Yangsi Rinpoche's gave a beautiful talk a couple of months ago with the intriguing title "Contentment Plus Ambition." He was generous enough to sit down with me afterwards for an interview about the same topic in which he talks about how to practice real self-compassion and even how we can create the causes for world peace. Yangsi Rinpoche studied at Sera Jey Monastery in south India until 1995 when he graduated with the highest degree of Geshe Lharampa. Rinpoche now lives in Portland, Oregon wh...
May 14, 2024•33 min•Ep. 160
Restorative justice practitioner sujatha baliga talks to Scott Snibbe about his new meditation book, How to Train a Happy Mind . Episode 159: sujatha baliga & Scott Snibbe in conversation: How to Train a Happy Mind From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in th...
May 07, 2024•44 min•Ep. 159
A guided meditation on impermanence that helps us release fear and anxiety to embrace the constant change at every scale of reality: from particles, possessions, homes, and the environment, to our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, and relationships. When we embrace impermanence, we more easily take on challenges like today’s Coronavirus crisis. We become more fully present to those around us and we can even more deeply appreciate life’s impermanent pleasures. Episode 10. Guided Meditation - E...
Apr 30, 2024•23 min
We cling to things as if they won’t change, but change is the nature of reality. When we embrace impermanence, we prepare ourselves for big changes, and are able to let go of our fear and anxiety to become more fully present to those around us, to make the most meaningful choices day-to-day, and to more deeply appreciate life’s fleeting pleasures. Episode 9. Embracing Impermanence Four years ago, we created A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to share the rich tradition of Tibetan Buddhist analyti...
Apr 23, 2024•25 min
In this guided meditation, Stephen Batchelor invites you to unconditionally embrace your experience of the moment, to simply watch all thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and notice the ground of nonreactive awareness. This guides you toward a path rooted in freedom, openness, and love. Episode 158: Meditation on Embracing Life with Stephen Batchelor From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and l...
Apr 16, 2024•17 min•Ep. 158
Nearly 30 years ago, Stephen Batchelor wrote a book called Buddhism Without Beliefs that's become a foundational work for those seeking to adopt Buddhism into a non-religious form while still maintaining the power and authenticity of its time tested practices. I had a chance to speak with Stephen Batchelor recently from his home in France, where he shared his own creative struggle with Buddhism: from his origins as an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk to becoming a skeptical agnostic who admits tha...
Apr 09, 2024•33 min•Ep. 157
Derek Fagerstrom interviews Scott Snibbe about his new book, How to Train a Happy Mind , at San Francisco’s Book Passage. Derek is the co-founder of Pop-up Magazine, and has worked at Esquire, Interview, and Francis Ford Coppola's literary journal Zoetrope: All-Story. How to Train a Happy Mind is out now in paperback, e-book, and audiobook. You can find it anywhere you buy books. Episode 156: Book Passage Talk with Derek Fagerstrom From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person medit...
Apr 02, 2024•39 min•Ep. 156
Scott Snibbe leads a meditation from his new book, How to Train a Happy Mind, on how to make the most of our precious lives. Episode 155: Precious Life Meditation From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of California, while enjoyin...
Mar 26, 2024•18 min•Ep. 155
Scott Snibbe shares a chapter from his new book, How to Train a Happy Mind: The Precious Life. If you enjoy this episode, check out the whole audiobook on Audible , which includes guided meditations! Episode 154: The Precious Life—Chapter Reading from How to Train a Happy Mind From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, lov...
Mar 19, 2024•22 min•Ep. 154
This is an exciting episode for the podcast because my book, How to Train a Happy Mind, comes out today. To celebrate its release, we're sharing a conversation I had with best-selling author Vicki McKenzie a couple of weeks ago at a book preview event in London, in front of a live audience. This podcast is where I developed most of the ideas for the book, based on more than a decade leading meditations that eventually formed many of our episodes. I want to thank all our listeners for your feedba...
Mar 12, 2024•39 min•Ep. 151
Meenadchi guides a meditation on discovering, playing with, and feeling the good things in your body through a light visualization. Episode 152: Meditation on Feeling Good with Meenadchi From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the beautiful redwood forests of C...
Mar 05, 2024•18 min•Ep. 152
A couple of decades ago, a friend introduced me to a book called Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg. Over the years, I've tried imperfectly to use its gentler forms of communication. At various points in life the techniques of NVC, as it's known for short, have saved me from losing a lawsuit, losing a job, and losing a partner. Still, these techniques didn't always work for me. When our producer Annie Nguyen recently introduced me to a book called Decolonizing Nonviolent Communicatio...
Feb 27, 2024•44 min•Ep. 151
Dr. Suzanne Wertheim is the author of The Inclusive Language Field Guide . An academic for many years, she now specializes in analyzing and addressing bias at work, helping companies like Google and Reddit promote speech that's more inclusive and more connecting. After I read Suzanne's book, I was struck by the parallels between her work and the Buddhist ethical foundation of right speech. In our interview, we talk about embarrassing mistakes we both made in our speech, how to both forcefully an...
Feb 20, 2024•40 min•Ep. 150
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 Thoughts 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, ...
Feb 13, 2024•32 min
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, a...
Feb 06, 2024•35 min
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 Tusa From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relati...
Jan 30, 2024•16 min•Ep. 149
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 m...
Jan 23, 2024•38 min•Ep. 148
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 Medit...
Jan 16, 2024•11 min
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 a...
Jan 09, 2024•19 min
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 Year From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving re...
Jan 02, 2024•29 min•Ep. 147
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 ta...
Dec 26, 2023•41 min
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. From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper ca...
Dec 19, 2023•42 min
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 MacLean From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and ...
Dec 12, 2023•18 min•Ep. 146
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 th...
Dec 05, 2023•44 min•Ep. 145
Psychedelic psychotherapist Dr. Michael Sapiro leads a guided meditation on mindful awareness that connects you with the present moment and your senses. Episode 144: Mindful Awareness Meditation with Michael Sapiro From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’ll explore antidotes to anxiety, fear, and loneliness—and cultivate the deeper causes of a happy mind; connected, loving relationships; and a better world. It all happens in the be...
Nov 28, 2023•14 min•Ep. 144
Psychedelics have been in the news a lot lately as a new way to help people work through otherwise intractable issues of grief depression and PTSD. Dr. Michael Sapiro is a psychedelic psychotherapist and researcher who has worked successfully with psychedelics in his practice for years. He focuses on helping combat vets and first responders overcome PTSD and other trauma; in his words, transforming worldly warriors into spiritual warriors. Listen to this episode to hear how psychedelic substance...
Nov 21, 2023•51 min•Ep. 143
On several occasions I’ve heard people ask the Dalai Lama how to end war, and he’s always answered the same way: begin by trying to resolve the conflicts in your own life. But how do we do that? This meditation goes through some of the Buddhist approaches to understanding the causes of war, both in ourselves and others, and how we might eventually be free of them. Episode 142. War Meditation From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institute. We’...
Nov 14, 2023•33 min•Ep. 142
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 Kittay Listen to our previous interviews with Dr. David Kittay here: Episode 77: Buddhism and Technology (Part 1) Episode 78: Buddhism and Technology (Part 2) From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani In...
Nov 07, 2023•29 min
Professor David Kittay talks with Scott Snibbe about whether we should treat AIs with compassion, whether we are living in a simulation, and whether technologically assisted enlightenment might be possible. Dr. David 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 Publica...
Oct 31, 2023•1 hr 2 min
A guided meditation by Ven. Sangye Khadro (Kathleen McDonald) on the natural goodness of our mind, or Buddha nature. In this meditation we let go of all our negative, disturbing states of mind like anger, anxiety, or fear; and cultivate our positive mental qualities of compassion, wisdom, and courage. 36. Guided Meditation on the Natural Goodness of our Mind — Ven. Sangye Khadro (Kathleen McDonald) From August 28 to 31, Scott Snibbe is leading an in-person meditation retreat at Vajrapani Institu...
Oct 24, 2023•19 min
