Matthieu Ricard
Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, biologist, researcher, translator and published author.
Matthieu Ricard gave a public talk (downloadable 45mg) on Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain - Cultivating the Inner Condition for Genuine Happiness on Monday 5th May, Monash University.
Matthieu also gave a wonderful talk on the Teacher Student Relationship (65mg).
If you are inspired by Matthieu's talks or his work, please visit the Karuna Project and consider donating to the Karuna Project.
Matthieu Ricard is a former molecular biologist, Buddhist monk, French interpreter for H.H. Dalai Lama. His talk was on the vital role of mind training for achieving genuine happiness and on the impact that long term mind training has on the brain.
He gave insights on the latest research in neurosciences involving expert meditators and their ability to monitor mental events and generate positive states such as compassion and focused attention.
Matthieu also presented at the Happiness & Its Causes Conference in Sydney where he presented a full day workshop on how to develop the inner conditions for true happiness.
Biography
Matthieu was born in France in 1946. His father, Jean-François Revel was an honored philosopher, writer, journalist and a member of the noted Académie Française, which is a gathering of some of the most notorious French intellectuals. His mother, Yahne Le Toumelin is a painter and watercolorist.
He grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris’ intellectual and artistic circles. He studied classical music, ornithology and photography. He counted Luis Buñuel, Igor Stravinsky and Henri Cartier-Bresson among his friends.
He did a Ph.D. in cellular genetics at the Institut Pasteur under Nobel Laureate François Jacob. After completing his Ph.D. thesis in 1972, Mr. Ricard decided to forsake his scientific career and concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies.
Matthieu has lived in the Himalayas since 1972 and has been a Buddhist monk for thirty-five years at the Shechen Monastery in Nepal. He has met the greatest living teachers and became the close student and attendant of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the most eminent Tibetan masters and luminaries of our time, until the passing of Khyentse Rinpoche in 1991.
Since 1989 he has accompanied HH Dalai Lama to France, acting as his personal interpreter.
He has been awarded the French National Order of Merit by President François Mitterrand for his involvement and his efforts to preserve the Himalayan cultures.
Matthieu Ricard is a bestselling author. He has translated and edited numerous books on Tibetan Buddhism and is highly praised for his vast knowledge of Tibetan religion and culture.
He is the author of The Mystery of Animal Migration,Hill & Wang, NY, 1969, The Monk and the Philosopher, Knopf Publishing Group, 2000, a best-seller book of dialogues with his father Jean-François Revel, which has been translated into twenty-three languages and on the bestseller booklist in France for nine months.
The Quantum and the Lotus, Crown Publishing Group, 2004, presents an in-depth conversation with the astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, it is the rich and inspiring result of a deeply interesting dialogue between Western science and Buddhist philosophy. This remarkable book will contribute greatly to a better understanding of the true nature of our world and the way we live our lives
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He has also published The Spirit of Tibet, 2001, (also in video), a photo book on the life of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Monk Dancers of Tibet, Shambhala Publications, 2003, in collaboration, the photobook, Buddhist Himalayas, Harry N Abrams Inc, 2002 and numerous translations of Tibetan texts, including The Life of Shabkar, The Autobiography of a Tibetan Yogin, Snow Lion Publications, 2001 and The Heart Treasure of the Enlightened Ones, The Practice of View, Meditation, and Action, Boston, Shambhala Publications, 1993.
With Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill, Matthieu Ricard continues to bridge the dialogue between East and West.
His latest book Motionless Journey features photographs taken from the hermitage's terrace and surroundings.
Matthieu Ricard’s pictures of remarkable spiritual masters, the people of the Himalayas and the landscapes, have appeared internationally in numerous magazines and books. Henri Cartier-Bresson has said of his work that Matthieu’s spiritual life and his camera are one, from which springs these images, fleeting and eternal
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He spends several months each year in Tibet implementing charitable projects that have built and maintain sixteen clinics, seven schools, including one for 800 children in the desperately poor districts high up in the Himalayas, orphanages, program for several hundred elderly people and seven bridges. All proceeds from his books go to funding all Shechen’s humanitarian projects in Tibet, Nepal, India, and Bhutan.
I've made a partial return to science after 35 years, I spend at least a full month a year going to labs to collaborate on researching and studying the mind. The combination gives me a unique way to approach things.
Since 2000, Matthieu Ricard has been an active member of the Mind and Life Institute and participates in current scientific research on Training the Mind and Brain Plasticity headed by the cognitive scientist Professor Richard J. Davidson, one of the world's leading investigators in the field of neuroplasticity.
At the University of Wisconsin, researchers attached 256 sensors to his skull and placed him into a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI). Ricard's MRI showed the highest level of activity ever recorded in the left pre-frontal cortex of the brain, the area associated with positive emotion. With the scoring ranging from +0.3 to -0.3 (beatific) Matthieu Ricard's scores were actually off the scale at more than -0.45. It was a world first!!!
This research is done at the universities of Wisconsin-Madison, Princeton and Berkeley, USA. The paper describing the remarkable results, printed in PNAS in 2004, has become the fifth most-downloaded scientific publication in history. So far, this research has been downloaded 150,000 times.
Matthieu Ricard is co-director of the Buddhist Shechen Monastery in Nepal.
He dedicates his activities to fulfilling Khyentse Rinpoche’s vision.
Articles
- Long-term meditators self-induce high-amplitude gamma synchrony during mental practice (pnas.org)
- How Thinking Can Change the Brain (Copied from WSJ.com)
- How to be Happy (nyas.org)
- Meditation and the Mind: Science Meets Buddhism (abc.net.au)
- Is Buddhism Good for Your Health? (nytimes.com)
- Matthieu Ricard: Meet Mr Happy (news.independent.co.uk)
- The World's Happiest Man (odemagazine.com)
- Scientists Meditate on Happiness (wired.com)
Links
- Shechen Monastery
- Karuna Asia
- Matthieu Ricard.org
- Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
- Mind & Life Institute
Credits
Biography taken from MatthieuRicard.org