How to Train a Happy Mind

This guided meditation takes us through different ways of observing the mind, first examining its ever-present parts: perception, feeling, will, and awareness. 
Then we explore the nature of subjective reality itself by asking what is the mind without thoughts? 
Where is the space of our consciousness? 
And, how finely can we slice moments of consciousness? 
Do we ever arrive at a quantum of consciousness?

Episode 7. Guided Meditation: What Is the Mind?
Themes:
Watching your thoughts
Free will
What is consciousness
Finding peace
Mind-body connection
Buddhist philosophy
Cultivating joy
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If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
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If the mind is our thoughts, then what is it that observes those thoughts? 
What are we without thoughts? 
Do we ever truly see an object, or only its mental reconstruction? 
Though we are all convinced that we have one, science has no agreed definition for consciousness or mind. Even subjectively, the mind is elusive, difficult to pin to any specific mental experience.

Episode 6. What Is the Mind?
Themes:
Body-mind duality
Interdependence
Consciousness
Noticing your thoughts
How to be present
The mind's 4 mental factors
Psychology
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If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
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What would you do if someone pulled a gun on you? I don't think any of us really know until we're actually put into that situation. Many years ago, someone pulled a gun on me and I was surprised by how I responded. In this episode of How to Train a Happy Mind, I share that terrifying experience and reflect on how an attitude of love and compassion, at least in this one very specific instance, may have saved my life.
This episode is a recording of a talk and guided meditation I gave just a few days ago in our train a Happy Mind community, which meets every Sunday morning for live discussion and meditation. If you'd like to become part of that community, you can learn more at trainahappymind.org.
Before I play the episode, I want to offer a clear disclaimer. I am not advocating in any way that anyone respond as I did in a situation like this. In general, personal safety guidance emphasizes that if someone threatens you with a weapon, the safest response is usually to stay calm and do what they ask. 
This story describes a very specific and unusual situation, where what the person wanted would have caused even more harm. Every situation is different, and there’s no single right or safe response. Please don’t take this episode as personal advice about your own—or anyone else’s—behavior. Instead, take it as a story: one that illustrates how we train our minds toward nonviolence, compassion, and love.
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Tsherin Sherpa is a remarkable Himalayan artist who draws on Buddhist iconography to explore sexuality, gender, consumerism, and identity. I first met him 25 years ago, when he was teaching thangka painting in the San Francisco Bay Area and I was a young Buddhist hoping to learn how to paint devotional images. Since then, Tsherin has become one of the most respected contemporary artists in the world, representing Nepal at the Venice Biennale.
For the full 90-minute dialogue, visit trainahappymind.org and join our Train a Happy Mind community. 
To watch the 30-minute edited version, featuring images of the art we discuss, go to our YouTube channel.
Episode 213: Art & Emptiness: Tsherin Sherpa on Tradition, Identity, & Freedom
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A guided meditation on the preciousness of our next 24 hours alive and our unique place in the universe as science understands it: intelligent, self-aware beings at the end of 14 billion years’ cosmic and biological evolution.

Episode 5: Guided Meditation on The Preciousness of Life
Themes:
Self-awareness
Gratitude
Stabilizing the breath
How to be happy
Loving others
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel
If you’d like to practice with others and bring these ideas into your life, join our weekly meditation community with Scott.
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