Who is the happiest man in the world? If you Google it, the name “Matthieu Ricard” pops up.
Matthieu Ricard ( born 15 February 1946) is a French writer and Buddhist monk who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal,Matthieu Ricard grew up among the personalities and ideas of French intellectual circles. He received a Ph.D. degree in molecular genetics from the Pasteur Institute in 1972. He then decided to forsake his scientific career and instead practice Tibetan Buddhism, living mainly in the Himalayas.
Ricard is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute and received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East.
Neuroscientist Richard Davidson wired up the monk’s skull with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin as part of research on hundreds of advanced practitioners of meditation,The scans showed that when meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves – those linked to consciousness, attention, learning and memory – ‘never reported before in the neuroscience literature’, Davidson said. Interestly compassion is Ricard’s main secret to being the happiest man in the world.
7 Life Lessons From Matthieu Ricard – The Happiest Man on Earth
1. What You See Is What You Get
I have firmly maintained that how we direct our brains and what we focus on matters. Researcher have concluded that most people are visual. I believe that to be accurate. We all imagine and make images.
We may not be aware or conscious of these unless we are directed to pay attention. When tasked to make a mental image deliberately some complain they aren’t good at it.
I think they are they just aren’t that good at it deliberately. They haven’t used or conditioned their visualizing muscles, yet, to work for them when they want it to. It just does what it does.
We all talk to ourselves or listen to past prior conversations and voices in our head without being schizophrenic. This is a normal part of daily living. We talk to ourselves, inside and out loud.
2. Stop thinking ‘me, me, me’
To Ricard, the answer comes down to altruism. The reason is that, thinking about yourself and how to make things better for yourself all the time is exhausting and stressful, and it ultimately leads to unhappiness.
“It’s not the moral ground,” Ricard says. “It’s simply that me, me, me all day long is very stuffy. And it’s quite miserable, because you instrumentalize the whole world as a threat, or as a potential sort of interest [to yourself].”
If you want to be happy, Ricard says you should strive to be “benevolent,” which will not only make you feel better but also make others like you more.
That’s not to say you should let other people take advantage of you, Ricard warns, but you should generally strive to be kind within reason.
“If your mind is filled with benevolence, you know, the passion and solidarity … this is a very healthy state of mind that is conducive to flourishing,” Ricard says. “So you, yourself, are in a much better mental state. Your body will be healthier, so it has been shown. And also, people will perceive it as something nice.”
That all sounds great in theory, but how does a person actually become altruistic and benevolent and not let selfish thoughts creep in?
3. Be Mindful
pay attention to the sensations of your breath going in and out. If you notice your mind wandering simply bring it back to focusing on your breath. This is known as mindfulness. You can apply it to other sensations to bring you into the ‘now’ rather than dwelling on the past or future. You could focus instead on heat, cold and sounds that you hear.
4. Healthy Mind Healthy Body Comes From Conditioning
This is so very true of mental training our abilities. He maintains many things, benevolence, attention, memory, emotional balance, can be trained including happiness. So how does Ricard recommend you train your mind to be happy.
Start by thinking happy thoughts for 10 to 15 minutes each day. Instead of having fleeting happy thoughts, hold onto them. Concentrate and stay focused on the positive emotions.
Don’t let your mind wander. Keep it on happy positive thoughts and feelings. Just 15 minutes a day can be enough. Condition you mind by daily focused concentration on happy thoughts and feelings.
He says, if you do the training every day, even in as short of time as two weeks you can feel the positive results. If you practiced for 50 years, as he has, you can become a happiness pro.
5. Happiness is found through helping others
Ricard acknowledges that our happiness is not immune to external happenings, but genuine happiness enables us to respond effectively. “Unlike pleasure, genuine happiness may be influenced by circumstance, but it isn’t dependent on it. It actually gives us the inner resources to deal better with those circumstances.” We aren’t off meditating on some mountain (or in our living room), removed from the world’s events. Instead, deeply-rooted, enduring happiness moves us to take appropriate action. Says Ricard, “The ultimate reason for meditating is to transform ourselves in order to be better able to transform the world.”
6. Imagine We Followed The Golden Rule And Went The Extra Mile:
It is good for the your soul of and the recipient. Help yourself by helping others. We can all be happier by what we do first. First, we think happy thoughts and we feel happy. First, we help others without expecting return.
What you want wants you! It can find you when YOU go first. Celebrate everything without reason. That is going first. Be grateful! That is going first. Do it and the rest follows. It doesn’t come if you wait for it. Act first, GO FIRST, and it comes to you.” Rex Sikes
Be thankful you have today to be thankful!
7. Everything Originates In Thought
It is cyclical. If we begin to monitor our thoughts and feelings, what we imagine, what we say and speak to ourselves we can begin to alter how we feel and increase our ability to be happy and to be successful.
We CAN exercise deliberate control of our thought processes.
If you want to be successful you think, feel and act successful. THEN success will follow. If you want happiness you think, feel and act happy. THEN happiness will follow.
Sadly, most people think happiness follows money, things, specific people, events or circumstances. It doesn’t. You be happy, you be successful, you be rich, you be healthy in mind first and then those things follow.
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