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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
Quality
Simplicity
Altruism
Suffering
Buddhism
Spontaneity
Happiness
Gains
Openness
Freedom
Minds
Mindfulness
Sense
Importance
Inherent
Self
Return
Breaking
Parasite
Long
Lose
Qualities
Infected
Mind
Loses
Gain
Parasites

More quotes by Matthieu Ricard

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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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Let us live simply in the freshness of the present moment, in the clarity of pure awakened mind.
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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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Peace is not weak. Standing up to a tank is harder than dropping a suicide bomb
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Authentic happiness is not linked to an activity, it is a state of being.
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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.
Matthieu Ricard
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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.
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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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Meditation gives you more inner strength and confidence, and if you don't feel vulnerable, you can put that to the service of others. So it's not just about sitting and cultivating caring mindfulness. It's building up a way of being and then using it for the service of others.
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The way you experience [pain] can change so much depending on your attitude.
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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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We have known about the placebo effect for many years. This is a remarkable effect - placebo can cure 30 percent in many cases.
Matthieu Ricard
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We all have the ability to study the causes of suffering and gradually to free ourselves from them....it is not the magnitude of the task that matters, it's the magnitude of our courage.
Matthieu Ricard
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Nothing goes right on the outside when nothing is going right on the inside.
Matthieu Ricard
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It is in learning music that many youthful hearts learn to love.
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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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We vastly underestimate the power of transformation of mind.
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To love oneself is to love life. It is essential to understand that we make ourselves happy in making others happy.
Matthieu Ricard
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Happiness is the result of inner maturity. It depends on us alone, and requires patient work, carried out from day to day. Happiness must be built, and this requires time and effort. In the long term, happiness and unhappiness are therefore a way of being, or a life skill.
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Transform our way of perceiving things, we transform the quality of our lives.
Matthieu Ricard