About A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment
A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment brings the inner science of Buddhist meditation to twenty-first century people hungry for happy, meaningful lives. It is a secular approach to meditation that requires no belief beyond our current understanding of science and psychology.
Skeptic’s Path meditations are based on powerful analytical meditation techniques that use imagination, emotions, and critical inquiry to probe our inner and outer realities and expand our compassion. These mind training techniques based on the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, 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.
Each week in discussions, guided meditations and interviews, we explore the vast variety of analytic meditation topics including love, compassion, sleep, tonglen, vipassana, stress, the body, meditation posture, anger, anxiety, addiction, grief, birth, death, forgiveness, patience, confidence, loneliness, work, and relationships.
Read more in What Is A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment?, Analytical Meditation: Story, Thought, and Emotion, and listen to our first podcast episode.
PEOPLE
Scott Snibbe
Executive Director & Host
Scott Snibbe is a twenty-year student of Tibetan Buddhism whose teachers include Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, Choden Rinpoche, Ven. Rene Feusi, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Inspired by his teachers, he leads meditations that infuse the pure lineage of the great Buddhist masters with science, humor, and the realities of the modern world.
Before founding A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment, Snibbe worked as a digital artist and entrepreneur. He has created bestselling art and music apps, and collaborated with musicians and filmmakers including Björk, James Cameron, and Philip Glass. His interactive exhibits have been collected by both science and art museums, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. His most recent company, Eyegroove, was acquired by Facebook to incorporate its augmented reality effect technology into Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp.
Stephen Butler
Board Member & Co-founder
Stephen Butler is the Executive Director of the Compassion Institute and co-founder of A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment. He has been a student of Buddhism for 30 years and, since 1999, has trained under Geshe Ngawang Dakpa, one of the last Lamas schooled in Tibet’s original monasteries. Stephen’s other teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Denma Locho Rinpoche, and Choden Rinpoche. He holds a degree in East Asian Studies and Religious Studies from the University of Arizona.
For many years Stephen has worked with Native American and Indigenous music to deepen our understanding of Indigenous cultures. As the founder of Buffalo Jump Records and Director of Production at Canyon Records, he has produced more than 200 studio and live productions, including 21 Grammy-nominated recordings by artists including R. Carlos Nakai and Northern Cree. Stephen’s volunteer work in Himalayan Nepal, India, Sera Jey Monastic University, and San Francisco’s Tse Chen Ling merge his interest in Dharma, his passion for cultural preservation, and his work in media production.
Jason Waterman
Marketing Director
Jason Waterman has been practicing Buddhist meditation for a decade. He first used mindfulness meditation to cope with the stress of being an NCAA Division One athlete, only later discovering the true depth of the teachings upon encountering Theravada Buddhism while living in Southeast Asia on a Fulbright Grant. His biggest influences have been the Thai Forest, Goenka, and Plum Village traditions.
Jason completed the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program led by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, certified by UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. He launched his own organization, Seeds We Water, to offer accessible Buddhist mind-training techniques in schools, corporations, and an array of other secular and spiritual organizations. Jason previously worked at advertising agencies in New York City and Boston helping with everything from launching new products for Fortune 500 companies to planning Super Bowl commercials.
Kristian Simsarian
Board Member
Kristian Simsarian is an innovator, educator, and AI/Robotics expert. He worked for a decade as a Robotics and AI computer scientist before joining innovation powerhouse IDEO. During his 17 years at IDEO, he co-founded and led the software design practice and later became a distinguished fellow. Seeing an education gap in technology design, he founded California College of the Arts’ BFA and a Master’s programs in technology design where he serves as a design professor.
Outside of academia, Kristian founded Collective Creativity to help organizations steward disruptive innovation for the greater good. He advises start-ups and non-profit organizations centered on design, technology, and innovation including the Long-Term Stock Exchange, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, Skeptic’s Path, Center for Humane Tech, and Humans for AI.
Our Teachers
Though we have studied with authentic Buddhist masters, any faults in adapting their teachings to a secular audience are our sole responsibility. Comments and corrections are welcome on each page, or privately via the Contact Page.
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso is the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, and a worldwide promoter of peace and secular ethics who in 1989 received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Gyumed Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Jampa has played an instrumental role in the spread of Tibetan Buddhism to the Western world. He served as the abbot of Gyumed Tantric College in India, and the spiritual director of the Guhyasamaja Center in Washington, D.C., DKNL in Connecticut, and Do Ngak Dargye Ling in California.
Denma Locho Rinpoche was one of the last living high lamas educated in Tibet. Born there in 1928, Locho Rinpoche fled to India in 1959. He became the lineage holder of Ling Rinpoche, the root guru of the Dalai Lama, and served as the abbot of Namgyal Monastery, the personal monastery of the Dalai Lama, from 1986 to 1991. He taught at centers and monasteries worldwide until his passing in 2014.