche has condensed the vast array of topics in Tibetan Buddhist meditation into seven brief meditations we can easily practice. In our interview, he explains the sequence in depth and why it's so appropriate for the Western mind. Dza Kilung Rinpoche was born in 1970 and is head of Tibet's Kilung Monastery, which he has been working to reestablish as a center of learning and practice since he was a teenager. Since 1998, Rinpoche has taught all over the world and we spoke with him from his home on Whidbey Island near Seattle, Washington. Episode 74. The Relaxed Mind with Dza Kilung RinpocheSupport the show

Jul 6, 2021 • 45min
Guided Meditation: 7 Steps to Compassion with Ven. Gyalten Lekden #73
Buddhist monk Ven. Gyalten Lekden guides a Seven-Fold Cause and Effect Meditation to develop compassion and Bodhicitta (the mind of awakening)Episode 73. Guided Meditation: 7 Steps to Compassion with Ven. Gyalten Lekden Listen to the interview with Ven. Gyalten here: Engaged Buddhism with Ven. Gyalten LekdenSupport the show

Jun 29, 2021 • 39min
Engaged Buddhism with Ven. Gyalten Lekden #72
Buddhist monk Ven. Gyalten on engaged Buddhism that actively grapples with social injustice, gender inequality, climate change, and racism.Episode 72. Engaged Buddhism with Ven. Gyalten LekdenSupport the show

Jun 22, 2021 • 22min
Guided Meditation: How Money Exists #71
A 20-minute guided analytical meditation on how money exists through parts, causes, and the mind in our interdependent, empty reality.Episode 71. Guided Meditation: How Money ExistsPrevious Episode: Bitcoin and BuddhismSupport the show
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