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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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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.
Matthieu Ricard
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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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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.
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Happiness is a skill, emotional balance is a skill, compassion and altruism are skills, and like any skill they need to be developed. That's what education is about.
Matthieu Ricard
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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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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.
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The basic root of happiness lies in our minds outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favourable.
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Whatever you train, you change your brain.
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Anyone can be happy by simply training their brain.
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It is in learning music that many youthful hearts learn to love.
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We try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory.
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What counts is not the enormity of the task, but the size of the courage.
Matthieu Ricard
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We have known about the placebo effect for many years. This is a remarkable effect - placebo can cure 30 percent in many cases.
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Changing your attitude has a curative effect... Maybe you can go directly to a change of mind, a change of attitude.
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Authentic happiness is not linked to an activity, it is a state of being.
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When hearing a door creak, the optimist thinks it's opening and the pessimist thinks it's closing.
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Genuine fearlessness arises with the confidence that we will be able to gather the inner resources to deal with any situation that comes our way.
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For a few moments, be aware of your potential for change. Whatever your present situation is, evolution and transformation are always possible. At the least, you can change your way of seeing things and then, gradually, your way of being as well.
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Transform our way of perceiving things, we transform the quality of our lives.
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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.
Matthieu Ricard