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Matthieu Ricard Quotes

Monk

Matthieu Ricard is a French-born Tibetan Buddhist monk and a renowned scientist. Born on February 15, 1946, he has made significant contributions to the fields of Buddhist philosophy and scientific research.

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All Mind Suffering Way Buddhism Ifs Compassion Meditation Mindfulness World Brain States Altruism Happiness Mean Moments Needs People Circumstances Deals Doe

Famous Matthieu Ricard Quotes

“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.”

Feels Persons Suffering Brain Empathy Areas Proven Neuroscience

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“That's what Buddhism has been trying to unravel - the mechanism of happiness and suffering. It is a science of the mind.”

Trying Mind Has Beens Suffering Buddhism Mechanism

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“You get [something] in your body that is the suffering or the problem, and then you [add] a second one, which is worry. In both cases, [it is] pointless.”

Problem Body Suffering Cases Worry Add Your Body Pointless

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“There is definitely openness to others' suffering that is dealt not with distress but with compassion.”

Suffering Compassion Openness Distress

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“When you see those in healthcare who don't get this burn-out, they are very motherly, fatherly, or loving and attentive with the patients. [These] wonderful caretakers, doctors, and nurses don't get as much burn-out as people who are more defensive of the feelings and suffering of others.”

People Feelings Suffering Wonderful Doctors Patient Nurse Healthcare Burn Out Suffering Of Others Caretakers Motherly Doctors And Nurses

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“When faced with adverse circumstances, if you can do something, do it and there is not need to worry. If you can't do anything, then there is no point to worry. So in either case, worrying is an added suffering. But this does not mean of course that we should not be unhappy about injustice, abuse and other kinds of behavior that brings suffering upon others.”

Ifs Needs Should Kind Mean Doe Suffering Courses Can Do Cases Worry Circumstances Behavior Abuse Injustice Unhappy No Point Can Do Something Adverse

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favourable.”

Mind Lying Suffering Meditation Buddhism Circumstances Mindfulness Roots Adverse Meditation Mindfulness

Author: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.”

Mind Mean Doe Different Wisdom Suffering Understanding Information Buddhism Perception Mindfulness Quantity Our Thoughts Penetrate

Author: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.”

“What counts is not the enormity of the task, but the size of the courage.”

Suffering Buddhism Tasks Size

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“Nothing goes right on the outside when nothing is going right on the inside.”

Wisdom Suffering Buddhism

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“When the mind is full of memories and preoccupied by the future, it misses the freshness of the present moment. In this way, we fail to recognize the luminous simplicity of mind that is always present behind the veils of thought.”

Way Mind Moments Suffering Memories Behinds Failing Missing Buddhism Simplicity Present Moment Veils Luminous Freshness

Author:Matthieu Ricard

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

Suffering Buddhism Mindfulness Fundamentals Envy Rejoice Stem Inability Jealousy Envy Jealousy And Envy

Author: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.”

People Children Littles Wisdom Lying Suffering Loses Laughing Buddhism Taste Simplicity Delicious Old People Renunciation Nothing To Lose Vagabonds

Author: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.”

“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.”

Believe Mean Doe Self States Moments Wisdom Suffering Natural Humility Buddhism Taste Importance Harmony Simplicity Oneself Present Moment Inferiors True Nature Freshness Self-importance

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“Simplifying our lives does not mean sinking into idleness, but on the contrary, getting rid of the most subtle aspect of laziness: the one which makes us take on thousands of less important activities.”

Mean Doe Important Suffering Our Lives Buddhism Activity Aspect Contrary Subtle Laziness Idleness Sinking

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“True freedom means freeing oneself from the dictates of the ego and its accompanying emotions.”

Mean Suffering Emotion Buddhism Ego Oneself True Freedom

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“There is no such thing as good and bad in an absolute sense. There is only the good and bad- the harm in terms of happiness and suffering- that our thoughts and our actions do to ourselves and others.”

Action Suffering Term Ethics Absolutes Harm Our Thoughts Good And Bad Our Actions

Author:Matthieu Ricard

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

Suffering Evil Term Good And Evil

Book:The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet

Source: The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet

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

Mind Suffering Conditions Translate

Author:Matthieu Ricard

“We all have the ability to study the causes of suffering and gradually to free ourselves from them....it is not the magnitude of the task that matters, it's the magnitude of our courage.”

Matter Suffering Causes Ability Study Tasks Magnitude

Author: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.”

Feelings Pain Suffering Empathy Witness Faculty Joyful Resonance

Author:Matthieu Ricard

About the Author

Born: February 15, 1946
Known for: Monk
Quotes: 108

Books & Sources

The Art of Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important SkillRelated source material

The Art of MeditationRelated source material

On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan MastersRelated source material

The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism MeetRelated source material

A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with CompassionRelated source material

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important SkillRelated source material

Notebooks of a Wandering MonkRelated source material

Why Meditate?Related source material

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