THE MERRY MONK
He’s officially the happiest man alive and now Matthieu spends his days sharing his wisdom with the world
MANY of us spend our lives in the pursuit of happiness. “If I lose five more kilos, I’ll be happier,” we tell ourselves. Or: “If I win the lottery, I’ll be happier.” But one person will tell you there’s only one thing that will bring you true happiness – and it has nothing to do with physical appearance or money or material possessions.
“There’s so much suffering in the world it should kindle your com
passion and if your compassion is kindled you go to a stronger, healthier, more meaningful way of being,” Matthieu Ricard says. “That’s what I call happiness.” Sound a little woowoo? Well, consider this: this monk has been the bearer of the title “the world’s happiest man” for nearly 20 years so he knows what he’s talking about.
Matthieu (77) was given the name after he took part in a 2004 research project at the University of WisconsinMadison.
The project involved wiring participants up to an electroencephalogram, which records the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain and levels of gamma waves, which are associated with wellbeing, focus, cognition and memory. Matthieu scored significantly higher than hundreds of other volunteers and his gamma waves were off the charts, resulting in the project organisers declaring him the happiest man alive.
Matthieu is the first to call it “an absurd and nonsense idea”. “We cannot know the level of happiness through neuroscience,” he says. “It’s a good title for journalists to use but how can we know the state of happiness of eight billion human beings? Maybe there’s a guy who’s in complete bliss all the time.”
But while he’s embarrassed by the title he can’t get rid of it, he says. So when a friend told him to “take it and use it and stop fighting it” he did just that – and today he’s a bestselling author of books about altruism, happiness and human rights.
He’s just published his latest book, Notebooks of a Wandering Monk, a memoir of his extraordinary journey to inner freedom and compassion.
Matthieu, an ordained Buddhist monk, believes everyone can achieve true happiness but it takes time and you need to train your mind to find it.
“Our mind can be our best friend or worst enemy,” he says. “We need to cultivate qualities such as benevolence and inner freedom so we aren’t too fragile for the ups and downs of life.
“Happiness is more like your baseline; it’s where you come to after the joy and sorrows.”
Happiness shouldn’t be mistaken for pleasure, Matthieu adds. “Pleasure fades and becomes neutral or inaccessible when circumstances fade.
“But the more you experience true happiness, the more it gets deeper, vaster and resistant to circumstances,” he explains.
MATTHIEU was born in Paris, the son of renowned French philosopher JeanFrançois Revel and artist Yahne le Toumelin. When he was 20 Matthieu, who was studying biology at university, travelled to India after seeing documentaries on spiritual teachers, and he was so taken by the country he went back every summer for six years.
After graduating with a PhD in cellular genetics from the Pasteur Institute, he prepared to leave France to study Buddhism in the Himalayas. However, telling his parents, who were leading members of the Paris intelligentsia, wasn’t easy and he prepared himself for a scene.
“I hate big clashes. Fortunately, that never happened. My father just said, ‘How are you going to make a living?’”
But money wasn’t something that motivated Matthieu. “It was the human quality of those remarkable sages and wise men that impressed me.
“I thought, ‘This is for me, a source of inspiration, an exemplary life’, and I wanted to spend time with them to benefit from their teachings,” he says.
Six years later he became a monk and he’s been serving as the Dalai Lama’s French interpreter since 1989.
The world of science remained of interest and when Matthieu heard about research programmes on the effects of meditation and mind-training at a university he decided to take part.
One of them involved being wired up to an electroencephalogram and to him being pronounced the world’s happiest man.
Daft though he might find the title, Matthieu can’t praise the benefits of meditation enough. It unlocks the human potential to be kinder, to practise mindfulness and to experience a profound sense of wellbeing, he says.
Gaining a level of fame and becoming a bestselling author meant money coming in, which he used to open his KarunaShechen charitable foundation, which funds education, healthcare and environmental projects in India, Nepal and Tibet.
Matthieu has also become a TED Talk speaker, delivering virtual talks from the Himalayas that often go viral.
Real happiness, he says, comes from ridding yourself of sources of suffering such as hatred, pride and jealousy.
“This kind of wellbeing is a bonus that comes from compassion, benevolence and altruism – and it’s lasting and stable.”
HIS latest book relates his personal and spiritual journey during long periods spent in Darjeeling, Nepal and Bhutan and on 21 trips to Tibet.
“I’ve met so many extraordinary people and seen so many fabulous things,” he says. “That’s why I wrote this book, otherwise all this was going to die with my brain.”
There are certain things that make Matthieu anxious, “like missing planes or trains”. He also battles with the “maelstrom” of media appearances that come with being an author.
“I’ve accepted everything,” he says. “Especially as my life’s work has reached a wide audience and helped so many.”
Matthieu, whose mom died earlier this year at the age of 100, hopes he’ll be around for years to come. “I want to focus on what matters most: to become a better human being to better serve others.”
That’s what he’d like to be remembered for. “I don’t know if it’s surprising or paradoxical but the best thing people can do to be happy is to do something for others.”
‘WE NEED TO CULTIVATE QUALITIES SUCH AS BENEVOLENCE AND INNER FREEDOM’