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 meditationthat uses stories, thoughts, and emotions to steer our minds toward happiness, meaning, and benefiting others.Episode 2: What Is Meditation?Four years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation in a form that requires no belief beyond what science currently accepts. The first 40 episodes of the podcast gradually go through all of these topics, in order, beginning with appreciating the gift of our life and our place in the universe, and gradually moving up to cultivating boundless compassion for all beings and understanding the ultimate nature of our inner and outer realities. Over the next year, interspersed with new interviews, we will be re-releasing newly recorded versions of these talks and meditations.If you're looking for a thoughtful gift this holiday season, the book How to Train a Happy Mind, offers simple, practical ways to create a happier mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world. Combining timeless Buddhist wisdom with modern science, it's a funny, accessible guide to letting go of anger, craving, and fear while cultivating genuine fulfillment.Support the show

Scott Tusa leads an equanimity meditation—based on the Mahayana Buddhist tradition—that works with three kinds of relationships in our life. The purpose is to cultivate compassion, loving-kindness, and understanding.Episode 149: Equanimity Meditation with Scott TusaSupport the show

After ordination by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Scott Tusa spent nine years as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Today, he's an irreverent meditation teacher and a brand-new father. In this episode, Scott and I talk about some hard decisions we've faced in life, and that the world faces today, asking ourselves, What is the right thing to do? Is there a right and wrong from a Buddhist perspective? How did Scott and I deal with the painful decisions we faced in our lives to get divorced and to give up a monastic life? We also grapple with one of the biggest ethical dilemmas facing the world today, the violent conflict in Israel and Gaza. Episode 148: What Is the Right Thing to Do? with Scott TusaIf you're looking for a thoughtful gift this holiday season, the book How to Train a Happy Mind, offers simple, practical ways to create a happier mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world. Combining timeless Buddhist wisdom with modern science, it's a funny, accessible guide to letting go of anger, craving, and fear while cultivating genuine fulfillment.Support the show

Even a short 10-minute meditation has the power to calm your body and mind. Here’s a helpful guided meditation that in just 10 minutes a day can improve your well-being. Even though it's short, this is a complete meditation session including establishing proper meditation posture, motivating our meditation to be a force for good, stabilizing the mind on the breath, letting go of thoughts, cultivating beneficial thoughts, and a dedication to seal your meditation practice.A Guided 10 Minute Meditation to Calm the MindFour years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation in a form that requires no belief beyond what science currently accepts. The first 40 episodes of the podcast gradually go through all of these topics, in order, beginning with appreciating the gift of our life and our place in the universe, and gradually moving up to cultivating boundless compassion for all beings and understanding the ultimate nature of our inner and outer realities. Over the next year, interspersed with new interviews, we will be re-releasing newly recorded versions of these talks and meditations.Support the show

Four years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analytical meditation in a form that requires no belief beyond what science currently accepts. The first 40 episodes of the podcast gradually go through all of these topics, in order, beginning with appreciating the gift of our life and our place in the universe, and gradually moving up to cultivating boundless compassion for all beings and understanding the ultimate nature of our inner and outer realities. Over the next year, interspersed with new interviews, we are re-releasing updated versions of these talks and meditations.Episode 1: What Is A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment? Introducing A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment, bringing the inner science of Buddhist meditation to twenty-first century people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. We take a secular approach to meditation that requires no belief beyond our current understanding of science and psychology, based on powerful Buddhist mind training techniques that use imagination, intelligence, and emotions to probe our inner and outer realities, and expand our compassion.If you're looking for a thoughtful gift this holiday season, the book How to Train a Happy Mind, offers simple, practical ways to create a happier mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world. Combining timeless Buddhist wisdom with modern science, it's a funny, accessible guide to letting go of anger, craving, and fear while cultivating genuine fulfillment.Support the show

Scott Snibbe shares a gentle Buddhist approach to self-forgiveness, letting go, establishing good habits, and rejoicing in all the good we've done. Move into the new year with your best intentions and best self.Episode 147: Letting Go and Looking Forward in the New YearSupport the show

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 music videos, digital art, film, virtual reality, and the invention of ingenious instruments like the tape bow violin and the talking stick. She’s won the Grammy Award and many other honors, and is currently the subject of a fantastic solo show at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.Episode 106: Laurie Anderson's Buddhism: Art, Meditation, and Death as Adventure If you're looking for a thoughtful gift this holiday season, the book How to Train a Happy Mind, offers simple, practical ways to create a happier mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world. Combining timeless Buddhist wisdom with modern science, it's a funny, accessible guide to letting go of anger, craving, and fear while cultivating genuine fulfillment.Support the show

Dan Harris, former ABC News anchor and host of the hit podcast Ten Percent Happier, talks with Scott Snibbe about love, skepticism, Buddhism, and the "cheesy upward spiral." Episode 134: Dan Harris: Love, Skepticism, and the "Cheesy Upward Spiral"This is a rebroadcast of one of the year's most popular episodes.If you're looking for a thoughtful gift this holiday season, the book How to Train a Happy Mind, offers simple, practical ways to create a happier mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world. Combining timeless Buddhist wisdom with modern science, it's a funny, accessible guide to letting go of anger, craving, and fear while cultivating genuine fulfillment.Support the show

Dr. Katherine MacLean leads a meditation practice called RAFT: Remembering to be Aware of Feelings in your body and Trust your experience. Katherine says that mushrooms shared this practice with her as a way to help others access the space of psychedelics from a sober standpoint. Episode 146: RAFT Meditation with Dr. Katherine MacLeanSupport the show

Ten years ago Dr. Katherine MacLean conducted the first scientific study of the combined effects of psychedelics with meditation. The encouraging results of the study showed the long-term beneficial effects these substances can have on our concentration, emotion regulation, openness, wellbeing, and happiness. In our conversation I learned what psychedelics have in common with meditation and how they can compliment one another. Katherine also shared when psychedelics aren't useful or even when they can be harmful. She offers careful advice as to when these substances might be of benefit and when they aren't. Episode 145: Psychedelics, Meditation, and Buddhism with Dr. Katherine MacLeanIf you're looking for a thoughtful gift this holiday season, the book How to Train a Happy Mind, offers simple, practical ways to create a happier mind, fulfilling relationships, and a better world. Combining timeless Buddhist wisdom with modern science, it's a funny, accessible guide to letting go of anger, craving, and fear while cultivating genuine fulfillment.Support the show