A Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment Scott Snibbe
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- Religion & Spirituality
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A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment brings the inner science of Buddhist philosophy and meditation to twenty-first century people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. In our weekly podcast, we share talks, guided meditations, and interviews exploring happiness, love, compassion, relationships, family, politics, technology, and work. Skeptic’s Path explores powerful "analytical meditation" techniques that use imagination, emotions, and critical inquiry to probe our inner and outer realities and expand our compassion based on the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. We expand on the popular mindfulness approach to meditation to help us better understand our minds from the inside out, building healthy mental habits that are the true causes of happiness.
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How to Train a Happy Mind book launch conversation with Scott Snibbe and Vicki Mackenzi
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 feedback and support over these four years. You've helped me develop the book's simple eight-step program that combines Tibetan Buddhism with modern science and psychology. I'm excited to hear what you think about it.
If you'd like to buy How to Train a Happy Mind, you can find it anywhere you buy books. I've donated all my proceeds from the book to the Skeptic's Path to Enlightenment nonprofit. So your purchase helps support this podcast. If you end up enjoying the book, please consider reviewing it on Amazon or Goodreads, which will help other people discover it.
Episode 153: How to Train a Happy Mind book launch conversation with Scott Snibbe and Vicki Mackenzi
Scott Snibbe has just released a new book called How to Train a Happy Mind that shares the accessible approach to Buddhism familiar to podcast listeners. The book features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and you can order it right now anywhere you buy books. Go to skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour, featuring favorite guests from the podcast including Robert Thurman at Tibet House, New York on March 20.
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Meditation on Feeling Good with Meenadchi
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
Scott Snibbe has just released a new book called How to Train a Happy Mind that shares the accessible approach to Buddhism familiar to podcast listeners. The book features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and you can order it right now anywhere you buy books. Go to skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour, featuring favorite guests from the podcast including Robert Thurman at Tibet House, New York on March 20.
Support the show -
Decolonizing Nonviolent Communication with Meenadchi
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 Communication, it put words to those challenges.
The book's author, Meenadchi, a somatic healing practitioner, spoke with me recently about the ways that she's updated nonviolent communication to account for the power structures in our society that exacerbate conflicts, and the interdependence between people and our environments that may have been missing from nonviolent communication's original formulation.
I find her approach, distinctly Buddhist as a "middle way" that helps us draw strong boundaries and fight the injustices in the world, while still holding love and compassion, even for our enemies. Meenadchi's therapeutic work centers on social change and embodied transformation. She specializes in healing members of communities impacted by gender-based violence, complex trauma, and serious mental illness.
Episode 151: Decolonizing Nonviolent Communication with Meenadchi
Scott Snibbe has just released a new book called How to Train a Happy Mind that shares the accessible approach to Buddhism familiar to podcast listeners. The book features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and you can order it right now anywhere you buy books. Go to skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour, featuring favorite guests from the podcast including Robert Thurman at Tibet House, New York on March 20.
Support the show -
Compassionate Speech with Dr. Suzanne Wertheim
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 and compassionately confront harmful speech, and how to recognize and transform the bias in our own language. Suzanne and I spoke for so long that it far outran our normal episode length. So, if you'd like to hear the full unedited hour and a half of our great conversation, including many specific examples of ways to speak inclusively and compassionately, check out the Skeptic's Path YouTube channel.
Episode 150: Compassionate Speech with Dr. Suzanne Wertheim
Scott Snibbe has just released a new book called How to Train a Happy Mind that shares the accessible approach to Buddhism familiar to podcast listeners. The book features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and you can order it right now anywhere you buy books. Go to skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour, featuring favorite guests from the podcast including Robert Thurman at Tibet House, New York on March 20.
Support the show -
Meditation on Stabilizing the Mind and Watching Thoughts
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, 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.
Scott Snibbe has just released a new book called How to Train a Happy Mind that shares the accessible approach to Buddhism familiar to podcast listeners. The book features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and you can order it right now anywhere you buy books. Go to skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour, featuring favorite guests from the podcast including Robert Thurman at Tibet House, New York on March 20.
Support the show -
What Is Meditation? [updated rebroadcast]
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.
Scott Snibbe has just released a new book called How to Train a Happy Mind that shares the accessible approach to Buddhism familiar to podcast listeners. The book features a foreword by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and you can order it right now anywhere you buy books. Go to skepticspath.org for more details on the book and tour, featuring favorite guests from the podcast including Robert Thurman at Tibet House, New York on March 20.
Support the show
Customer Reviews
A Big Life Improvement
Listening to this podcast has changed my life for the better. Being mindful is so important to my every day now.
Absolutely love this podcast
Scott approaches his talks and mediations in such a relatable way. I have found them incredibly helpful in challenging my old thought patterns and reducing anxiety. I’ve listened to all of his episodes more than once. I’m so appreciative of this resource.
Excellent Podcast
My partner, Jane, and I have been involved with Buddhism for decades. Nonetheless, we listen to, and learn from, this podcast regularly. The guests are wonderful, and Scott Snibbe's style of interviewing makes their messages accessible to those just discovering this path, as well as informative for those who have been on it for quite a while. Additionally, Scott's own teachings are helpful.