Buddhist monk left Science: Matthieu Ricard

(Study Buddhism) The Western Nepalese Vajrayana Buddhist monk (lama) who left Western science behind: Dr. Matthieu "Happiest Person in the World" Ricard on finding human perfection

Why 'meditation' feels hard (Dr. Ricard)

(Study Buddhism) Why "meditation" [striving, straining, struggling to get into absorption] feels so hard (and what to do about it) | [Western scientist and Vajrayana Buddhist lama] Ven. Matthieu Ricard [known as "the happiest person in the world"*]. "There is no Samsara 2.0."

Who is he?

Sure, I'm happy, but the happiest?

Matthieu Ricard (French matjø ʁikaʁ, Nepali माथ्यु रिका, born Feb. 15, 1946) is a French Nepalese writer, photographer, translator, and Buddhist monk (lama) who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal.

Dr. Matthieu Ricard grew up among the personalities and ideas of French intellectual circles. He received a PhD degree in molecular genetics from the Pasteur Institute in 1972.

He then decided to avoid a common scientific career and instead did the daring thing and took up the practice of Tibetan Buddhism (Vajrayana Bon), living mainly in the Himalayas.

Matthieu Ricard is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East with Karuna-Shechen, the non-profit organization he co-founded in 2000 with Rabjam Rinpoche.

Since 1989, he has acted as the French interpreter for the 14th Dalai Lama. Since 2010, he has been traveling and giving a series of talks with and assisting in teachings by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, the incarnation of Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche....

*Matthieu Ricard has been called the "happiest person in the world" [4, 5]. Why?

It is because Matthieu Ricard was a volunteer subject in a study performed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison on happiness. He scored significantly above the average of hundreds of volunteers [4].

Matthieu Ricard, however, has called the label "absurd" and untrue [6, 7]. More

Happiness Secrets of Scandinavians (video)

Here are 19 weird things Swedish people do (that others should do, too) (Saga Johanna 🇸🇪)

Meik Wiking (artist's rendering) receives the apple of his eye from lady Viking (WQ).

• Facts about Denmark: Exploring the Land of the Vikings (denmarkexpat.com)
• Denmark: Happiest people in the world (CorD Magazine)

HAPPINESS: The Secret of Scandinavian Happiness

Guru Viking, how can Vikings be happy?

(Max Joseph) May 22, 2024: For more information on Meik Wiking ("Mike Viking"), possibly "the happiest man on earth" [if that title were not already taken by French scientist and Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist monk in Nepal Ven. Matthieu Ricard], and The Happiness Research Institute: happinessresearchinstitute.com.

CONTENTS

• 0:00 - Journey to Denmark
• 2:30 - The World’s Happiest Man - Meik Wiking
• 3:55 - Happiest Country Rankings
• 4:59 - Hygge and other secrets of Danish happiness
• 7:54 - A second opinion - Helen Russell
• 9:51 - High taxes and trust
• 12:19 - Downsides and upsides
• 13:31 - A different kind of happiness
• 15:10 - Legoland reflections
• 18:23 - Credits

Woo-hoo! Is everyone having a great time, or what? Let's rampage over there to have fun!

.

We weren't always as happy as today.

For more information on The World Happiness Report, see: worldhappiness.report. For more information on Helen Russell, see: helenrussell.co.uk.

• The Power of Awe in Boosting Happiness: How Awe Can Boost Your Happiness
• The Science of Happiness: The Science of How to Be Happy
• The Philosophy of Being Happy: The Philosophical Secret to Happiness

For more music from Actual Magic, click:  actualmagic.co. For more NewsDaddy: tiktok.com/@dylan.page... For more awesome animation from Nänni-Pää, go to: @nanni-paa on Instagram

Transcending "The World" (sutra)

John Ireland (trans.), Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly, §112. "The World" {Iti 4.13; Iti 121}

Thus have I heard. This was said by the Bhagava (Blessed One), said by the Arahant (the fully enlightened):

"Meditators, the world [saṃsāra] has been fully understood by the Tathagata [the Buddha referring to himself, the Wayfarer, the Well Come One/Well Gone One]; the Tathagata is released from the world.

"The origin of the world has been fully understood by the Tathagata; the origin of the world has been abandoned by the Tathagata.

"The cessation of the world has been fully understood by the Tathagata; the cessation of the world has been realized by the Tathagata.

"The way [course of conduct] leading to the cessation of the world has been fully understood by the Tathagata; the way leading to the cessation of the world has been developed by the Tathagata.

"Meditators, in the world with its angels, devils, and gods [devas, maras, and brahmas], with its wandering ascetics and temple priests (Brahmins), among [this generation of] humankind with its princes and people, whatever is seen, heard, sensed, cognized, attained, sought, and reflected upon by the mind — that is fully understood by the Tathagata: therefore, he is called 'the Tathagata.'

"Meditators, from the night when the Tathagata awakened to unsurpassed supreme enlightenment until the night when he passes into the nirvana-element without remainder [aka "the unconditioned element"] whatever he speaks, utters, and explains — all that is just so and not otherwise: therefore, he is called 'the Tathagata.'

"As the Tathagata says, so he does; as the Tathagata does, so he says: therefore [due to this integrity], he is called 'the Tathagata.'

"In the world with its angels, devils, and gods, with its wandering ascetics and temple priests, among humankind with its princes and people, the Tathagata is the conqueror, unvanquished, all-seer, wielding power: therefore, he is called 'the Tathagata'."

By knowledge of the world,

The entire world as it truly is,

He is released from all the world;

In all the world, he clings to nothing.

The all-conquering heroic sage,

Freed from every bond he is;

He has reached a perfect peace,

Nirvana, which is free from fear.

Rid of taints, he is enlightened,

Trouble-free, with doubt destroyed,

Reached the final end of karma,

Released by the destruction of clinging.

The Enlightened One, the Sage,

A lion he is, unsurpassed;

For in the world together with its devas

He set the supreme-wheel in motion.

Thus those shining ones and human beings,

Gone for guidance to the Buddha,

On meeting him pay him respect,

The Great One free from diffidence.

Tamed, among the tamed he is the best;

Calmed, among the calmed he is the seer;

Freed, among the freed he is the foremost;

Crossed, among the crossed he is the chief.

Thus do they pay him due respect,

The Great One free from diffidence:

"In the world together with its devas

There is no person to equal you."

This, too, is the meaning of what was said by the Buddha, thus I heard.

Looking for Consciousness (Dr. Dispenza)

Dr. Joe Dispenza via Good Vibez, 4/12/19; Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

►Video (Dr. Joe Dispenza's How to Use Your Conscious Mind) uploaded with permission of the owner

What is consciousness?

Matthieu, scientists want to test Buddhist brains meditating. - Should I go blow their minds?

.

The brain (rupa) is not the mind. Cittas are.

Neuroscientists asked the Dalai Lama for eight Buddhist meditators to scan their brains in an experiment. What the scientists saw baffled them. There was too much frontal lobe activity. One in particular, they declared, must be "the happiest man in the world."

You want to test 8 meditators?

That may have been Matthieu Ricard, the actual "happiest person in the world." He is a European Vajrayana Buddhist monk from France, a close associate of the 14th Dalai Lama, who lives in the Himalayas in a large Buddhist monastery in Nepal one country over from the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India.

Dr. Joe Dispenza uses his own functional definitions of "brain," "mind," and "consciousness," treating them as distinct things.

That is the way they are analyzed int Buddhist psychology and physics (Abhidharma, the "Dharma in Ultimate Terms"). In Buddhism they are called rupa, mano/nama, and vinnana. Of course, they are inseparable, but they are distinguishable.

Let's visit the Dalai Lama lives in Dharmsala.

Physical form: The brain is interdependent with consciousness, which is just a process, an aspect of "mind." (though the physical heart is the real seat of consciousness, the "mind door" in Buddhism, which is a personally verifiable fact anyone can check using this meditation).

The Buddha defined mind-and-body (nama-rupa) in terms of eight elements, though no one seems to have told Dr. Dispenza that.

• "Brain" (body, physical form, ultimate materiality) is comprised of the "Four Great Elements" or mahabhuta (dhatus, the characteristics of matter, "matter" being arrangements of subatomic particles Buddhism calls kalapas).
• Space (akasha-dhatu) is the fifth element.
• "Mind" is four immaterial processes: perception, sensation, formations, and consciousness.
• "Consciousness" is classified as the sixth element in some sutras (i.e., MN 140).

Let's ask Pa Auk Sayadaw to explain. - Good idea

Consciousness is the sixth element? Yes, as if to say that consciousness is a feature of the universe rather than merely a quality or characteristic of mental human experience.

There are other beings (devas, etc.) who also have mind, who are also conscious, but one has to wonder if the animists didn't have it right all along: consciousness is everywhere and, therefore, all things are potentially conscious or aware in some rudimentary sense, like crystals, memory banks, imprint holders.

.

Sight is in the eye, consciousness in the heart.

The brain, for Dr. Dispenza and Western neuroscience, is firing and wiring neurons. How do we change our lives? How do we change our habits? This can only be done by breaking negative thoughts, and this is possible by living consciously (mindfully?) We have to become; we have to start living consciously. Let's start by breaking the addiction to negative thoughts.

📖Check out Dr. Joe Dispenza's books and other works. Kindle readers get a FREE 30-day plan and access to millions of e-Books by signing up here. (We wouldn't, but you might want to).

👉Becoming Supernatural: How Common People Are Doing the Uncommon

👉Breaking The Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One

👉You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter

👉Evolve Your Brain: The Science of Changing Your Mind

• 🎞 If you liked this, you may also like:
• Joe Dispenza - How to create a new reality
• Joe Dispenza - Turn Your Thoughts Into Reality
• Joe Dispenza - Conscious Mind and Manifestations
• Joe Dispenza - Conscious Mind and Beliefs

✔ GoodVibez on Facebook

✔ Support on patreon.com/JustGoodVibez

✔ Subscribe

World's Happiest Man on Meditation (video)

Google Talks 2015; The RSA 2010; Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Matthieu Ricard: The Art of Meditation

The "world's happiest man" -- as tested, verified, and labeled by neuroscience -- Tibetan Buddhist monk (lama), vegan, and French philosopher Matthieu Ricard explains how we can train our minds in habits of well-being.

World's Happiest Man?

Ven. Matthieu Ricard

Matthieu Ricard (माथ्यु रिका) is a French Buddhist monk, scientist, writer, photographer, and translator reborn on Feb. 15, 1946, who resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal. He grew up among the personalities of French intellectual circles and received his 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, while living mainly in the Himalayas. He is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East with Karuna-Shechen, a non-profit organization he co-founded in 2000 with Rabjam Rinpoche. Since 1989 he has been the 14th Dalai Lama's French interpreter. More

(The RSA) WHY in the world would anyone want to meditate and HOW?

• RSA on twitter.com/thersaorg and facebook.com/thersaorg

• Why are you called the "Happiest Man in the World"?
• How to be happier: world's happiest man (Business Insider)
• How to be happy, explains World's Happiest Man (Esquire)
• VIDEO: Happiest man in world explains true happiness 
• Matthieu Ricard: The Habits of Happiness (TED Talk) 
• Matthieu Ricard: World's Happiest Man on what really matters (Good Life Project)
• Five tips from the "Happiest Man on Earth" (BBC News) 
• Who is the happiest person in the world? (Quora) 
• The "world's happiest man" reveals the secret to happiness takes... (countryliving.com/uk)

How much happiness makes up for sadness?

Eric Barker (BusinessInsider.com, Oct. 7, 2012); Wisdom Quarterly

Are Buddhist monastics the happiest of all? (Tricycle.com/Youaretrulyloved.com)

     

Smile! It's healthy (baconbabble.com).

Psychologist Barbara Frederickson is an expert on flourishing and has been an advocate of finding ways to bring more positive emotions into our lives. 

 

In her research she discovered a critical 3 to 1 ratio, indicating that we need to have three positive emotions for every negative one in order to thrive.

And Frederickson has found out that if we really want to prosper, we shouldn’t try to eliminate negative emotions. Rather, we should work on keeping the ratio at three positive for every one negative. 

  

Happiness is natural (dreamingdog.multiply.com)

Most of us, she has found, have two positive experiences for every negative. This gets us by, but it is effectively languishing. 

How many people are at 3 to 1? Around 20%.

  

Frederickson and Losada pinpointed such “flourishing” mental health in 45 people from a survey of 188 university students.

  

Forty-five out of 188 (23%) may seem very few, but several surveys have shown that only about 20% of Americans are flourishing in this sense.

  

Sound familiar?

Is that our spidey-sense tingling? It should be for regular readers: We’ve seen similar patterns with ratios and happiness before. While 3 to 1 keeps you happy, 5 to 1 keeps relationships smooth.

• Via The Ape in the Corner Office: How to Make Friends, Win Fights, and Work Smarter by Understanding Human Nature:

Sensuality is NOT the way to actual happiness.

It turned out that the 15 high-performance teams averaged 5.6 positive interactions for every negative one. The 19 low-performance teams racked up a positive/negative ratio of just 0.363. That is, they had about three negative interactions for every positive one…

 

What’s even scarier is that Losada’s 5:1 ratio also appears to be essential when you get home and try to muster the energy for a successful marriage... More

Heaven or Enlightenment?
Buddhist lore, Seven Dharmachari, Wisdom Quarterly

Meditation superhero (msnbc.msn.com)

There were once two Buddhist monks meditating, having vowed to reach enlightenment. They became stream enterers, the first stage along the path to awakening and the final end of all suffering -- arhatship. One joyfully proceeded, but the other stopped. The first asked, "Why have you stopped, friend?"
  
The second answered, "I have suffered greatly over many lives. And I wish, so as a way of making up for all that suffering, to first be reborn in heavenly realms. Then and only then will I seek to accomplish the goal."
 
The first shrank back, "Friend, do not speak in such way! The Blessed One, the noble ones, they never spoke in such a way."
  
"My mind is made up," the second stubbornly declared.

The first continued to meditate, and in no long time he reached the goal for which youths of good family leave home for the homeless life of a spiritual seeker. He did what was to be done, abandoning rebirth and suffering once and for all.
  
The second carried on for years and eventually died in old age. He was immediately reborn in India as the illegitimate child of a woman who, to conceal her infidelity had been concealing her pregnancy. When she gave birth, she immediately went out onto a dirt road along a path frequented by herds of cattle.
 

Predisposed (alibaba.com)

And just as a large herd was coming headed by a chief bull, she tossed the newborn onto the road. The powerful bull, mysteriously moved by the child's merit, stopped over him protecting him from harm as the cows went around.
   
The second monk had been reborn fully conscious, aware of his grave and dangerous mistake in the previous life, having chosen vain happiness as some sort of compensation for previous suffering -- both of which have their basis in illusion and misunderstanding.
 
He lamented not heeding the first monk's advice. And by a supernormal feat of concentration, he tossed the dirt that was caked to his body from contact of dust and afterbirth, crossed his legs, and levitated midair thanking the bull.
  
He developed the absorptions, emerged purified in heart/mind, and took up the insight practice of reviewing the 12 links of Dependent Origination. He penetrated the ultimate Truth and was thereby liberated from all suffering; he became one of the noble ones (fully enlightened individuals, arhats).

• The Importance of Stream-Entry (Vince Horn)
• Ven. Thanissaro's Stream-Entry Study Guide
• How common is Stream-Entry? 

How to Win the Lottery in 3 Steps

Wisdom Quarterly (EDITORIAL)

One of the most important karmic elements is to be happy in the happiness of others who win (mudita). Warning: these simple instructions contain two imponderables, the working out of karma and the range of someone absorbed in jhana.

$640 MEGA MILLION - Why do things happen? That is the central question motivating Wisdom Quarterly. Perhaps the question is better understood as, Why do things really happen?

Common wisdom answers, "God knows." The uncommon explanation of this statement is: karma. But it would be easier to understand "God" (Maha Brahma) than to get a handle on karma. Experiencing nonduality is relatively easy, and that will mean feeling like GOD (Brahman) through the Divine Abidings (Brahma Viharas). Brahma figuratively means "supreme" or divine, a superlative for ultimate.

You have to be in it to win it
While not technically true, it helps. (Couldn't you, wouldn't you find it or come into possession if it is meant to be?) Karma means intentional action. The important karma in this case is in the past, for it cannot happen that one would win the lottery (or mega millions by virtue of gambling and "luck") and hold on to such riches without the karmic support for doing so.

At some time in the past, whether proximate or remote, one has to have performed some intentional action of a superlative sort. Due to the number of past lives in our past, nearly all humans will have a cache of merit (punya). Will it be enough? If it is not, one can win as a part of a group and have her or his cut be commensurate with the quality of the deed coming to fruition (phala). Most karma takes time to ripen, but its result can technically be experienced opportunistically at any time after the seed is planted.

This being the case, how will it be brought forward. Think only good thoughts -- either in memory or out of faith (saddha) in the good done any from this moment back. For example, in the past I did such and such. Or in the present, at this very moment, I am cultivating the intention to make this a better world with the winnings: What would make it better?

Normally meritorious deeds can be done any time anyway. So this will require a higher order of profitable karma. What is the gift that excels all gifts? The Dharma excels all gifts. It is certainly the most valuable. But here riches are defined more broadly. The value one is aspiring towards is material and of a much lower order. Giving or intending to give in kind is more important.

More important still is the purity of consciousness generating this intention. Concentration is the way to purity. The mind absorbed on a single object is, by virtue of exclusion, temporarily purified, freed of mental defilements and effluents (inflows and outflows).

With all this theory in mind: Here is the way to win in three easy steps.

"Karma: It's everywhere you're going to be."

STEP 1. Be ready to withdraw a great deal of good karma that would have served you very well in the future. You will not have it because you are spending it here to be rich for no very good reason during this very, very brief lifespan. At the end of this life, all the money will be lost. (You can't take it with you, and you can't keep from going). The only way to "hold" onto it will be to give it away. If you are not willing to give it away, you will surely lose it. If you intend to cling to it, since it is certain to go, you are better off without it. If you are generating the karma now, remember: Mental karma is very powerful as is verbal. So delight in appreciation, admiration, approval, and applaud those who by right and honest means have gained as much wealth as you imagine.

• (The problem is obvious. We want a kajillion, and the only people we can think of with that kind of money are the scum of the Earth, the One Percent, thieves robbing this world blind by dishonest capitalist means. So the rich, of the present or the past, need to be admired, appreciated with mudita, sympathetic or altruistic joy, and by doing so one will share in their store of karma for having become rich while engaged in right livelihood.)

STEP 2. Concentrate on a single thing -- not the money or the diversity of how it will be spent. Focus on an absorbable object of meditation. Enter the absorption, emerge while standing in line, ask for a ticket using either an INSPIRED number, one divined by some means unseen external agents are able to manipulate in your favor, or LET THE MACHINE PICK. Greed stands in the way of winning, and most people will simply choose their baby's birthday or other drivel while thinking they are being original. The number that is going to come up is not set, it is matched with the one having been chosen, so let the machine decide.

STEP 3. Be open to receiving, and that includes coming into possession of the ticket. The easiest way to do this is to buy one. The key is ONE. This is NOT a statistic, not a game of chance, not a probability. One is enough. Technically, one is more than enough. One dollar, one ticket, or whatever the price may be.

If you win, remember who helped you -- but keep the money for yourself. Don't send us any. We'll make do with our karmic inheritance helping living beings find what they wish for as they search samsara. The amazing thing is if people answer why they want hundreds of millions of dollars, what they say they want (like happiness, contentment, security, or enlightenment) cannot be bought but can be gotten without winning a lottery.

WARNING: An insightful Buddhist nun, whose wisdom had gone beyond, observed that if one were to become rich as a human on Earth, that would be a tragedy. Asked why, she explained that that person's karma came to fruition at a time and in a place where at best one could only enjoy the money for 120 years, likely much less. By contrast, if that same karma had come to fruition during rebirth in a superhuman state, that would benefit the individual for much longer with much finer strands of sensual pleasure to access. If it ripened outside of the sensual realm, in the fine material world, the benefit would be exponentially and inconceivably superior to anything in the sensual sphere. Be happy if no one wins because the $640 million will become more like $1 billion a week later. And these instructions will prove fruitful for some with more time to cultivate samma samadhi, right concentration. And our greed and depravity during times of economic uncertainty will have a chance to come into sharper relief. The winner, there is only one, will instantly become twice as rich as Willard Mitt Romney but have only 1/45th the riches of a Koch Brother with very few prospects of doing anything but losing it. Remember, riches beyond imagination are only three steps away, and the key is karma.

Internet Bible: "The Fall of Eve" (comic)

MysticPolitics (Flickr.com), Loldwell.com; text by Wisdom Quarterly

How did it all begin? Well according to the biblical teachings pushed on kids in America, it was all Eve's fault. Her fall was the fall of mankind.

(Of course, anyone who reads more deeply is surprised to find out there was more than one first couple and therefore probably more than one origin story and Earthly paradise. The name Lilith may be familiar). Nevertheless, Jewish and Christian histories -- borrowing heavily from distorted sources without attribution -- paint a dismal picture of human life.



This is probably why so many Americans are drawn to Buddhist and allied Eastern philosophies (Taoism, Yoga Sutras, Vedic Brahmanism, Hinduism, Sufism, Jainism, etc.) The potential of what it means to be human is much better.

From the human plane we are capable of attaining anything else, the wished for and the dreaded. It is possible to become a divinity (brahma), a light being (rupa loka deva), a celestial being (akasha deva), a fairy or nature spirit (bhummi deva), a better human, a ghost (preta), an animal, a monster, a hellion, a bodhisattva (striving to save others), a buddha (a rediscoverer and teacher of the timeless truth), a jerk, or a saint (arhat).

Human-Plant bonding: Man grows tree in lung

Ah, incredible nature. First an Indonesian man was becoming a tree. Now a Siberian tree was becoming a man.

2 inch Fir tree removed from patient’s lung
(MosNews) A 5 cm Fir tree has been found in the lung of a man who complained he had a strong pain in his chest and was coughing blood. The 28-year-old patient, Artyom Sidorkin, came to a hospital in the city of Izhevsk in Central Russia last week, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reports.

Doctors X-rayed his chest and found a "tumor" in one of his lungs. Suspecting cancer, they made a decision to perform biopsy. When they cut the tissue, they were amazed to see green needles in the cut.

“I blinked three times and thought I was seeing things. Then I called the assistant to have a look,” says Vladimir Kamashev, doctor at the Udmurtian Cancer Center. More

• Geneticists suggest breeding Woolly Mammoths to fight crisis
• Inspector bans student trips to UK over flu
• Firefighter sentenced for growing marijuana at firestation
• Russian dwarf gets extra 26 cm after surgery
• Chemical Insanity: When the Brain Falls in Love

Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard (film)

He journeyed from France to the East. And according to brain studies, scientist and long-time Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard is "the happiest man in the world." Having met his teacher, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, while traveling in India and Nepal, he meditated in the Himalayas and took astounding photographs. He eventually became famous in his own right and has served as the Dalai Lama's translator as well as devoting himself to other important causes.

Happiness: Sitting Quietly, Doing Something

Text: Daniel Goleman (New York Times, July 16, 2009)

I recently spent an evening with Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche, the Tibetan lama who has been dubbed “the happiest man in the world.” True, that title has been bestowed upon at least a few extremely upbeat individuals in recent times [the title was scientifically validated for the Buddhist monk and scientist Ven. Matthieu Ricard]. But it is no exaggeration to say that Rimpoche is a master of the art of well-being.

Courtesy of Crown Publishers Yongey Mingyur Rimpoche

So how did he get that way? Apparently, the same way you get to Carnegie Hall. Practice. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Rimpoche a bit over the years and always found him in good cheer. This meeting was no different.

When I called him at his Manhattan hotel to arrange to get together before we were to discuss his new book, Joyful Wisdom, at the 92nd St. Y, he told me he was in the middle of a shower – but not in the usual sense.

The shower, he told me, had run out of hot water midway. When he called the front desk, he was told to wait several minutes and there would be more hot water. In this situation, I probably would have been peeved. But as Rimpoche told me this, he was laughing and laughing.

The only momentary glitch I’ve witnessed — a few years back — was slapstick: He sat down in an office chair with a faulty seat that suddenly plunged several inches with a thump. Once when this chair had done the same to me, I cursed and groused about it for a while. But Rimpoche just frowned for a second — and the next moment he was his upbeat self again. Quickness of recovery time from upsets is one way science takes the measure of a happy temperament.

While annoyances like these are hardly life’s greatest tests, handling them gracefully takes a composure that few of us seem to have at our disposal. Mingyur Rimpoche was not born into wealth and comfort. He spent his earliest years in a remote Himalayan village lacking even the most basic amenities. Nor was he a lucky winner in the genetic lottery for moods. In his book he recounts being extremely anxious as a child in Nepal, having had what a Manhattan psychiatrist would likely diagnose as panic attacks, and how he cured himself of this chronic anxiety by making his fears the focus of his meditation. He has had to earn his good cheer.

Rimpoche seems eclectic in studying paths to well-being, including Western recipes. A few years ago, he attended a five-day meeting at the Mind & Life Institute that brought together a group of neuroscientists and the Dalai Lama to discuss ways to overcome destructive emotions. He found that the Western scientific findings on emotions had much in common with his own approach to cultivating well-being.

But when it comes to his own pursuit of happiness, Buddhist theory and practice are Rimpoche’s chosen tools. He has done several years-long meditation retreats, under the tutelage of some of the most renowned Tibetan masters. Of course, what we mean by “happiness” can be elusive, what with the myriad varieties of good feeling running from ecstasy to equanimity. One flavor of happiness at which Rimpoche seems to excel has been well-studied by scientists specializing in how emotions operate in our brains.

Richard Davidson, who heads the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, has found one distinct brain profile for happiness. As Davidson’s laboratory has reported, when... More>>

LINK: Prof. Richard Davidson - Be Happy Like a Monk (28:58)
Prof. Davidson of the University of Wisconsin Psychology Department has met with the Dalai Lama to discuss the scientific aspects of meditation. He has mapped the brains of Buddhist monks to identify areas of the brain that change with meditation. More»

The Happiest Man in the World (interview)

Matthieu Ricard, Buddhist monk - Interview

Thirty years ago Matthieu Ricard, the son of French philosopher Jean-François Revel, decided to convert to Buddhism and become a monk. He now lives in Nepal and is the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama (france24.com).