Best 94 quotes of Matthieu Ricard on MyQuotes

Matthieu Ricard

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    Matthieu Ricard

    A big part of pain is the subjective reaction of trying to revolt against pain. If it's there, it's better to deal with it. Most of it is "I cannot stand it," and that component is enhancing pain so much.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Although the optimist may be a little giddy when foreseeing the future, telling himself that it will all work out in the end when that isn't always the case, his attitude is more fruitful since, in the hope of undertaking a hundred projects, followed up by diligent action, the optimist will end up completing fifty. Conversely, in limiting himself to undertake a mere ten, the pessimist might complete five at best and often fewer, since he'll devote little energy to a task he feels to be doomed from the start.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Anyone who enjoys inner peace is no more broken by failure as he is inflated by success. He is able to fully live his experiences in the context of a vast and profound serenity, since he understands that experiences are ephemeral and that it is useless to cling to them.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    At each point in our lives, we are at a crossroads. We are the fruit of our past and we are the architects of our future... If you want to know your past, look at your present circumstances. If you want to know your future, look at what is in your mind.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Authentic happiness is not linked to an activity; it is a state of being, a profound emotional balance struck by a subtle understanding of how the mind functions.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    By breaking down our sense of self-importance, all we lose is a parasite that has long infected our minds. What we gain in return is freedom, openness of mind, spontaneity, simplicity, altruism: all qualities inherent in happiness.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    By happiness I mean here a deep sense of flourishing that arises from an exceptionally healthy mind. This is not a mere pleasurable feeling, a fleeting emotion, or a mood, but an optimal state of being. Happiness is also a way of interpreting the world, since while it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Changing your attitude has a curative effect... Maybe you can go directly to a change of mind, a change of attitude.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Children, old people, vagabonds laugh easily and heartily: they have nothing to lose and hope for little. In renunciation lies a delicious taste of simplicity and deep peace.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Confidence is closely linked to how well our perceptions match reality

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Empathy is the faculty to resonate with the feelings of others. When we meet someone who is joyful, we smile. When we witness someone in pain, we suffer in resonance with his or her suffering.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Enlightenment is eliminating mental confusion, eliminating hatred, jealousy, mental toxins, cravings. That's very simple and straightforward. Whether you can do it or not is another matter.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Envy and jealousy stem from the fundamental inability to rejoice at someone else's happiness or success

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    Matthieu Ricard

    For a few moments, be aware of your potential for change. Whatever your present situation is, evolution and transformation are always possible. At the least, you can change your way of seeing things and then, gradually, your way of being as well.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Genuine fearlessness arises with the confidence that we will be able to gather the inner resources to deal with any situation that comes our way.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Good and evil exist only in terms of the happiness or suffering they create in ourselves and others

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Happiness can’t be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world—a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Happiness is a skill, emotional balance is a skill, compassion and altruism are skills, and like any skill they need to be developed. That's what education is about.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Happiness is not the endless pursuit of pleasant experiences - that sounds more like a recipe for exhaustion - but a way of being that results from cultivating a benevolent mind, emotional balance, inner freedom, inner peace, and wisdom. Each of these qualities is a skill that can be enhanced through training the mind.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Happiness is the main object of our aspirations, whatever name we give to it: fulfilment, deep satisfaction, serenity, accomplishment, wisdom, fortune, joy or inner peace, and however we try to seek it: creativity, justice, altruism, striving, completion of a plan or a piece of work.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Happiness is the result of inner maturity. It depends on us alone, and requires patient work, carried out from day to day. Happiness must be built, and this requires time and effort. In the long term, happiness and unhappiness are therefore a way of being, or a life skill.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Humility does not mean believing oneself to be inferior, but to be freed from self-importance. It is a state of natural simplicity which is in harmony with our true nature and allows us to taste the freshness of the present moment.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    I don't often get into a bad mood, since it does not help anything and clouds my judgment, but I can certainly see that sometimes things go terribly wrong. We need to understand the reasons for this and work towards building new conditions that will bring about better circumstances.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    If contemplation of other people's pain just increases distress, then I think we should see it in another way. If we don't center too much on ourselves, then [we] increase our courage and our determination to remedy the pain, not our distress. If we have unconditional compassion, then it increases our courage. So that's the difference, self-centered motivation versus altruistic motivation.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    If there is a remedy or a cure, a solution to a problem or difficulty, why worry?

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    Matthieu Ricard

    If we dedicate a certain amount of time each day to cultivating compassion or any other positive quality, we are likely to attain results, just like when we train the body... Meditation consists of familiarizing ourselves with a new way of being, of managing our thoughts and the way we perceive the world. Through the recent advances in neuroscience it is now possible to evaluate these methods and to verify their impact on the brain and body.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    If you don't have altruism, inner strength, inner peace, attention, then it's a trauma. It makes a difficult life for you and for others.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    If you see the humanity in the world, grains of sand that bring everything to a halt - corruption, clashes of egos, human factors more than resources. So, how to avoid that? There’s a lack of human maturity. So it’s not been a fertile exercise to perfect yourself to some extent before you serve others, otherwise it’s like cutting the wheat when it’s still green. And nobody is fed by that. So we need a minimum of readiness to efficiently and wisely be at the service of others. So compassion needs also to be sort of enlightened by wisdom. Otherwise, it’s blind.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    If you want to know the future, look at what is in your mind

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    Matthieu Ricard

    I got really involved in science research and the science of meditation.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Imagine a ship that is sinking and needs all the available power to run the pumps to drain out the rising waters. The first class passengers refuse to cooperate because they feel hot and want to use the air-conditioner and other electrical appliances. The second-class passengers spend all their time trying to be upgraded to first-class status. The boat sinks and the passengers all drown. That is where the present approach to climate change is leading.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    In a way, there's nothing wrong with playing the piano, but it's not a huge trauma if you don't.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    In the freshness of the present moment, past is gone, future is not yet born, and—if one remains in pure mindfulness and freedom—disturbing thoughts arise and go without leaving a trace. That is basic meditation.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Isn't it the mind that translates the outer condition into happiness and suffering?

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    Matthieu Ricard

    I think if your direction in life is clear and if you develop the wish to accomplish/have a fulfilled life and to contribute something to others, I think that definitely gives you such a strength to want to be alive, that that would be the best placebo.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    It's not the magnitude of the task that matters, it's the magnitude of our courage.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    I was born in France. My father was a renowned French philosopher and journalist, and my mother was a painter. So I grew up in Parisian intellectual circles.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Just be free, and at least you will go through adversity with a stronger mind, and therefore, you'll be less affected, and pain will affect you less.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Knowledge does not mean mastering a great quantity of different information, but understanding the nature of mind. This knowledge can penetrate each one of our thoughts and illuminate each one of our perceptions.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Let us live simply in the freshness of the present moment, in the clarity of pure awakened mind.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Meditation gives you more inner strength and confidence, and if you don't feel vulnerable, you can put that to the service of others. So it's not just about sitting and cultivating caring mindfulness. It's building up a way of being and then using it for the service of others.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Meditation is about cultivating constructive emotions, like altruism, compassion.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite mental factors cannot happen at the same time. You could go from love to hate. But you cannot, at the same time - toward the same object, the same person - want to harm and want to do good.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Negative emotions like hatred destroy our peace of mind.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Neuroscience has proven that similar areas of the brain are activated both in the person who suffers and in the one who feels empathy. Thus empathic suffering is a true experience of suffering.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    No change occurs if we just let our habitual tendencies and automatic patterns of thought perpetuate and even reinforce themselves, thought after thought, day after day, year after year. But those tendencies and patterns can be challenged.

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Peace is not weak. Standing up to a tank is harder than dropping a suicide bomb

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    Matthieu Ricard

    Placebos are like the lollipop of optimism, but we can do much better by dealing directly with the mind... And it works!