Matthieu Ricard is widely regarded as the Happiest Man in the World. He is a French Microbiologist who became a Buddhist monk 30 years ago. He spends 3 months every year in a remote hermitage in Nepal with hardly any comforts we know of.
Matthieu claims his regular practice of meditation behind his happy life. He says even 20 mins a day of meditation practice has enormous benefits
A 12 yr long brain study conducted by University of Wisconsin neuroscientist Richard Davidson is the proof behind this claim. Sensors hooked on to Matthieu’s head revealed he has abnormally large capacity for happiness and very low propensity towards negativity. Matthieu’s brain produces a level of gamma waves never reported before by neuroscientists.
We can debate about the study and its findings but we can safely assume that Matthieu is amongst the happier people that this planet knows of. Traits he shows are easily amongst the widely recognised traits of happiest people that every study backs. So lets just compare how an average person fares against the big daddy of happiness, Matthieu Ricard.
| Parameter | Happiest Man in World | Avg Person |
| Own a house | ✖️ | ✔️ |
| Own a car | ✖️ | ✔️ |
| Salary | ✖️ | ✔️ |
| Definition of Happiness | Way of Being | More Possessions & Pleasure |
| Considers Happiness | As a skill that can be acquired by practice | As drowning daily stresses in alcohol, shopping, party, vacation etc |
| Being happy means | Raising baseline of positive personality traits | Sudden euphoric experiences |
| Emotional Hurt | Lets go | Keeps the hurt & anger for years |
| Relationships | Warm & Caring | Hot & Cold |
| Relationship with Nature | Regular visits to parks, rivers, ocean, trees, mountains and its appreciation | Doesn’t take time out with nature on regular basis |
| Meditation | Daily | Hardly |
| Outlook towards World | Compassionate | World is there to fulfil my needs |
| Irritation | Does get irritated, but starts laughing at it soon | Tends to carry it to other activities and other people |
| Who can be happiest? | Anyone and everyone who practices meditation for 20 mins/day | Chosen few |
| Happiness Mantra | Altruism | Self centeredness or
Maximising ones wealth |
Watch Matthieu Ricard’s TED Talk on “The Habits of Happiness”
Here’s a 51 min interview with Matthieu Ricard, the Happiest Man int the World 🙂
Happiest Man in the World v/s Avg Person comparison is captured again this infographic
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