Archive du blog pour Matthieu Ricard

Pleasure and Happiness: The Great Mix-up (part 2)

Mr1823 Cg

Kangyur Rinpoche. Photo by Matthieu Ricard

For the ancient Greeks, the word eudaimonia conveyed the notion of accomplishment, of flourishing, of deep long-term fulfillment. While pleasure corresponds to hedonism, happiness corresponds to eudaimonia. Similarly, in Buddhism, the word soukha refers …

Read more

Pleasure and Happiness: The Great Mix-up (part 1)

T School Shechen  2012 #B86 2

One of the most common errors we make is to confuse pleasure for happiness. According to a Hindu proverb: “Pleasure is only the shadow of happiness”. Pleasure is the direct result of hedonistic, pleasurable sensual, esthetic, or intellectual stimuli. This

Read more

Letter to the Pope

Mr3370 N1800x1200

The following is a letter I wrote in Switzerland at the repeated request of Emmanuel Tagnard, a religious journalist from Radio Télévision Suisse, who collected for letters for the Pope from people at different stages of a journey he …

Read more

Science and Buddhism

Madison May 08 Matthieu3

Part of an Ongoing Series on Buddhism Demysitified

Science can be defined as a rigorous empirical investigation of reality with the goal of discovering and explaining natural phenomena and predicting how they function. Its field of study covers not only …

Read more

Buddhism and Individualism

Mr1490 Db 6444 Cg

Buddhism is sometimes accused of being individualistic and indifferent to the needs of others and the world. This criticism is paradoxical if we understand that one of the cornerstones of Buddhism’s approach is to deconstruct the ego, and one of …

Read more

Beginning Meditation

In our modern world, we are consumed from morning till night with endless activity. We do not have much time or energy left over to consider the basic causes of our happiness or suffering. If we take an honest look …

Read more

Buddhism Demystified

Mr1381 Db4323 Gbis
Derge press in Tibet where precious Buddhist texts are stored and printed

The First in a Series of Notes about Buddhism

Buddhism is often defined as being a philosophy, religion, art of living, and so on. But what are the …

Read more