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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.

Matthieu Ricard

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Matthieu Ricard
Age: 78
Born: 1946
Born: February 15
Bhikkhu
Geneticist
Monk
Philosopher
Photographer
Translator
Writer
Mind
Loses
Gain
Parasites
Quality
Simplicity
Altruism
Suffering
Buddhism
Spontaneity
Happiness
Gains
Openness
Freedom
Minds
Mindfulness
Sense
Importance
Inherent
Self
Return
Breaking
Parasite
Long
Lose
Qualities
Infected

More quotes by Matthieu Ricard

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The way you experience [pain] can change so much depending on your attitude.
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It's not the magnitude of the task that matters, it's the magnitude of our courage.
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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.
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Peace is not weak. Standing up to a tank is harder than dropping a suicide bomb
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Just be free, and at least you will go through adversity with a stronger mind, and therefore, you'll be less affected, and pain will affect you less.
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Envy and jealousy stem from the fundamental inability to rejoice at someone else's happiness or success
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The mind is malleable. Our life can be greatly transformed by even a minimal change in how we manage our thoughts and perceive and interpret the world. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time.
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We must distinguish between spirituality in general terms, which aims to make us better people, and religion. Adopting a religion remains optional, but becoming a better human being is essential.
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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.
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Various studies indicate that with age people gain more wisdom about life and are somehow happier than younger people. This is especially true if, as we age, we learn how to become more generous, altruistic, and peaceful.
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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.
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You can't be at the same time a spiritual master and someone who is always angry. It doesn't work.
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Nothing goes right on the outside when nothing is going right on the inside.
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There is definitely openness to others' suffering that is dealt not with distress but with compassion.
Matthieu Ricard
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You're not insensitive or indifferent, but you're also not vulnerable to the upheavals that cause emotional stress because you can buffer that... So that's the result of meditation you could call that emotional balance.
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If you don't have altruism, inner strength, inner peace, attention, then it's a trauma. It makes a difficult life for you and for others.
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Negative emotions like hatred destroy our peace of mind.
Matthieu Ricard
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Enlightenment is eliminating mental confusion, eliminating hatred, jealousy, mental toxins, cravings. That's very simple and straightforward. Whether you can do it or not is another matter.
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I don't often get into a bad mood, since it does not help anything and clouds my judgment, but I can certainly see that sometimes things go terribly wrong. We need to understand the reasons for this and work towards building new conditions that will bring about better circumstances.
Matthieu Ricard
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What counts is not the enormity of the task, but the size of the courage.
Matthieu Ricard