On this podcast, we talk a lot about meditation, but it’s far from the only way to connect with the deepest part of yourself and build a stable, joyful mind. There are so many other paths to reach that same inner stillness: spending time in nature, practicing yoga, exercising, making music, writing, or creating art.For Scott, art was his meditation long before he ever learned to sit in silence. Our friend John Simon Jr. feels this connection just as deeply, so much so that he wrote a whole book about it called Drawing Your Own Path.Scott and John first met years ago through their shared love of creating art with computer software. Recently, they reunited at John’s home in New York State to talk about how drawing by hand (the old-fashioned way) can be a profound meditation in itself. It’s a beautiful reminder that creativity, presence, and peace can flow through any form of expression.Episode 207: Drawing As Meditation with John Simon Jr. Support the show
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Guided Meditation on Pleasure #85 [rebroadcast]
How can we use pleasure in our meditation practice? Buddhism offers specific techniques for meditating on pleasure as a way to deepen our qualities of concentration, fearlessness, loving-kindness, and even our understanding of the ultimate nature of reality.Episode 85: Guided Meditation on PleasureSupport the show
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Pleasure and Buddhism: Food, Sex, and Netflix on the Path to Enlightenment #84 [rebroadcast]
Pleasure is often viewed as a hindrance to the spiritual path, a hotbed of craving and attachment, but what if we told you that pleasure can actually be a positive part of the spiritual path, a portal to love and happiness?Episode 84: Pleasure and Buddhism: Food, Sex and Netflix on the Path to EnlightenmentSupport the show
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Meditation on Falling in Love with the Future—Rob Hopkins #206
In this imaginative and hopeful episode, Rob Hopkins—founder of the Transition movement and author of How to Fall in Love with the Future—guides listeners through a vivid meditation envisioning the year 2030. Drawing on years of community activism and storytelling, Rob invites us to step through a metaphorical door into a future shaped by collective action, resilience, and radical imagination. What might our cities, communities, and daily lives look like if we did everything we could to build a better world? This episode offers a powerful glimpse into that possibility.Episode 206: Meditation on Falling in Love with the Future—Rob HopkinsSupport the show
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How to Fall in Love with the Future—Rob Hopkins #205
Rob Hopkins is one of the people doing the most to assure that humanity has a healthy, thriving, and happy future. I was blown away by his new book, How to Fall in Love With the Future, which describes a radical new type of climate activism he's invented. Instead of bemoaning the current state of the world, he invites us to imagine the world we want to live in—that's just around the corner—and then do everything we can to make it a reality.Join me now to find out how to fall in love with the future.Episode 205: How to Fall in Love with the Future—Rob HopkinsSupport the show
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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