I feel a sense of anxiety as I prepare to interview Matthieu Ricard, the eminent Buddhist monk, moments after he appears on my computer screen. Donning his vibrant red and saffron robes, he laughs contagiously throughout our conversation. When I confess to getting anxious before interviews, he bursts into uproarious laughter. “Really? In your job?” he asks. I confirm my anxiety and ask if there is anything that makes him anxious. After considering the question, he replies, “Yes, missing planes or trains. Besides that, I don’t have many worries.”
This interview is particularly intimidating for me. At 77 years old, Ricard combines the intellectual rigor of a French scholar with the profound wisdom gained from over 50 years of intense spiritual practice. In contrast, I feel as profound as a Pop Tart, having told a fruit fly to depart this morning. Naturally, I am both anxious and excited. Like many individuals, I have spent most of my life pondering the concept of happiness. Is it truly attainable? And if so, how? Is the pursuit of happiness selfish? Who better to guide me on this journey than “the world’s happiest man”?
However, Ricard dismisses this title as a “nonsense idea” that was bestowed upon him after participating in a 2004 research project that examined his brain while he meditated on compassion. The electroencephalogram recorded unprecedented levels of gamma waves, associated with well-being and focus. His meditation also activated an area of the brain linked to positive emotions. Ricard questions how we can determine the happiness of all 8 billion human beings, suggesting that there might be someone in a perpetual state of bliss. Rather than being annoyed by the label, he admits to feeling embarrassed. He recalls a friend’s words, jokingly imagining his epitaph: “Here lies the happiest man in the world.” Nevertheless, his spiritual teacher’s grandson advised him to embrace the label and stop fighting it.
Although Ricard lives in the Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal, his latest book, “Notebooks of a Wandering Monk,” delves into his extraordinary life. Ricard dislikes the term “memoir” and prefers to call it “testimony” instead. He acknowledges that critics may scoff at a person who focuses on the death of ego writing an 800-page autobiography. However, the book encompasses not only his spiritual journey but also his personal experiences, including encounters with Tibetan yak herders, horsemen, and hermits. He shares anecdotes about navigating Chinese bureaucracy, his interactions with the Bhutanese royal family, perilous climbs to Himalayan mountain-top holy sites, and witnessing his teacher’s “thukdam”, a phenomenon where the body doesn’t decompose after death.
Ricard’s upbringing was filled with artistic and intellectual influences. His mother, Yahne le Toumelin, a renowned abstract painter and Buddhist nun, was associated with influential figures such as André Breton, Leonora Carrington, and Luis Buñuel. His father, journalist and philosopher Jean-François Revel, edited the news weekly L’Express and was a prolific author who also earned a place in the Académie Française. Despite this stimulating environment, Ricard felt perplexed by the disconnect between genius and moral character. This confusion deepened when a friend introduced him to a documentary about Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leaders in exile, whom he compared to “20 Socrates or St Francis of Assisi.” Intrigued, he decided to explore this path.
Ricard describes his life as divided into two parts, with the first ending at the age of 21 when he met his first teacher, Kangyur Rinpoche. He abandoned his prestigious postgraduate position at Institut Pasteur, where he was studying cellular genetics, bid farewell to his research on colonic bacteria, and relocated to Darjeeling in 1972. Six years later, he became a monk. When I inquire about his fears of informing his strong-willed and intellectual father, he reveals that he dislikes confrontations. Fortunately, no significant clashes occurred, and his father merely asked him, “How are you going to make a living?” Reflecting on his childhood, Ricard notes that money was always tight, and his father provided little financial support. Surprisingly, material concerns rarely crossed his mind,…
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