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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.

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34 episodes
weekly
Avg 31 min
English

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Tuesday · 14 min
Guided Meditation: Universalizing our Problems and Pleasures #32
A guided meditation on “universalizing,” a Tibetan Buddhist mind training technique for transforming our everyday problems and pleasures through love and compassion. Episode 32. Guided Meditation: Universalizing our Problems and Pleasures If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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October 27 · 24 min
Universalizing: Transforming Pain and Pleasure into Love and Compassion #31 [rebroadcast]
One of the most powerful Tibetan Buddhist mind training techniques is universalizing, a practice that transforms everyday pains and pleasures into profound meditations. From arguing with the family to stuffing yourself with a delicious meal, life’s problems and pleasures can bring anger, guilt, and sadness. The meditation technique of “universalization” transforms our everyday experiences of pleasure and pain into engines of love and compassion. Episode 31: Universalizing: Transforming Pain and Pleasure into Love and Compassion If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#233
October 20 · 10 min
Awakening Your Inner Source of Compassion Meditation | Dr. Shireen Mansouri
When we're going through difficult moments, it's easy to feel alone in our struggles or to be hard on ourselves. But compassion is a quality we can cultivate, not only for others, but also for ourselves. In this gentle guided meditation, Dr. Shireen Mansouri invites us to imagine a source of compassion that embodies wisdom, strength, warmth, and unconditional acceptance. Through visualization and mindful breathing, we'll explore how to connect with these qualities within ourselves, meet our difficulties with greater kindness, and recognize the shared humanity in our suffering. Episode 233: Awakening Your Inner Source of Compassion Meditation If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#232
October 13 · 38 min
Should I Meditate With My Doctor? | Shireen Mansouri #232
What if your doctor could help you feel better just by being more present? Scott Snibbe talks with Dr. Shireen Mansouri, a Canadian physician and teacher with the Compassion Institute, about how meditation and compassion can transform the experience of healthcare for both doctors and patients. Drawing on her own experience, Shireen shares how a daily meditation practice has helped her become more present, less stressed, and more connected to her patients. She also explains how she quietly practices tonglen, a Tibetan Buddhist compassion meditation, during difficult conversations, and why compassion fatigue might actually be something else entirely. Together, they explore the science behind compassionate care, the role of meditation in healing, and how even a few mindful breaths can change what we say next. Episode 232: Should I Meditate With My Doctor? If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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October 6 · 16 min
Compassion Meditation #29 [rebroadcast]
A 15-minute guided meditation on compassion: the wish to take away others’ suffering. Episode 29. Guided Compassion Meditation If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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September 29 · 25 min
What is Compassion? #28 [rebroadcast]
Compassion is starting to rival mindfulness as the next most popular up-and-coming form of secular meditation. But what is compassion? Compassion, from the Buddhist perspective, is not just empathizing with others’ suffering, but actively wishing to take it away. Episode 28. What Is Compassion? If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#231
September 22 · 12 min
A Compassion Meditation for Difficult Moments — Aproteem Choudhury #231
In this episode, Aproteem Choudhury offers a gentle compassion meditation for those moments when something difficult is asking for our attention. Rather than turning away from discomfort or trying to fix it, this practice invites us to acknowledge what’s here and meet it with care. Along the way, Aproteem reminds us that we’re not alone in our struggles and encourages us to listen for the wise and compassionate response that may already be available to us. Episode 231: A Compassion Meditation for Difficult Moments — Aproteem Choudhury If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#230
September 15 · 40 min
Compassion Means We're Not Alone — Aproteem Choudhury #230
Can compassion make loneliness less convincing? Aproteem Choudhury, Program Director of Health at The Compassion Institute, explores how compassion can transform the way we relate to loneliness, trauma, and suffering. Drawing on his work with communities affected by natural disasters, gun violence, and challenges in healthcare, Apro shares how care and connection can help us meet difficult experiences without becoming overwhelmed by them. Episode 230. Compassion Means We're Not Alone — Aproteem Choudhury If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#229
September 8 · 43 min
How Compassion Helps Us Through High-Stress Situations—Stephen Butler #229
What does compassion look like when we’re facing intense stress, trauma, or pressure? In this episode, we talk with Stephen Butler, Executive Director of the Compassion Institute, about how we can strengthen our innate capacity for compassion and use it to meet difficult situations with greater courage and resilience. Episode 229: How Compassion Helps Us Through High-Stress Situations If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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September 1 · 22 min
Guided Meditation on Love #26 [rebroadcast]
A guided meditation on love, or loving-kindness, the expansive form of love, wishing happiness not only to friends and family but to all beings everywhere, including our enemies. In the language of Buddhism, it is metta or maitri. Episode 26. Guided Meditation on Love If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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August 25 · 21 min
What is Love? #25 [rebroadcast]
Love is complex in our culture, tied up with finding a single person to satisfy our huge list of needs and dreams, whom we then grant the exclusive gift of our affection. But love—loving-kindness from the Buddhist perspective—is simpler, free from attachment. It's wishing others to be happy. Episode 25: What Is Love? If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#228
August 18 · 32 min
Healthy Masculinity: A Meditation on Sex, Strength, and Love #228
A guided meditation led by Scott Snibbe on healthy masculinity, exploring sexuality, strength, compassion, self-acceptance, and emotional connection to help men feel more whole, grounded, and deeply connected with themselves and others. Episode 228: Healthy Masculinity: A Meditation on Sex, Strength, and Love If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#227
August 11 · 53 min
Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity #227
One of the greatest challenges I've faced as a man hasn't been sitting on a meditation cushion—it's been understanding the woman I love most. Karen Brody has a unique perspective on modern masculinity, intimacy, and sexuality. Her insights help us understand why men and women so often misunderstand each other, how sexual confidence differs from neediness, what keeps love alive over decades together, and the surprising parallels between her work and Buddhist practice in transforming desire rather than suppressing it. Episode 227. Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#227
August 11 · 43 min
Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity #227
Karen Brody has a unique perspective on modern masculinity, intimacy, and sexuality. She explores why men and women can misunderstand each other, how sexual confidence differs from neediness, what keeps love alive over decades together, and the surprising parallels between her work and Buddhist practice in transforming desire rather than suppressing it. Episode 227. Sex, Strength, and Love: Karen Brody on Modern Masculinity If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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August 4 · 20 min
Guided Meditation: Transforming Bias with Equanimity #23 [rebroadcast]
The Buddhist meditation on equanimity teaches a technique to eliminate bias and expand our love and concern from family and friends to strangers and even enemies. It tames our fierce attachment to loved ones and our anger toward enemies for a stabler, happier mind and a more just and equitable world. Episode 23: Guided Meditation: Transforming Bias with Equanimity If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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July 28 · 30 min
Spiritual Democracy #22 [rebroadcast]
In everyday life, we’re torn between fierce attachment to our loved ones and anger at those that give us trouble. But Buddhism, democracy, and social justice tell us that all people deserve the same rights and freedoms: we’re all equal, and we all deserve happiness. The Buddhist meditation on equanimity, applied to our everyday relationships and the painful daily news, teaches us a technique of “spiritual democracy” for developing healthy feelings of connection to others—even those we most despise. Episode 22. Spiritual Democracy If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#226
July 21 · 28 min
Meditation to Cultivate Hope for the Future | Geshe Legtsok #226
When uncertainty and bad news pull the mind toward pessimism, how can we cultivate genuine hope without ignoring reality? In this guided meditation, Geshe Legtsok leads a reflection on gratitude, good fortune, impermanence, and intentional action. By recognizing the blessings in our own lives, appreciating the positive contributions of others, and remembering that change is always possible, we develop a more balanced and hopeful outlook. Episode 226: Meditation to Cultivate Hope for the Future | Geshe Legtsok If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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#225
July 14 · 40 min
Is This Actually the Best Time to Be Alive? — Geshe Legtsok #225
What if we've been looking at the modern world all wrong? Despite the headlines, extreme poverty has plummeted, knowledge is more accessible than ever, and ancient meditation practices are spreading across the globe. In this conversation, Geshe Tenzin Legtsok suggests that humanity may not be living in the worst of times, but on the edge of an unprecedented opportunity for wisdom, compassion, and human flourishing. Episode 225: Is This Actually the Best Time to Be Alive? — Geshe Legtsok If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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July 7 · 24 min
The Determination to Be Free - Guided Meditation on Renunciation #18 [rebroadcast]
Dostoevsky is often credited with saying, “The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison.” The practice of renunciation begins by recognizing the ways we're already trapped—by anger, craving, impatience, and the endless search for satisfaction outside ourselves. This meditation helps us see these patterns clearly and turn toward a deeper source of freedom, discovering a refuge within our own mind that no external circumstance can provide. Episode 18. Guided Meditation - Renunciation If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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June 30 · 28 min
The Red Pill of Renunciation: Embracing Reality as It Is #17 [rebroadcast]
What do The Matrix and Jerry Seinfeld have in common with Buddhist wisdom? In this episode, Scott explores the practice of renunciation—not giving up life's pleasures, but letting go of the mistaken belief that lasting happiness comes from external circumstances. Through insights from The Matrix, comedy, and Buddhist psychology, discover how true freedom begins when we stop blaming the world for our suffering and start transforming our own minds. Episode 17: The Red Pill of Renunciation: Embracing Reality As It Is If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott. 🙏 Help us stay ad-free 📲 Follow us on socials
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Showing 1–20 of 34 episodes