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https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/sep/18/the-worlds-happiest-man-matthieu-ricard-on-the-secrets-of-a-serene-successful-satisfying-life>
"I get anxious about interviews, I tell Matthieu Ricard moments after he
appears on my computer screen in his red and saffron robes, his background,
somewhere in the Dordogne region of France, discreetly blurred. He starts
laughing uproariously before I can even get my confession out; he laughs
frequently and infectiously throughout our call. “Really? In your job?” Yes, I
reply. Does anything make him anxious? He considers the question. “Yes, missing
planes or trains. Besides that, I don’t have many worries.”
This interview in particular feels intimidating. Ricard, 77, combines the
rigour of a French intellectual (he has a PhD in cellular genetics, has written
books on altruism, meditation and compassion for animals and translated
numerous Buddhist texts into French and English) with the wisdom you get from
50-plus years of intense spiritual practice. I have the profundity of a Pop
Tart and told a fruit fly to fuck off this morning; of course I’m anxious.
But I’m also excited. Like so many of us, I have spent most of my life
wondering about happiness: is it really achievable? How? Is it selfish to even
strive for it? Who better to help than “the world’s happiest man”? This
millstone of a title –“a nonsense idea” he calls it – attached to Ricard after
he took part in a 2004 research project that analysed his brain as he meditated
on compassion. The electroencephalogram recorded unprecedented levels of gamma
waves, associated with wellbeing and focus. His meditation also activated an
area of the brain associated with positive emotions. “Just think for two
seconds,” he says with gentle exasperation. “How can we know the state of
happiness of 8 billion human beings? Maybe there’s a guy who’s in complete
bliss all the time?” Does the label annoy him? “No. I feel embarrassed. One of
my friends said: ‘On your grave it will read: ‘Here lies the happiest man in
the world.’’” But his spiritual teacher’s grandson, he says, told him: “Take it
and use it. Stop fighting it.”
And anyway, he
did write a book called
Happiness. “I wanted to call it
Suffering,” he says, which makes me laugh, imagining his publishers’ faces, but
for once he is deadly serious: “No! It’s true!” Real happiness, he explains (he
calls it “eudemonia”, an ancient Greek term) comes from ridding yourself of
sources of suffering: hatred, pride, jealousy and so on. This kind of wellbeing
is “a sort of bonus” that comes from compassion, benevolence, altruism – and it
is lasting and stable. You can feel it even in moments of grief and regardless
of your material circumstances; he calls it “a way of being that pervades”.
That distinguishes it from pleasure, which is “perfectly fine, but not
happiness”."
Via Muse.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
