Matthieu Ricard on Happiness - part 1

so thank you rashad so I've been I made countless disclaimers about this thing but nobody believes me so I know what to do so it's a pleasure I remember a few years ago when we Charter X no would create enthusiasm spoke about his wish to create a movement focused on happiness and well-being and on all levels of society so I'm so glad that within not so much time this has become a reality and there's a wonderful team and so I'm even more honored to to be with you today and a mother coming events I really recommend the happy movie it's a guy who went 5 years all over the world because that producer got interested in that and a wonderful sequence paths from the al-qaida Island where there is the highest greatest number of centenary people who live over 100 years and the main thing he found is this incredible connections with all works everyone you see hundred years old grandmother's waiting at the end of the street and when the school come up the kids run and all the grandmothers waiting there with no some some little biscuits and drinks and they hug the kids not their kids not even the the gram-gram grandson but it's just so happy and it tease each other and it danced together and they all say we have all living together and so that seems to be the single factor that explained that so the plenty of things like that so anyway so happiness obviously what could be about but it's interesting you know it's puzzling at the same time if you look at you know all the great thinkers of history that have written upon happiness what is puzzling is you could make Hello at to : list with every possible definition and find the objects actually opposite definition by another great thinker so does it mean that we really cannot define happiness this is also a commenting the oh no no not let's not attempt to define happiness you know everyone find happiness in their own way that's also seems to be a little bit too easy isn't it but you know every box on the French philosopher said well all the great thinkers of history have left happiness in the vague so that everyone can redefine it in their own terms I find it a bit not so satisfactory because if as Aristotle said is the goal of goals every goal is to achieve something something something in order to feel sense of fulfillment add ammonia accomplishment flourishing and if you don't know what it is it's like shooting arrows in the dark you might hit the target you don't even know why and then you start speaking like no paracin intellectuals that are so much against happiness but they get yeah when I wrote this my little book you could not believe the debate it was national debate and my sort of opponents they wrote a Tribune in one of the main French weekly saying the thirty voice of happiness now stop bugging us with telling us we must be happy imposing on us the duty of being happy how terrible how you dare we are unhappy and glad to be so that's makes it meaningful romantic life so but still they still say even those who can carry them for happiness you know there's those magic moments in life and that's what we need to do and the rest can be boring this nice you see the contrast and all that but you know yes okay magic moments and you did there's some very trivial magic moments you know all those magazines they say what makes you happy and someone said eating a plate of spaghetti you know okay forget about those but some people say walking at on the snow under the stars well that sounds quite good but why the magic moment there may be reasons for that you might think why is f is so good that kind of piece and maybe it's a sense of white in that moment there was less inner conflict possibly I feel at peace with myself when I'm alone with some good friends walking up another stars on the snow maybe sense of how many with others certainly harmony with nature so a moment of inner peace that has surely some characteristics no conflict my man was not flooded with aggressivity resentment ruminations if it if it was you would feel even more miserable will you say not about a magic moment you say here I was at this beautiful place and I felt so bad so clearly it was about a state of mind of how many and so forth so those have meaning and why not cultivating that why should it be just fleeting moments and then get bored the rest of the time so cultivating also they had that the French intellectual they said they're against the endless cultivation of oneself did this side with Emily Bronte who when she heard about cultivating happiness from a doctor she said or you can't evade that like potatoes so she didn't feel very much that it could be cultivated as a skill so then it seems that if Aristotle and the Buddhist thinkers so as the Dalai Lama who says you know no matter what you don't wake up in the morning thinking may suffer the whole day and it was even my whole life whatever you do when he says happiness is the goal of life what it means no because at the same French intellectuals said there's so many more things things that more important happiness justice and passions and creativity but that's the way they find their happiness isn't it so it's like no in the only in a piece of Moliere there's mr. Jordan was so proud when he was taking lessons of of literature that he was doing some prose he didn't know he could write prose he was not aware that he was writing prose so he felt that what he was writing was so much more noble if you call it poetry or prose so likewise you are seeking happiness in certain ways but still the goal of goals is that kind of sense of fulfillment whether you take a cup of tea whether you meet some friends whether you undertake a project human relationship you do it because you hold it at the end of the tunnel there will be something better some kind of at least less suffering even the French intellectual will write books against happiness they don't do that to make everyone including themselves suffer more the thing is we have to set things straight is some kind of improvement so in a way yes we want this kind of increased well-being so therefore if that's the goal of God's flourishing accomplishment and it would be nice that this some idea of what it could be and what suddenly it is not so the many confusion about looks like false friends one of the clearest example is pleasure and happy nothing wrong with pleasure but it's just not the same and if you look at the characteristic of a pleasurable experience it's something that is very much linked with outer conditions it can change with places with people with time and it is vulnerable to sudden change of circumstances something very pleasant becomes unpleasant it also changed as you experience it you know you can take many examples listening to a beautiful piece of music how static but 24 hours imagine non-stop or you know you go under the snow in the snow under the stars very cold and then you come and take a hot shower how blissful 24 hours and the hot shower credible Belgium chocolate one piece two pieces associated 25 piece forget it so it changed it become it becomes something else and also it could be experience of others well-being you know you could feel great pleasure and everybody is suffering terribly or even you could use others in a negative way so it does no basic relation with sense of a way of being so now if you think of happiness not at this endless succession of pleasurable experiences which are kind of a recipe for exhaustion all these guys jumping I am so happy so happy that they collapse so aware of being what does that means something that doesn't really depend is it instead of depending on the fleeting changing conditions it gives the resources to deal with the ups and downs of life the more you experience it instead of vanishing away the more it becomes deep stable understood so it's the kind of aspect of cultivation reinforcing deepening becoming clearer more stable and it's also something that somehow can be shared in a way the French philosopher Alain said the best gifts you can do to others is to be happy yourself because somehow there will be this emotional contagion this empathic resonance someone smile use by somebody's feels like terrible you do feel something about that so it's a way of being and words of beings can be learned ways of beings is not just one thing there's no such thing as happiness there's no happiness center in the brain there is a cluster of qualities or components that together contribute to that way of being so then how you will recognize those basically to direct experience no if you make a seminar as many people do sometime no ok let's come for a weekend we are going to cultivate jealousy for two days full day's seminar meditating on jealousy we promise you that will be feel more jealous at the end of the of the two days who is going to come we know instinctively that even we say that passions makes a colorful life that you don't want to be more jealous have more animosity more resentment more arrogance more craving and all that okay now if we say let's cultivate loving-kindness let's cultivate inner strength inner peace some kind of freedom from those chain of tools that sort of we are pulling your mind or ruminations hopes and fears that gives you not a moment of peace so wow that's some sort of need so we know intuitively that some people will argue that priests that makes a colorful life we don't want to get rid of those would be so boring some people have this idea of happiness is that kind of bland state well no not the small minds like good wrote three days of in interrupted happiness will be unbearable it's always the same and another French writer said suffering is so colorful it's always changing ups and downs and this dramatic cost of events so there's more exciting but frankly if you had one of those magic moments looking at the beautiful landscape from a mountain site or somewhere are you missing the feeling of being an emergency room in a hospital or something like that not react well so if there was a way somehow to be less vulnerable to bouts of nagging Giroux see no craving that is like drinking salty water the more you experience it the more you crave or resentment that doesn't leave you in peace I think we sort of go for it so the question is so anyway if we are honest with ourselves it is kind of desirable so the idea that we should have set acceptance of the way we are that's great as a starting point but not as the end point yes that's it that's how I am take it or leave it recognize the way we are that's that's just necessary of this lucidity about where we are in life we are this mixture of light and shadows that's the way we are but okay is it is it optimal could we do something this bit better is it possible so the desirability I thing is if we're honest with ourselves the aspects of our life and our experience that could be improved but is it possible that's the real question so before that before going deeper into that I just want to make a quick side trip on the idea of outer and inner condition because all I've been talking is more like the way we experience things and many people will say well after all your well-being is mostly determined by outer conditions so I think there's no contest there's no argument that the more we can improve the other condition the better and especially in parts of the world we're still they are lacking so much we should put every piece bits of energy we have to remedy to the gap between the rich and the poor to people and provide them with security with freedom from conflict from Wars from massacres so that they can feed their kids and survive and so forth and ideally live a healthy long life and fulfill your aspirations in within freedom yes of course but to just say that this will in itself guarantee a sense of really deep sense of fulfillment that every moment of your life you feel it's worth living and is experiencing with that quality that's also missing something that something is the fact that from morning till evening it is the mind that experiences all that and the mind can really transform those into either happiness or misery it can in fact override the other conditions we can be feel miserable in condition that looks like a little paradise not that thing all have everything to be happy and we can feel on the other hand we know people we might have experienced ourselves feeling quite filled with draw the vivre and the sixth sense of you know strength even when nobody would say oh that's the best condition you can imagine and that's nice to do with the way we sort of translate the outer condition in either happiness or misery and that's you know it's quite easy to see how we can perceive the very same situation in a different light I like one example that I was a witness of when I was travelling with one of our one of the young about of my monastery and we were somehow invited to Tahiti it's not very much there's not so many Buddhist monk going there so they were quite excited there was a piece on the evening news too many items they found a red snake there's no snake normally in Tahiti and where it came from and two Buddhist monk came so next morning we are in a beautiful place no it looks to be nice and postcard is quite hot and wet there so it was a house where Goga Paul Gauguin used to live and we're sitting on the and a tree and it was pretty hard and then suddenly from that tree can be kind of very sort of refreshing mist like one of those things that you will abstain and map the Lama said wow this is really paradise even the trees are conditioned but so we were really enjoying that then someone came he said you know those are pissing flies thousands of them nothing really bad you know just the sap of the trees no it's kind of very you know it's a bio food but still we've really moved away you don't want to take risk you know so same thing same sensation no difference the mind made it flip over completely so okay that's so that just to make sure that we don't underestimate the power the minor has and it could be or to some you know quite strong extremes the llama gave one example he said if you move for the first time you know you just bought a very expensive luxurious flat on the top of a skyscraper and you move in for the first time and you are so depressed and sad and destroyed within he said all you are going to look for is a window from which to jump so in that very you know strong short cut it's just sure that in the end it is our the mind that experiences everything so it is desirable to improve the way the mind experience the world and what the real question is it possible to change something so that has to do with some kind of investigation about how does the mind works so of course there are lot of emotions passions reasoning memories past events of tendencies predispositions influence the way we experience things there are many other factors genetics epigenetics neuroplasticity the environment nature and nurture and all these but at some point we have in mind with a particular mental landscape in that landscape we find all kinds of emotions states of mind some are destructive again craving hatred and so forth some are contributing to flourishing we can say that human nature in all its richness and variety but what does that mean it's human nature again the dilemma gives often the example of of water h2o is just pure water now you can add into that some medicinal substance the water have become therapeutic you can add a strong poison cyanide and then this my last word but h2o didn't really change the content change the mixture change you can still distillate the water of I don't know filter it or purified with what what are its sub didn't change would that apply to the mind as well so just give a quick another image the mind is a kind of luminous faculty luminous in the sense that it it allows us to perceive the outer world it has others to perceive our inner world again memories emotions and so forth so it is like the light that allows us to see things so that luminous quality if you think of that image light what is the quality of light it eliminates things but it's not modified by what it illuminates if it shines upon a heap of garbage doesn't become dirty if it chanced upon a heap of golds and become expensive it just reveals things so there is a component deep within the mind sort of the most fundamental aspect of cognition just knowing that allow us to know all positive emotion negative emotion memories anticipation of the future and so forth every cognitive process is preceded by this quality of knowing and maybe like the light it it has to be undetermined not tainted by the content otherwise no if light was modified by by the lighting upon the heap of garbage it will everything will seems dirty when you liked everything else if hatred was so interesting to the very very core of fundamental awareness then somehow a train would color everything but it cannot color everything and also love will color everything those are mutually incompatible so it seems that mental events mental constructs which happen in the mind for different many causes and conditions are transient but the very fact of knowing is the fundamental aspect so if that is not if that fundamental aspect remains sort of untainted by the content then you could think of modifying the very condition that brought about craving animosity and so forth there you can start thinking of new causes and conditions you can bring in that will serve as antidote or that will serve us to you know work with negative emotions so that they don't overwhelm you so that you maintain a sign of freedom and so that you don't lose track of that more fundamental aspect of mind so that's the foundation at least in in the Buddhist approach but I think this has a universal value because we all have the same emotion we have all the same minds and if now we find something that is seems to make sense otherwise true for all of fours for horror there's no such thing that and more certain kind of way of dealing with emotion will be true for the Buddhists and useless for others so there is a whole science of dealing with those mental factors so how do you deal with with hatred and what kind of skillful means you use to not to fall under the sway of hatred or craving and so forth so there could be that the richness of the methods is what makes a part of transformation in the case of Buddhism said the Buddhist part is meant about dealing with the mind transforming the mind when we say purify the mind is more it's not just like we prefer something that is intrinsically dirty but it's more like removing the sign that from the and recovering the true state of the water when it's not contaminated by cyanide that means gradually getting rid of those mental toxins so like how would you do you could have many metals just to mention quickly two of them you could have a direct antidote so two things that are mutually incompatible no you cannot wish I'm feeling hate and benevolence in the same moment towards the same person these are mutually incompatible maybe you could alternate but not in the same moment which means the more you try to bring up benevolence loving kindness then at every instant of loving kindness there's no possibility for this hatred going to the same object so the idea of repeatedly enhancing cultivating bringing up certain way of certain states of mind which are conducive to happiness again and again voluntarily with a certain way of cultivating those is going to modify your mental landscape there could be also other ways you know for instance when we are overwhelmed with anxiety with whatever jealousy it's all over the place we almost feel that we became a whole being is permeated with with that negative feeling but is it really true the mind it seems I always have the faculty to observe that to be aware of that isn't it really we it's all over the place but the mind is only the second man and the third mind to observe itself it has the faculty to naturally observe itself like a flame or light does in its second light to light itself it's self so the mind can observe itself down if you think about it what is aware of anger what is aware of anxiety is not anxious it's not angry it's just aware so then you have a space of awareness you have a space of mindfulness and that can grow slowly so that the other ones start to fade away loses solidity it loses compelling power to make you feel miserable so all those are different techniques which we find very much develop in detail and taught by meditation teachers how to deal with those automatic chains of thoughts that often invade us so therefore the arm means to do so so now of course you might say well that's good but you know are you really does it really have an effect change you or just daydreaming you'll get those people you know just meditating and when someone comes to just leave me alone I'm meditating to become a better person and then you hurt someone or than ten years of meditation and it's just as grumpy as before something wrong but if first you know in your own experience you feel that yes yeah you don't have the same sort of propensity to blow the fuse at any moment you can find yourself in no very nice circumstances okay fine great enjoy it and then next day you're quite annoying seconds okay you know no big deal so it's not the end of the world you still remain content and with sense of humor and bit amused by the big mess around so you're not swayed so easily by change of circumstances so this kind of things slowly you can you can see that change and if if by chance others just this guy a little bit more so you know easy to go with and then before it's a good sign but I think now in our modern world often we need more than that because meeting everyone is they're all fooling themselves and it's easy to meditate in the Hermitage but at a moment we put them in the in Wall Street and see how they behave after six month so that's why in a way it was a useful thing for society to begin that collaboration with science as Richard mentioned with a minor life Institute it was founded 25 years ago by Francisco Varela a wonderful Chilean born neuroscientist - who realized that he was himself a Buddhist practitioner he went with many great masters in the Himalayas he realized that he understood that that was the dilemma had a very strong interest in science he often said if I had not been the Lama maybe I would have been electrical engineer or something whatever so fortunately I think is the Dalai Lama was a bit more rare now in our planet so and then so they thought well and someone else Adam Angle American businessman that it could facilitate meetings with it in dilemma and scientist so there was all kinds of scientists and still now quantum physicists and so forth he had great teachers like physician bicycle and no he met with many of the copper and all that but and more recently it became more focused on psychology and neuroscience and I remember Francisco Varela when I was myself engage in the dialogue with a wonderful astronomer 10:21 and he says even though we are doing really interesting exchange of ID but he told me no you are wasting your time so how come because we exploit the nature of reality you know these things are independent orders anyway I said why he said well you are not going to go to the accelerator of the CERN in Geneva and tell them you know I did they went in my meditation and I think you should find the particles that way and if you will find the Higgs boson or something like that but if you go to neuroscience definitely there is a research program that could emerge by collaborating with scientists is something that could really be precious so that whole movement started under the expression of the Dalai Lama he and chorus very much he said what can what contribution can we make the society and then that research program was started because of that and then what did that meant is the idea that Francisco Varela himself before he passed away and then chiefly we shall Davidson in medicine onto an elusive French researcher was there and on many more like Tania singer in the max Blanc in Leipzig we thought that well if there is some real change that you know science can investigate it should be all the more visible in long term meditators not to say that they are especially good or enlightened but at least they try for a long time and so let's see if we can get them some of them in the lab and so yes we did manage to convince because they also kind of curious minds to convince meditators who are done between 10,000 to 50,000 hours of meditation to come first to medicine and then to further institution that Princeton have at Berkeley now also in Europe and and then because the idea was if if we have something to be found and this should show that and if the show great then we can study you know how do they reach to that what is the process but if we don't find anything other those are complete fakes or the equipment we have is not say refined enough to see those change you know this is the real thing or I remember once we were walking in New York with one of my llamas and a few monks there was this guy sitting in the street and look at us he says are you the real thing or the bunch of crooks he said so that's what we need to put the meditators with the test no is it real does it any change so then that's happened and then right away the scientists found that yes there was really significant changes in functional aspect of the brain when the minister as I'll show you as to engage in certain meditation if you change is happening that you would not find with naive subjects then the second part say okay if that is the case how long does that take what is the learning curve you just know progress for 10 years and suddenly you get it all you progress everything within six months and then you are wasting your time you just know make no progress cause it's just a curve as many years as you practice which seems to be the case but you keep on progressing that was very exciting so a volunteers as a as a guinea pig I didn't know that I was end up doing more than 150 years in MRI machine and my dear mother is very worried she said they are going to put you again in the oven or something like that you

Channel: Action for Happiness

Views: 103,960

Keywords: Matthieu Ricard, happiness, happier, wellbeing, well-being, meditation, mindfulness, mindful, neuroscience, Mind and Life, compassion, kindness, empathy

Id: NFS0dZSTPLg

Length: 34min 25sec (2065 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 11 2011