1. Matthieu Ricard grew up among the personalities and ideas of French intellectual circles.
25 Facts About Matthieu Ricard
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Matthieu Ricard received a PhD degree in molecular genetics from the Pasteur Institute in 1972.
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Matthieu Ricard then decided to forsake his scientific career and instead practice Tibetan Buddhism, living mainly in the Himalayas.
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Matthieu Ricard received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East with Karuna-Shechen, the non-profit organization he co-founded in 2000 with Rabjam Rinpoche.
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Matthieu Ricard's mother is the lyrical abstractionist painter and Tibetan Buddhist nun Yahne Le Toumelin.
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Matthieu Ricard grew up among the personalities and ideas of French intellectual circles.
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Matthieu Ricard worked for a PhD degree in molecular genetics at the Pasteur Institute under French Nobel Laureate Francois Jacob.
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Matthieu Ricard then went to India where he lived in the Himalayas studying with the Kangyur Rinpoche and some other teachers of that tradition.
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Matthieu Ricard became a close student and friend of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche until Rinpoche's death in 1991.
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Since then, Matthieu Ricard has dedicated his activities to fulfilling Khyentse Rinpoche's vision.
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Matthieu Ricard has been called the "happiest person in the world".
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Matthieu Ricard co-authored a study on the brains of long-term meditators, including himself, who had undergone a minimum of three years in retreat.
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Matthieu Ricard is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute, which is devoted to meetings and collaborative research between scientists, Buddhist scholars and meditators, his contributions have appeared in Destructive Emotions and other books of essays.
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Matthieu Ricard is engaged in research on the effect of mind training on the brain, in various institutions, including Madison-Wisconsin, Princeton and Berkeley universities in the United States, the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, the University of Liege in Belgium, and at the Inserm centres of Lyon and Caen in France.
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Matthieu Ricard spent four years in the Dordogne, caring for his mother, Yahne, who died 2023 in her hundredth year; he felt very fortunate to be able to care for her during this time.
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Matthieu Ricard is the author and photographer of Tibet, An Inner Journey and Monk Dancers of Tibet and, in collaboration, the photobooks Buddhist Himalayas, Journey to Enlightenment and Motionless Journey: From a Hermitage in the Himalayas.
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Matthieu Ricard is the translator of numerous Buddhist texts, including The Life of Shabkar.
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Matthieu Ricard's 2003 book Plaidoyer pour the bonheur explores the meaning and fulfillment of happiness and was a major best-seller in France.
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Matthieu Ricard is the the author of Caring Economics: Conversations on Altruism and Compassion, Between Scientists, Economists, and the Dalai Lama.
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Matthieu Ricard received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East.
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Matthieu Ricard has spoken on many international forums, including the World Happiness Forum, the United-Nations, conferences held in Sydney, London, San Francisco and Singapore, the Global Economic Symposium, The World Government Summit and other venues.
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Matthieu Ricard has been invited ten times to the World Economic Forum.
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Matthieu Ricard uses three types of meditation: compassion, open awareness, and analytic.
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Matthieu Ricard has spent a total of 5 years in solitary meditation, largely in a remote mountain hut.
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Matthieu Ricard promotes veganism and animal rights, on which he wrote his 2016 book A Plea for the Animals.