Happiness And Inner Freedom

Matthieu Ricard shares his wisdom about how to live a happy and compassionate life, with a particular focus on cultivating inner freedom. This talk was recorded at an Action for Happiness event in London on 5 September 2019.

Transcript

Yes,

I'm so glad to be here,

But somehow I thought it may be time to go back to the mountains before I die.

I don't want to die in an airport or something like that,

And just be safe in my hermitage in the Himalayas before Brexit or something like that.

Anyway,

I thought maybe to the great dismay of the audience,

I have spoken enough about happiness and all these weird concepts.

So tonight I would like to speak about something that's very dear to me and a wonderful dialogue recently with a Swiss handicapped philosopher and a French psychiatrist on the subject of freedom.

That seems like a bit of a commonplace idea,

But here we'll try to relate most of your interests in happiness,

In a better society,

More compassion,

Cooperative society with this notion of inner freedom.

So first of all,

To be clear,

Obviously we need outer freedom,

We need to fight for it when it's not there,

And we need to continue the immense progress that has been done with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and before that the abolition of slavery,

Even though it's continuing in various forms.

So there's no question about that.

So that's a totally granted thing that we should do anything we can in society so that people are free to fulfil their deepest aspirations in life,

Provided of course they do it in an ethical way,

That means not using their freedom at the cause as causing other people suffering or whatever,

Not in a selfish freedom.

But I think we vastly underestimate the importance of inner freedom and of course there are other circumstances which might be so overwhelming in terms of physical condition,

If you are in a state of famine or persecution or war or if you suffer terribly in your body or somehow your freedom is limited because of your physical condition or mental state.

But besides that,

I think there's an enormous margin to go from very little inner freedom to a much faster inner freedom.

So I wish to explore that concept and see how it relates to the vision of Action for Happiness and I guess why you might be here tonight.

So first of all,

The idea that somehow we are more or less free unless people constrain us because we can think,

We can decide,

And as much as we can at least we have this inner possibility.

But is it really the case?

Well,

First of all there is a clear misconception of what inner freedom is and I heard it once on the BBC actually,

A young woman saying,

You know,

For me freedom is to do whatever comes in my mind without anyone having to say anything about it.

So for me it's exactly the description of being the slave of every single thought that comes through your mind.

It's truly like being the,

In Tibetan we have a saying that the grass on the mountaintop that sway wherever the wind blows and on the mountaintop the winds blow so many directions within a short time.

So that's really in my mind just the opposite of what we will call inner freedom.

And in fact I also remember the Dalai Lama many years ago thinking that in Western society everybody says we are free,

We can express ourselves,

And of course it's true to a great extent.

But it is sometimes your freedom is a little bit like a screw that is spinning very fast within the,

How do you call that screw,

Place where the screw turns.

So you spin left or right but somehow you are still within that sort of constraint.

So what that constraint can be?

Well,

Actually,

Fortunately I hope everyone who is here deeply aspires to well-being,

To flourishing,

To happiness,

Whatever name you give to that aspiration that is a combination of every instant of life making sense,

It's worth experiencing,

That you feel at equation with yourself,

At equation with global sort of interdependence,

There's something that sounds right deep within,

The quality of the present moment,

The freshness of the present moment as being something of quality,

Not being in utter despair or completely swayed by obsession or whatever,

A sense of balance,

A sense of harmony,

A sense of peace to some extent,

Openness to the world and others.

And then there is the sense of appreciation over time.

What about the last 20 years and whatever life span I might have,

How do I consider this pursuit of flourishing,

Of having a deeply accomplished meaningful life that when I draw my last breath,

At least I say well done,

I did all what I could with good heart and so many good things happen in this life,

I feel fortunate to have lived through all that.

So that's of course,

It's a genuine fundamental aspirations in human beings in the same way that every sentient beings that include many of the eight million species which are our core citizens in this world also aspire to at least many of those animals to friendship,

To freedom,

To at least live their life even they don't have huge plans but the full span of their life,

They will definitely do anything to escape danger or tread on their physical integrity and debt.

So there's this natural aspiration to continue and to try to thrive and flourish and no one wakes up in the morning thinking may I suffer the whole day and it's possible my whole life.

So that's been granted,

What is inner freedom to do with that aspiration?

Well if we are too much conditioned,

Distorted,

Somewhat enslaved by habitual patterns,

By very strong tendencies,

By rumination about the past,

By being unable to deal with the emotions in the present moment,

By also being torn between hope and fear,

Expectations and apprehensions about what is going to come.

If our mind is like a monkey mind or a spoiled child and we cannot find rest,

We always never have enough,

We don't have any sense of contentment,

All those factors are actually decreasing our degrees of freedom.

There's a nice expression in physics which speaks about particles,

How many degrees of freedom they have,

Of course nothing to do with free will but how many states they can have,

They can go through is the degree of freedom they have.

So how much degree of freedom we have in our inner life,

How much are we swayed by our sort of automatic thinking and how much because of that we lack discernment and of course we aspire to happiness but it seems we turn our back to what could bring real fulfilment and we want to avoid suffering but sometimes it seems we run towards the cause of suffering.

There's a kind of almost an addiction to the causes of suffering in that perpetuation of what brings again and again dissatisfaction.

So in that sense we are not quite free from all those ways of being,

Ways of thinking,

This sort of framework,

Those traits,

Those moves,

Those tendencies,

The way we deal or don't deal with powerful emotions,

With afflictive mental state,

How much are we able to deal in a healthy way with that and resolve them so that we are not caught in these chain reactions of anger,

Of jealousy,

Of arrogance,

Of obsessive desire and so forth.

And how much this has to do with a sort of lack of discernment.

One of the main cause of suffering in Buddhism is of course those gross mental toxins like hatred,

Obsession,

I mean those poisons I just mentioned like envy and so forth.

But a more subtle one is ignorance not in the sense of not knowing the telephone directory by heart,

I think it doesn't exist anymore,

They don't send you those big books,

But ignorance in terms of distorting reality,

Superimposing on things and people and situations,

This is 100% desirable,

I can't be happy without that,

Or this is 100% hateable without that,

If I don't get rid of that,

No way I can be happy.

So how much that kind of sort of delusion or confusion leads to this endless circle of repetition of suffering.

So that's something we should really think about,

How when a powerful thought of anger arises,

How free are we to let it proliferate and invade our mind?

Or do we have the kind of freedom that allows that thought to come,

To go through,

To be undone as it appears?

And in Buddhist teachings we have a lot of images about that,

Like a bird passing through the sky leaving no trace.

Are we able to do that with afflictive emotions?

Without being of course like in a kind of lethargic,

Dull state of mental opacity,

But absolutely crystal clear and yet not being sort of going into the chain reaction that this one thought of animosity will trigger,

Or jealousy,

Why not me,

Or why me,

And then that spin off and this single bird becomes thousand birds and obscures the sky and obscures the sun.

So how free are we to sort of not only resist or suppress that but be free from that?

Or like a drawing at the surface of water that gets undone as it happens?

And once again it doesn't lead to become like a vegetable,

It actually leads to a,

I mean if you,

Some of you might have listened or met,

Ysonnese de Dalai Lama,

I mean he's someone by knowing him now for 30 years and sometimes being fortunate to accompany him for some days as his interpreter in French or meeting,

Accompanying him for meeting with scientists who really I consider as this incredible genuineness and inner freedom,

But he's certainly not someone that looks sort of dull and bored and you know life has become colorless,

He's most sparkling,

Attentive,

Present person and yet he's not caught into these habitual patterns.

So those patterns usually lead to frustration because if we are caught and bound by those attraction,

Repulsion,

Hope,

Fear,

All the time it ends up in some kind of suffering and also it will induce us to act in ways and speak in ways that will be detrimental to our own flourishing and usually to that of others so it's a lose lose situation.

So what are the obstacles to inner freedom?

So one is lack of discernment,

It's not seeing the situation as it is,

Where I'm not as free as I could be and there's a strong element of being say the slave of my own thoughts,

So first being more lucid and then finding out what actually will help me to get towards this freedom,

What is the way of thinking,

What is maybe the possibility of mental training,

What are the factors that will favor inner freedom or not.

So if we think of those things there are quite a few obstacles to inner freedom.

One and I didn't know that word until we had this recent dialogue on inner freedom and our friend,

A Swiss handicapped philosopher,

He's an interesting case,

He's called Alexandre Jolien,

He was in an institution,

He was born with a sort of tied around his neck so he's all like that all over the place but he's extremely intelligent so he was in an institution for 20 years with handicapped people and not being educated very much and then one time a Jesuit father noticed that he was extremely bright so he started teaching him and he became a great philosopher and wrote quite a few books.

He can't write,

He has a hard time to read but he listens a lot and he dictates.

So when we did this dialogue we had a term called acrasia,

It's a Greek term which I didn't know,

I'm sure all of you know it.

And acrasia is the fact that you know something is good for you until you don't do it but you know very well all the advantages of doing something or you know very well the disadvantages of doing something,

Falling into a habit,

A passion or something and yet we don't do it.

It's not about just sheer willpower,

There's something bigger in that,

Some kind of taking it easy,

Not wanting to somehow transform yourself.

I think Oscar Wilde was saying I can't resist too many things except temptation.

Something like that is acrasia.

So Alexander used to give the example that because he tends to get overweight he went to buy five books on dieting,

Took them home and sat on the couch looking at TV and eating potato chips.

That's acrasia.

So that's one obstacle to inner freedom,

It prevents change.

And of course the antidote to that is to reflect on the kind of the mess that we keep on perpetuating to that and then generate a strong urge and determination,

I must get out of it.

So that kind of energy is the antidote to acrasia.

The other one is why it has a different degree of severity.

One is habits,

Tendencies and it can go up to addiction.

So of course in addiction when it becomes very extreme then basically you feel almost powerless not to do what you do.

And of course in the end it causes immense suffering.

So there can be addiction as we sometimes often hear of it,

Substances or things.

It can be emotional addiction,

It could be all kinds of addiction.

And that's clearly something that you know so much how some of the detrimental it is to everything,

To your life,

To your relations,

To your mental,

Physical life,

To your health,

To your achieving goals in life and nevertheless you're caught in it.

And that's a very strong obstacle and in a way we could say we are also addicted in a more seemingly innocuous way to the causes of perpetuating ordinary suffering.

And that's a strong obstacle because when it becomes extreme and I was fascinated we had one of those mind and life meetings with the Dalai Lama and scientists,

It's an institute that brings scientists with the Dalai Lama for last 20 almost 30 years now and we had one on desire,

Craving and addiction.

And a friend of mine was a great neuroscientist who was a specialist of that,

Ken Berridge.

He explained us and that was very enlightening that in the brain the neural network for liking something is very labile,

I mean maybe it's not an English word,

It's very transient,

It doesn't last very long.

But as you keep on liking something for a while repeatedly there's a different network that is about wanting and that builds up in a much more lasting and sort of resistant way.

So what happens at some point,

So the wanting of course always pushes you to do what normally you like.

At some point you don't like that thing anymore,

You may be even disgusted with it as it happened with many addicts of substance and whatever,

But you still cannot resist it.

So it's very hard,

You want something that you know doesn't bring you any kind of satisfaction and you still want it.

And it's an incredible obstacle because if you still look at the brain at the same time the areas that are to do with willpower are decreased.

So you would need a very strong willpower to get out of it,

So that's already decreased.

Imagine that you can muster some willpower to change because you have to undo that wanting system that is much stronger and it takes time to unravel,

So it takes perseverance.

But to change you need to an area of the brain called the hippocampus that accounts for any kind of training or changing your way of being,

Your habits,

What you learn,

What you're familiar with,

So that's what changes when you do meditation,

It's also what changes when you,

There was a famous study with the London cab drivers at the time,

The heroic time where they had to learn 14,

000 street by heart,

Which of course is different now with all those machines.

In Paris they don't even have a clue where the Champs-Élysées is,

They have to look on the GPS.

And there was an area of the brain that was vastly increased in size and activity,

So there's neuroplasticity.

So for that to happen the hippocampus has to be active,

While in addiction as well as in depression this is decreased.

So here you are with a very strong,

Almost irresistible want,

Whether it's affecting or on substance or anything,

With much reduced willpower and even you manage to muster some of it,

It's harder to change.

So you see you've got this triple obstacle.

So those are of course extreme,

Unfortunately even though it's a drama for many of our fellow human beings,

But it's not every person's drama.

At the same time we do have some of that,

Those ingrained sort of tendencies that perpetuate our dissatisfaction and we have a hard time to get out of it.

So all this combination of things are of course obstacles to inner freedom.

So now how can we know what will help inner freedom?

So there's interesting reflection about an ecology of inner freedom.

Sometimes we don't think very much about that.

So there's a human ecology,

What kind of human environment you are in,

And there's even also a physical ecology of freedom.

So first the human side of the ecology of freedom is basically friends that pulls you up instead of pulling you down in terms of either aggravating your situation in terms of perpetuating suffering or somehow in different ways by what they are,

By what they might teach you,

In the way they might help you setting an example or inspiring you to engage in some activities which will help you to get out of those automatic sort of habits and thinking.

So friends in goodness,

That's a very powerful human ecology for progressing towards more freedom.

There's also an environment.

We know that the environment we are in is very influential.

To be in a train station or in an airport is a certain atmosphere of things happening,

People going here and there.

It's not the same as being in a church or in a hermitage.

It's not the same as being at Wall Street just before they close or something like that.

But there's something that gets in you from the physical environment.

And there have been interesting psychological studies.

They made people to vote on some social issues and the vote,

They would borrow a place to hold the vote and then sometimes they would be in a bland sort of big house,

In a mayor's house,

A very sort of gray and without any particular thing.

And then one time they will hold that say in a church and they found that there was a significant difference of the way people will vote.

And I forgot which one they vote,

More pro-social.

I think it's the church.

I'm not totally sure.

It's which kind of church,

I guess.

Well,

So,

You know,

I sometimes have to put my Buddhist hat.

In the Buddhist literature we have a whole lot of description of places which are favorable to transforming certain aspects of our mental landscape.

We say,

For instance,

If we lack inner calm,

Which is quite common these days.

I mean,

Mine is so like monkey mine,

Jumping all over the place.

Then they will recommend more like secluded places,

Clearing in forest.

Everything is sort of quiet,

Soothing,

The smell of the trees,

The quietness,

A few noise here and there.

Not much solicitation.

And they say if your main obstacle is sort of dullness,

You always tend to sink in a sort of,

You know,

Lack of clarity.

Then to go to a very open place,

Big sky,

Or the sea,

The front of the ocean,

Or on the mountain top,

And with fresh crisp hair,

Then the mind sort of opens and merges with the vastness.

So there's all this kind of ecology of working with the environment,

Human environment,

Physical environment to cultivate those qualities that goes towards inner freedom.

And of course,

It's not that in the end,

You know,

To preserve that freedom you have to stay in the forest or you have to stay in a mountain or something.

But at the time we need to cultivate those qualities.

We are too weak to withstand Wall Street atmosphere or things like that,

Or just be able to keep that inner freedom in a traffic jam.

So we need to achieve some elements of that freedom.

And then of course,

We should be able to apply any circumstances in life.

So that brings to how to cultivate inner freedom.

And that has to do,

Of course,

With recognizing what qualities or what skills will contribute to that inner freedom to then express with a sense of wholesomeness,

Of well-being.

And naturally also you will,

If you have free from the scourge of those afflictive mental state,

You are much more likely to naturally act in ethical ways.

Now ethics is not just what is good to do,

But also what is good to be.

What you're going to do on the spur of the moment confronted with a situation,

You're not going to calculate all those ethical pros and cons of doing this or that.

It will be a natural expression of what you are deep within that will express in a benevolent gesture or in anger or in contempt or whatever.

So all these can be cultivated as skills.

And that's what mind training is about.

And of course,

The world meditation is more and more familiar in many ways in Western culture.

But if you look at the roots,

At least in the East,

Of course there's a tradition of meditation here for centuries,

Philosophical meditation,

Religious meditation,

Prayer,

And so forth.

But in Eastern traditions,

The words for which we translate as meditation means to cultivate.

To cultivate could be a skill like attention or altruistic love,

Or it also means to become more familiar with something.

And that's not just a skill,

But it's also familiar with the way your mind works,

To be more aware of what's happening in your mind,

To see a spark of animosity that's just taken birth and before it becomes a forest fire,

Then what can you do if you are mindful with that spark?

So all that needs familiarization with our mind,

Which we deal with from morning to evening,

And which can be our best friend or our worst enemy in case of hatred or depression,

Our mind sort of keeps on nagging us endlessly.

So yes,

Those skills can be trained.

Inner freedom can be trained because the way we deal with our thoughts as they arise can be trained.

We can be more familiar with that process and instead of systematically getting to those chain reactions,

Achieve more freedom about this.

So that's a process of practice.

And because we are talking about inner freedom,

This is an inner practice.

So meditation is one name,

Mind training is another name,

But it requires to become more aware when thoughts come up and also becoming aware that there is a potential for at least getting free from those mental patterns.

If it was so intrinsically part of the deepest of deepest of our being,

Then it's hopeless.

It's like if I want to get rid of the redness of this cloth,

It's red all over,

Inside,

Outside,

So I have to destroy it basically or to burn it.

But if it says just a stain on my robe,

Then I can brush it or wash it.

If it's a glass of water,

H2O is the natural state of water.

No,

It could be cyanide in the water,

It could be medicine in the water,

It will acquire different quality,

But that's not intrinsically H2O.

So there's always a possibility to filter,

To purify,

To distill the water,

That possibility exists because it's not intrinsically good or bad.

So there is the potential of this pure awareness that is not tainted by attraction,

Repulsion,

Jealousy,

And so forth.

If it was such a hard core component of our mind,

And even in the deepest state of stillness,

Openness,

Pure awareness,

Without much mental construct as some meditators can achieve,

Then they will see,

Aha,

Here is the hatred there,

Now here is the obsession that's where,

Okay,

Jealousy is here,

Hiding in this corner.

When there's a great lucidity about the depth of your mind,

Then you will see it somewhere.

But when you are in this pure awareness,

It's like a blue sky.

There's no such way to hide from those things,

And clearly what is the most fundamental component of the mind is that pure cognizance,

That pure faculty of knowing that is not modified by the content.

And maybe an easy example is like a torch light or a beam of light.

It allows you to see things,

Beautiful as ugly,

But the light rays do not become dirty if they light up a heap of garbage,

They don't become expensive if they light up a diamond.

Light just reveals.

So because of that,

There's always a possibility to change the content,

Which is due to many causes and conditions,

Circumstances,

Our past dynamic history of memories and arbitrations and so forth,

But all that by nature are impermanent.

That means that we can again apply different factors,

Different mental states to gradually undo some tendencies which brings us suffering,

Thought after thought,

Emotion after emotion,

Just in the way they actually shaped and formed,

Thought after thought,

Emotion after emotion.

So that's part of the mental training.

And doesn't it take time?

Why should it not?

I mean those quick fixes,

By definition,

Can achieve much because it was so easy,

That means the change is bound to be very small.

So a real change takes time,

But it's worth.

Why not?

And it's not all or none.

It's not that suddenly,

Wow,

One morning suddenly you're completely free from all your mental poisons.

It's a gradual process,

Of course.

It's like somehow more and more freedom,

More and more clarity,

More and more inner balance,

And so forth.

So that's worth pursuing,

It seems to me.

And so both thousands of years of contemplative sort of approach and we could say science of the mind,

And more recently all the studies in neuroscience and so forth have shown that if you train in anything,

That skill can be enhanced.

And no matter what is our starting point,

It may be different from one person to the other,

We might have so different kinds of obstacles,

And we may not all become able to achieve the same kind of type of accomplishment,

But there's a considerable margin of change.

So that is possible.

So then what will be the harvest of training in inner freedom?

So first of all,

Yes,

A life that has this sense of contentment and satisfaction deep within.

Freedom comes also with some kind of resilience,

Because if you know you're not going to be completely destabilized by the ups and downs of life,

You are not so vulnerable.

It's not that you are insensitive,

But you are not so easily swayed by adverse or even favorable circumstances.

You could be swayed by success into vanity.

You could be swayed into despair by failure.

So you are not anymore so easily vulnerable to those ups and downs,

So greater freedom.

If that happens,

Then of course you will be less over-concerned by me,

Me,

Me,

Because knowing that you have the inner resources to deal with those ups and downs of life gives you the sense of confidence.

So if you are not over-procurepied,

What might happen,

Fearing everything,

Instrumentalizing others with the favor of my interest or not.

So this very narrow world of self-centeredness,

This bubble of selfishness is quite stuffy within that bubble.

So because your mind is much vaster,

Then also less sort of feeling of exacerbated self-importance,

Then you will be naturally more open and sort of sense of readiness to others,

Available,

Open to having consideration,

Being concerned by their fate.

And so that's opening the door to a much more impartial and unconditional compassion and loving kindness.

And I remember meeting an American moral philosopher,

I won't name him,

But who said that all these things about universal compassion is so silly.

He said,

It's just inconceivable.

How can you have compassion for everybody just like that?

You have to just start with your kings,

With those you are in charge of,

Of course,

It doesn't mean that.

So this weird idea has become very vague and really has no realistic value.

So I think what those people are thinking is that realistically,

They are not going to actually physically contribute to the well-being or alleviating suffering of every single sentient being on earth.

But there's something that we can do,

Because very often we don't have this openness,

Even of thinking that.

We are like a sun,

Instead of shining on everyone equally,

And what's wrong with that?

Shining on nice places,

Not so nice places,

On good people,

Wicked people,

Just shining on everyone.

Say,

No,

No,

No,

No,

I'm going to shine on these two,

My kids,

My dog,

At least I can afford that.

So what happens?

Imagine those one small dozen of rays of light from the sun.

How much heat and light even those people will get?

There's nothing,

This kind of shrunken miserable sun.

Well,

If you shine on everybody,

Then there are people who are close to you because of circumstances of life.

So they get more warm and light because they are close,

Nothing for other reasons,

But you still continue.

So there's absolutely no obstacle whatsoever to just wish may all sentient beings,

Without exception,

Find happiness and the cause of happiness.

Nothing wrong,

May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.

And you get unconditional benevolence.

At least you don't limit from the start that idea of,

No,

No,

No,

No,

I'm not going to care for those guys.

Even a bloody dictator,

What best can you wish that made the cruelty,

The indifference,

The greed,

May that be uprooted from that person's mind.

May all the condition in the world that brings about those people,

This kind of person in a society,

Be alleviated through education to whatever.

That wish you can do.

It's not condoning the bloody dictator,

Wishing him good and success.

It's not stupid compassion.

It's just,

And compassion is slightly different from moral judgment.

Of course we need definitely to have a sound ethics,

But compassion is about getting rid of any cause of suffering,

Whatever shape it takes and whatever it is.

It's like a skillful doctor,

Even he get a completely mad,

Violent patient,

He's not going to smash his brain with a big stick.

He might have to tighten up for a while,

Then he say,

No,

Okay,

Can I cure this guy?

Preventing from harming others,

Harming himself,

But then can I cure him?

Isn't it?

No hatred from the physician side.

So why can we have this physician attitude to all sentient beings?

So that's a harvest from inner freedom.

Because the lack of inner freedom is we are so biased.

We completely lack impartiality.

We only react to people according to how close to us they are,

The way they treat us in the present moment.

So we lack this spaciousness.

And there are many other aspects of inner freedom,

Also how we face death.

If we come towards the moment of death with this sense of inner freedom of a well lived life where we could flourish ourselves and the best we could to the extent of our capacity contribute to the happiness of others and alleviating the suffering of others,

Then that freedom comes with absence of fear.

Why should we have regret?

Why should we fear?

And a peaceful harmonious death can be the culminating point of a peaceful harmonious life.

So there's all kinds of beautiful harvest coming from inner freedom.

So in that sense,

It's not just like,

As you can easily see now,

It's not just like do whatever comes in your mind.

It's not just a kind of luxury or when you can afford to be having a freedom when everything goes well outside.

I remember when I was writing the book I did on happiness,

I came upon a Polish scientist study,

Happiness,

I forgot his name is one of those complicated names,

I'm dyslexic on top of it,

Something like Tarkiewicz or something.

He said it's just impossible to be happy in jail.

Just not possible.

The situation is not suitable to that.

No way.

Well no,

We're not asking people to find this fantastic place to be.

But now suppose you are there or in any other,

Whether you did something wrong or you are there because of your,

In some countries where they put you in jail because hardly anything.

I heard of Wigo who was put in jail for six months because he had WhatsApp on his telephone,

It's not allowed there.

So anyway,

There's many ways that you can deal with that.

And since you cannot choose,

It's not a sense of resignation,

It's simply what do you do?

Do you get back something of your inner sanity and somehow find some kind of balance and have a friend?

He's a Buddhist friend and in his young age he was caught of a little bit more marijuana that he should have in the United States.

That did more than he would need it for the next hour.

I mean I never tried so I'm not a.

.

.

So he ended up ten years in jail because they say you are trafficking or something like that.

Anyway,

Whatever.

Very nice man.

So he was a practitioner and even he had a visit of a teacher in the jail and he really practiced and he said there was TV going on day and night almost,

Nose everywhere,

So he found a place behind the staircase where he could sort of sit there and nobody bothered him too long.

And one day,

And also he was trying to help others in the jail,

And one day he said,

I feel so good.

He said I'm really deeply,

Profoundly and lastingly happy.

And he thought that's completely crazy.

But he said that's a fact.

So when he came out,

He then became someone who did conflict resolution,

Helping people in jail.

So again,

If you say that,

People say oh you are teaching them resignation.

Not at all.

It's completely different.

It's not passivity.

It's no matter what,

There's a space of freedom that nobody can take away and you can always be there.

So that's kind of why this inner freedom becomes resilient.

It's one of the harvests of inner freedom.

So there's many good qualities that come both for your own flourishing and because it has a tendency to manifest,

As I mentioned,

As unconditional benevolence,

Which makes you a better human being,

A better citizen,

A better whatever.

You can be in life and to contribute to a better world with more awareness.

If you are not caught into lack of freedom because of immediate greed or something,

It will be more consideration for the fate of future generation,

Which takes a kind of leap because it's not just emotional,

It's not immediate.

So that space of being able to embrace future generation,

To embrace all the other species comes from inner freedom.

Lack of freedom is sort of shrinking your inner space.

So I think it's a very profound concept.

It's not an invention at all.

In Buddhism,

Some people describe enlightenment as ultimate freedom from ignorance,

From all those mental toxins,

From all the veils that obscure your faculty of discernment and so forth and therefore leads you to perpetuate suffering endlessly.

So it's just another way to reflect on what has been your reflection in action for happiness or whatever else you do,

How to drive yourself and also contribute together to a better society.

And especially these days,

We certainly need all these to address the major challenge,

Of course,

Of our time,

Which is the change of the environment that will affect the quality of life and bring so much suffering to so many on this planet.

So more than any time we need this inner freedom not to be completely the slave of our narrow,

Short-sighted and short-term maximization of personal interest.

So that needs to achieve some level of freedom from that.

So anyway,

Since I have to say something,

I didn't know,

So I thought I was sharing a few thoughts.

And thank you so much.

And I think Mark will join me for having a small dialogue.

So you can.

.

.

So thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Mathieu,

Thank you so much.

Mathieu has obviously very willing to take questions from the audience and has also kindly offered to lead us in a sort of meditation exercise,

Which I think we'll do at the very end of the evening.

I suspect you may also want to say a few words about the wonderful work of.

.

.

Oh,

Yes.

.

.

.

The community session as well at the end.

So whenever is best for.

.

.

Well,

Now it's time that I might forget.

Great.

So anyway,

Thank you for being here because besides participating in the beautiful work of Action for Happiness,

And I was one of those who was present when the whole idea was really sort of steamed in the wish out and mind,

And then all of you joined.

Yes,

So this evening is also dedicated to that,

But also to serving the humanitarian projects.

And we started 20 years ago now with a few friends going to Eastern Tibet with two big suitcase filled with bank notes.

It was the only way to bring money there because they are only small denominations,

And trying to build some clinics and schools.

And that was really like the far west,

Sort of the heroic time of doing this kind of work.

Now we've got much more organized.

And as to last year,

We benefited 380,

000 people in India.

Now our main operation now in Northern India,

In Jharkhand and Bihar,

Two very impoverished states,

In Nepal,

And also we still of course work in Tibet,

But more discreetly.

So it's no more in our reports,

Our website,

Because not to endanger our collaborators there.

So it's in the field of health and education and social welfare.

So we do things like women literacy.

We train village women to become solar engineers.

We have a preschool program where in India,

In the countryside,

The kids are parked in a room and they're bored all day and they cry,

They fight,

And the teacher don't know what to do.

No,

It's true.

Sounds like my house.

And then we introduce cooperative play.

So they build things with things and they have to do it together.

And it's amazing.

They are so happy all day long and it's completely changed things,

So we have about 70 of those schools.

So anyway,

We do all kinds of things.

We have an electric rickshaw driven by women in Bihar.

It's so successful that the chief minister came and he's posed in front of it and this is a program from the chief minister.

Anyway,

Someone gets the praise.

So we,

And in Nepal,

We work so hard after the earthquake 2015.

There's still repercussions now in the communities.

We managed to help 200,

000 people in 600 villages in three months.

So all kinds of things we do and we have a wonderful team.

Some are volunteers.

Now we have a few people that are full time.

And so it's a great work.

And as I'm getting old,

I'm looking for a smooth transition,

But my only heart wish is that this good work may continue.

And so,

Yes,

So that's what we do.

So,

Mathieu,

We'll send around a link to the wonderful work in the follow up email that everyone receives tomorrow so they'll have a chance to find out more about that.

Before we turn to the audience for questions,

I wanted to just ask you a few things that I've been longing to ask you and I hope are of real relevance for the audience.

And you can also change subject,

Huh?

Well,

I think we will naturally drift beyond,

But I actually think your theme of Inner Free Freedom is so important and relevant.

And my question is really one was about our inner lives,

One was about our sort of interaction in the world around us,

And then one perhaps a bit more looking at the bigger picture.

And on our sort of inner lives,

I think I would hope that almost all of us in this room when we hear what you said this evening would long to be able to have a greater sense of inner freedom and also a greater sense of benevolence and compassion for others.

And yet it struck me as you talked about this cultivation that really in many ways this is about habit formation because really what we're doing with Action for Happiness is trying to help people change their habits both inner and outer.

And yet behavior change is really hard.

So I wondered if you had any tips really for all of us,

Perhaps those of us that are much earlier on our journey to enlightenment than you are yourself,

How do we build this into our busy lives?

How do we begin that journey of contemplation when there's so much distraction?

And actually that beginning of habit formation is almost harder than when you've been doing it for many years.

Do you have any advice?

Yes.

So the word tips,

You know,

Are a bit suspicious.

I remember I went to all those incredible things you can't believe.

There was a conclave of India Today,

Which is a very nice weekly in India.

They do a lot of good work.

So the lady asked me,

Can you give us the five,

The five,

The secret of happiness in five points and three weeks?

I said,

Well,

There's no secret.

And second is not easy.

And there's no five points.

So she was a bit despondent.

I said,

If it was too easy,

That again is suspicious.

I mean,

It's superficial change.

It's cosmetic.

It's not going to.

So it's practice,

Practice,

Practice.

So people don't like that.

They don't like.

But really,

The question is how to begin the practice.

So then another very nice phrase is from the Buddhist teaching is there is no difficult task that cannot be broken into many small,

Easy tasks.

That's what meditation is about.

So if you say,

OK,

I'm sitting.

I'm starting meditation.

I really want to do it.

I'll start for eight hours.

Sit like that.

Don't move.

Well,

Let's see.

And what kind of change are you going to achieve?

Maybe a lot of things might happen that will teach you something.

But basically,

That's not how things change.

Its continuity is many times even short.

So there's a trickle of water becomes a stream.

And that change happens.

And that will happen.

And then science will tell you that's how it happens in the brain.

It's regular repetition of even small moment,

But with continuity.

Rather than from time to time,

A huge effort.

You can't.

Even for the marathon,

You first run small distances again and again.

And then you increase.

And not just going to swallow something and try to run a marathon from the start.

You never get anywhere.

So yes,

It is starting with things which are easy.

Like if you want to learn sailing,

And I was born in a sailor's family,

You start with the fine weather and a light breeze.

You don't start by a force eight storm.

Problem.

So then when you become more and more experienced,

My mother's brother,

After the Second World War,

He did three years around the world on a sailboat without engine.

Very quiet around the world,

Solo navigation.

One of the,

He was one of the pioneers.

Everything went well because he was born in that and became skilled and it became something that he knew how to do.

So yes,

So in the beginning,

It's very well known that everyone who starts meditation said,

Well,

That's not for me because I tried and had so many more tools than usual.

Come on.

It's not that at all.

It's simply you become aware of what's going on,

The catastrophe that's taking place in your mind for the first time you start looking at the whole noise that's going on.

Otherwise,

It's like a background noise that's so much all the time there that you don't even pay attention to it.

So it's just normal that when you look at it,

It looks like a waterfall.

Not one place is sitting still.

Okay,

That's no problem.

And water can become more quiet,

Like a mountain stream and then like a flowing river.

And even then,

The problem is not if you think I'm going to fight the thoughts and it's hopeless.

How can you stop a thought that's already there?

Can you tell me?

This idea of stopping thoughts is just nonsense.

So the point is not to,

Is to gain more awareness.

No matter how many birds pass,

You don't lose sight of the sky.

And that's awareness.

So if you become more familiar,

Slowly with what is there behind the screen of thoughts.

So I have one of my teachers,

Mingyur Moshay,

Who some of you might know,

He has beautiful books.

Recently,

One is called In Love with the World.

It's about when he left four years without money wandering in India and the Himalayas.

He says that whether your meditation is dull,

Whether it's very beautiful and blissful,

Whether there's a lot of thoughts or no thoughts,

The moment you preserve the sense of awareness,

Then you are not distracted.

So you are not carried by the river.

You are sitting and watching the river.

So if the river is turbulent,

You still watch it.

If it's calm,

You watch it.

So this comes with familiarization.

So it means that you start.

There's no mystery in meditation.

There's no secret.

You just need to start and do it a little more.

And like playing a music instrument,

Slowly,

Slowly it comes.

And that's it.

So there's no secret.

It's not easy in the sense that it just doesn't come like that.

But it will.

And so what's wrong with practicing?

Nobody went against having to learn and read and write.

No,

No,

No more.

Finish.

We don't want to go through that,

Put the chips or something.

We might come there,

But.

.

.

It's fundamental.

Yes.

These days,

There's something we taught with our two friends.

There is a kind of looking down the notion of effort.

People who really make effort.

This guy,

He's making effort everywhere.

It should be easy.

Everything is easy.

We make it easy for you.

Happiness is so easy.

Now we go to a kind of perpetual spa.

Life will be a big spa.

We make it for you.

It will be custom made just for you.

Now there's a brand which under Coca-Cola,

They have athletes all over the world,

Especially in India,

They have at least 700 brand of water,

H2O.

And one of them I saw is this one is especially for you.

Okay,

Plenty of those things.

I was going to say what you're really reminding us is this is a fundamental life skill,

Which is why the work that so many people are doing to help children develop this from an early age,

This mindful awareness,

It's a bedrock for living better.

And it brings me on to,

Well in fact I'm reminded of a quote that I very often use,

Which is something I think you wrote in that wonderful book on happiness.

And you said something along the lines of happiness is not just a fleeting emotion,

It's an optimal state of being.

And I think as always when I listen to you,

Matthew,

I'm struck by the foundation for that optimal state of being is the mindful awareness.

But I would love,

And I suspect others might love to hear what that also means for you personally in the way you interact with the world.

Because of course you spend a lot of time in contemplation,

But I'm sure this has rippled effects for your relationships,

The way you spend your time when you're not in contemplation for example.

Could you say a bit about what your being is like,

What your action for happiness is like when you live in a way that sort of builds on that groundwork?

What do you find yourself doing and what have you seen in others,

The habits in terms of how we interact and what we choose to spend our time on?

What I mean is always difficult to speak about yourself,

But yeah,

Well I could certainly experience contrast.

I remember once I really wanted to stay as long as possible in my hermitage in Nepal and I accepted to go to the World Economic Forum where I also saw Richard.

So I went straight from my hermitage to the airport and next day I was in the World Economic Forum.

I've never seen such a contrast.

I mean the complete difference of feelings,

Situation,

Atmosphere and business,

Intensity.

So in a way if you could only maintain your inner balance just when everything is ideal and then you will be completely unsettled the moment things become different or challenging and so forth,

That's of course a complete failure.

And there's a Tibetan saying that it's easy to be a good meditator sitting outside in the sun with a full belly,

But when you're put on the scales,

I mean facing challenging times,

Then that's why you see the meditator,

How that person reacts,

What is the level of inner space and freedom precisely that translate into resilience.

So ideally,

And that's the ideal that any,

At least Buddhist contemplative pursues,

Is that at some point there will be a seamless continuity between so-called meditation and non-meditation or post-meditation.

And that has to do not with being hyper-tense,

Attentive every step you take.

It's more somehow resting in that inner space of freedom,

Of awareness that's always there.

So if you don't lose sight of that,

If you don't lose sight of the blue sky no matter what is one bird or thousand birds or many clouds,

Then you are much less likely to be swayed by difficult circumstances or challenging circumstances or very different circumstances.

Now when it comes to make life choice,

Where should I spend most of my time,

What is the activity that I want to devote myself most of the time,

There you should exercise discernment and judgment.

I mean,

I guess I could survive in Wall Street for a certain time by keeping my awareness,

But I will not deliberately choose to set my amitage right in the middle of the stock market.

It's a better place to be,

That's all.

So,

Yes,

So you should be able to keep that,

At least something that's always there at any time and circumstances.

This being said,

You'll also be wise in choosing the right friends that again are companions on the path rather than distracting you or pulling you down and circumstances that will favor this continuing on your path rather than distracting you or just pulling you back.

But this being said,

You should also be able to navigate in stormy weather,

Otherwise it's kind of useless.

Now,

I remember once I was in Bhutan and I was taking someone,

A few people to a place called the Tiger Nest.

It's a beautiful temple,

Amitage,

On a cliff that's sheer cliff of 900 meters and it's at 3,

000 meters of altitude.

So this is a quite extraordinary place in Bhutan.

So we came with this group of French people who were visiting and in one of the small chapel of whom there's few places,

There was a person,

Deep meditation.

And people say,

Oh,

Don't make noise,

He's meditating.

I say,

If he's a good meditator,

What's the problem,

You know?

Mathieu,

One of the criticisms,

I think,

Of the mindfulness movement often from people outside it is that somehow finding our inner peace is almost an excuse to ignore the problems in the world and I think it's a fairly weak critique.

But there is a sense from some quarters that mindfulness might be sort of allowing a broken system to continue.

You know,

We need to change our aspects of our capitalistic model.

We need to make change happen.

Of course,

We're all frightened,

I think,

By trends in modern society,

The rise of a sort of populism which seems to be fueling this fear of the other,

This us versus them narrative that is at the heart of lots of the current challenges.

Now you've already shown,

I think,

In your work and your amazing humanitarian efforts that your cultivation of inner freedom has led to much altruistic behavior.

But for all of us really that are worried about the world around us,

Yes,

We can work on our inner freedom and our peace of mind,

Our happiness.

How do we then use that as a springboard to have a positive influence in a world that sometimes feels like it's heading in the wrong direction and is really quite frightening in many ways?

Well,

Before going to the bigger picture that you brought,

I'll just say about the very notion which I was asked often,

Often once I remember here on BBC Radio,

Isn't it selfish to just be in your hermitage and you could do something good to society?

Well,

It depends what you do.

If you're just there just to take it easy,

Escape from tax and family duties and all that,

Maybe it's like taking it easy.

But really,

If we think,

Let's take the example of the humanitarian world before coming to populism and all that.

I've seen myself now for 20 years and I have friends here who have been working many,

Many years in the humanitarian world.

The grains of sand that sometimes put a halt to a very virtuous endeavor to bring good is usually due to human shortcomings.

It's not that there is no resources to do it or nothing to do,

There's plenty of things to do to improve the quality of life of others.

Can be corruption in the worst case,

But could be also conflict of egos.

Angio collapsed more often from within than from the outside.

So all those are due to the fact that somehow people didn't bring enough to the optimal point,

Those qualities of resilience,

Of dedication,

Of less being upset by anything people might say.

I remember once we were in Bihar,

The very beginning,

We were helping in the countryside and people there have been exploited by landlords for generations and generations and generations.

So whenever people come to do something for them,

They are very suspicious.

So they all thought that we are filling our pockets with money from abroad and doing a few things to just pretend.

And so they were not very welcoming in the beginning.

So to the extent that we are the mobile clinic and once we were coming to a village and we used to come every 15 days,

Our sort of van got stuck in the river.

So we were going to help the village and we called for help and they said,

Well,

You have to give us money to take you out of the river.

We're just coming for helping you.

We said,

Well,

Never mind.

First give the money and then we'll see.

So one of my friends said we have to be real bodhisattvas,

To help them against their,

So now we win their confidence and all that.

So I think not to be affected by that and also not the idea that we come here to say have a health program or build a school,

Not to make everyone perfect on the way.

That's not our job.

That's the British job or someone else.

So that kind of,

All those qualities can be cultivated through spending time in a heritage.

It's like building a hospital.

All the plumbery,

The cement work for two or three years don't cure anybody.

You could say,

Well,

Just go and operate in the street because we have immediate needs.

But once it's done,

It's so much more powerful.

So it's same with culture change and populism and all what's happening in many quarters of the places in the world.

It's a question of do we have a more individualistic,

Sometimes narcissistic,

The epidemic of narcissism in the state has been well documented by psychology.

It's a fact.

So now how does culture change?

Well first of all,

There are some ideas that come in people's mind.

We should say,

Let's say we should try to transform ourselves and genuinely become more compassionate.

Now what happens when those ideas gain momentum?

At some point,

They get a critical mass.

And then it doesn't have to be the full majority.

When it's a coherent idea that makes sense,

That is ethically sound,

At some point we can see the change that's happening now towards the environment.

I mean,

Still a lot to do.

But the change from 30 years ago is tremendous.

I mean,

I remember when I was a teenager,

I was a bird watcher.

And when Rachel Carson's book,

Silent Spring came out,

There was a few bunch of so-called nature lovers who cared,

But nobody really cared at all.

Now it's at the forefront of,

Even the politicians don't know how to handle that,

Like a hot spot,

A burning pot they don't know how to handle.

But still it's at the forefront of conversation.

And I may be wrong,

And if I'm wrong in history,

You will correct me,

But I think in the late 1700s,

In the late 18th century,

When the slavery was abolished here,

There was a few respectable people who proposed the idea of abolishing slavery and they took it to the House of Commons,

Easier to say in France because nobody can check whether I'm right or not.

But something like that,

1780,

And they thought they were just lunatics.

And they were told,

You know,

The British Empire going to collapse.

I mean,

All our trade is going to collapse.

There's no way.

And then that idea,

Because of the strength of its validity,

Moral validity,

I think 15 years later,

Slavery was abolished.

So he did a tip over.

And I think for the environment,

I read a very interesting study,

Which I mentioned in the Altrezian book,

About are you ready to do something for the environment?

So 20% people say yes,

No matter what,

I'm going to change,

No to do whatever needed in my house or in my way of living.

20% say I don't care,

I'm done.

Includes a few presidents.

Whatever happened,

I don't care,

It's not my job.

So anyway,

60% said I will do something if others do it.

So those,

Of course,

Those are the ones you need to nudge.

And that's what cultural change come about.

So I think we should not underestimate the power of ideas and also realize that all together,

I mean,

Despite those hiccups of civilization that we are seeing now,

Here and there,

Quite a few actually,

But still,

All together,

If you read Steven Pinker's book on decline of violence,

There's so many things.

The decline of global poverty in the world halved in 20 years,

Thanks to the Millennium Plan of the UN.

Enormous change.

Maybe by 2030,

There will be almost every child will have access to education.

I mean,

Those things are progressing in a big way.

So there are things which are progressing despite those.

So there are contrary forces,

Hyper individualism,

Complete selfishness,

No regard for telling the truth or not.

I mean,

We see that.

I mean,

It's appalling.

But at the same time,

There are few under encouraging signs.

So who is going to win?

I don't know.

There's one concept which I like personally.

It's the banality of goodness.

And maybe I mentioned that last time,

I forgot.

Is the fact that most of the time,

Most of 7 billion human beings behave decently to each other.

And that's also why we are so shocked and we speak so much about the deviance.

If it was normal that people sort of keep on killing each other,

Cheat each other,

Lie to each other,

Nobody would be surprised.

We won't find that shocking.

We say,

Well,

That's normal.

So we don't speak about the fact that we do most of the time behave decently.

That's also the silent goodness is because they say,

Of course,

That's how we should be as a regularly good basic human being.

So there are encouraging signs.

There are times in history where things happen.

Education,

Of course,

Play a major,

Major,

Major role.

And I think education is never neutral when you say,

Oh,

We should not introduce ethics in education.

Ooh,

Hot topic.

Because what kind of ethics?

I was telling Lord Lyall when we had a bite before,

Before coming here,

That when I was at the last time,

My last time at Davos Economic Forum,

There was a survey done with all over the world with young people between 15 and I think 25 or plus age through Facebook,

All over the world.

Do you think there are universal values by,

Yeah,

That's what the question.

I was amazed that 60% said no.

So I thought about that.

I thought,

Well,

I guess a young Pakistani would say,

Oh,

Universal values means you are going to bring Western values.

A young Chinese might say,

Oh,

You are going to bring that stuff with human rights,

Maybe.

So maybe the question was not rightly asked.

If you ask,

Do you think that honesty is universal value?

That to be benevolent is universal value.

To be honest is universal value.

To be someone reliable is universal value.

To be able to show friendship,

Care,

I think most people would say,

Of course,

Yes.

So there are,

I think,

Somehow this kind of sanity that we can relate to.

Now again,

There are a lot of adversary forces.

If the environmental crisis becomes so bad that we end up with 250 million climate refugees and all that,

There will be a lot of conflicts.

There will be a lot of misery.

So yes,

We have a lot of turning points in our society,

Civilization.

They could go many ways.

And I'm getting old.

And often when this kind of question is asked to my spiritual guide,

The Dalai Lama,

He says,

Well,

It's not my business.

It's your business,

He tells to young people.

But I really sincerely pray from the depth of my heart that the evolution of culture will lead to a more cooperative and compassionate society.

Let's hope so.

Thank you so much.

Now I'd love to leave time for the meditation you kindly offered to do,

But I'd love to hear some brief questions from the audience.

We've got microphones.

If anyone did want to ask Matthew something.

Adam,

There's a gentleman with his hand up just behind you,

Actually.

Do you want to go back?

Oh,

OK.

You've got one there.

Great.

Thank you.

Oh,

Sorry.

You just missed your chance.

Thank you.

You have compared at the beginning the toads to birds,

Some other compared to clouds,

White clouds,

Dark clouds.

And several spiritual traditions speak about enlightenment,

Not only the Buddhists.

Can we compare the enlightened state to actually the only source of light in this universe,

Which are the stars?

So if we want to be center stable,

If we want to keep our happiness,

Our well-being,

Our awareness,

Can we say as a comparison that no matter how many birds,

How many clouds,

No matter about the day and the night and all these things,

If we keep our focus on the actual sun,

Our inner sun,

Then we can actually reach that goal and enjoy that state of being.

I'm sorry,

But all this doesn't help hearing.

I got some of it.

OK.

Shall I speak louder?

Let me try and paraphrase.

Thank you for the question.

But I think it was.

.

.

I apologize,

But.

.

.

No,

No.

It's OK.

It's one of the reasons not to do conferences anymore.

Depending on lots of what you said,

Really,

But actually I think the question was,

Can we think of enlightenment a bit like the source of light that comes from a star that is there regardless of whatever changes around it?

And I think in many ways that's reinforcing much of what you said.

But how do we see that that sort of inner light or that light within us can help us see through all the changes,

The number of clouds or whatever?

I'm not sure I thought completely sure about the question,

But I will try my best to give an answer.

And it reminds me when a Canadian friend who told me a philosopher is somebody when he gives you the answer,

You don't understand your question anymore.

So I won't be the case.

So anyway,

I will try with this.

I heard the clouds and the sky and enlightenment,

So I'll try to make up something out of that.

Whatever it is.

So we said that experiences which you might get not only in life,

But in your practice,

Spiritual practice and meditation,

And if you speak of enlightenment,

You mean within the spiritual path and not the age of enlightenment.

Experiences happen.

Of course,

Sometimes you feel great bliss or sense of clarity or wow,

Not so many thoughts,

Amazing.

But they are transient.

They are like mist,

We say.

They come in the morning and then disappear.

And if you cling to those,

Then you sort of again sort of fall into,

You go astray into deviation into wanting that again and then feeling upset it doesn't come.

So it doesn't help.

We said that the more you become naturally aware of this basic awareness,

If we could say,

It's more like an unchanging space that's always there,

No matter if there's clouds,

No clouds,

Sky doesn't change,

Space doesn't change,

The sun always shining even you cross the,

It seems that the cloud is there for 100 years,

It's just crossed with an aeroplane within 10 minutes,

The blue sky and the shining sun.

So something unchanging and the reason that when you have some kind of whatever you call that enlightenment or inner freedom in the perfect sense,

It's unchanging because in the midst of the sun there's no trace of darkness.

I mean everything is clear.

You have to know all how those thoughts come and go.

They are familiar with their tricks and patterns.

It's like you get vaccination,

You get once some of the sickness we get when we are kids,

We get them once,

You don't get them twice.

So once you are cured from that,

You're sort of immune.

So there's something like that.

It's an unchanging inner freedom that goes with unchanging sort of wisdom and awareness.

So of course in my mouth it's just blah blah,

But at least that's how it's explained.

It's going from something that is transient to something that is much more stable.

So there's a great hermit called Milarepa.

He lived in the 12th century and he spent many years meditating in caves and he said something that is quite encouraging I find.

He said in the beginning nothing comes and that's when we say we have so many thoughts and blah blah blah.

In the middle nothing stays because things are so and in the end nothing goes.

So that's I think the sign of accomplishment and flourishing.

So getting to inner freedom.

Thank you.

Very wise.

Let's take one from this side of the room.

Thank you.

Lady here,

Halfway down.

Thank you very much for a very inspiring talk about inner freedom.

My question was also building on something you've already said about finding that balance between working on our minds to put ourselves in conditions on retreat or meditating or for you and your hermitage to work on our minds and then being out in the world and altruism.

And I appreciate it's more of an art than a science,

But I wonder what's your rule of thumb?

How do you negotiate the tension between working on our minds and being out there in the world and sharing the fruit of practice?

Well ideally it should not be a tension,

It should be a synergy.

There's no reason why it should be a tension.

It's only a tension if you again go into spiritual practice as going to a spa.

In the winter you go to a Turkish bath,

Very hot,

Wonderful.

Then you go out and it gets cold.

So if it is really a process,

Every time you do spend time whether it's on your cushion for 20 minutes,

Whether you do that through walking to a park or walking to your place where you work,

I mean some time where your focus is on this inner process of familiarisation and cultivation or taking some time,

A week or more,

Whatever,

You can afford to go to a place where you actually full time do that for a while and then that gives you increasingly more facility and ease into doing everything else.

So that should be the criteria of that thing being somehow useful and working properly.

Again if the contrast was such that it's such a shock each time you come out and you can't stand that and you're completely destabilised and you've seen like completely two different worlds,

Even the outer conditions are very different but it's something that is a trickle of water that goes on from one to the other,

Then every time you spend some time dedicating to this process of change you will get stronger,

Freer,

More resilient and more able to achieve in a harmonious way what you are trying to do.

So it will all work in favour of it.

I mean people spend so much time doing professional training,

I mean all kinds of things which is to do better what they do.

So even in our physical fitness everybody agrees that we should do a certain amount of exercise every week,

So why not?

It's mental hygiene or something to do something with our mind that's actually sometimes giving us more trouble than our body sometimes.

So I think there should not be a conflict but I think personally I find it's quite good from time to time to take some days,

Weeks or whatever,

Years or months,

Not promise.

I spent five years in solitary retreat I don't regret one instant.

So the reason is like that,

Even it's one week if you know that the whole day is going to be dedicated to that it's quite different.

Even the same say hour,

Say from let's forget about getting up at three in the morning and all this stuff,

Let's be reasonable.

Six to seven,

Okay you do one hour of meditation and then you go in the tube and all that.

So I notice when I do that in the monastery and I know I have some work,

We have a lot of the projects,

We have archives,

So I'm quite busy when I'm down in the monastery.

So that one hour is the same hour from six to seven,

Nothing happens,

Very quiet,

Nobody comes to disturb me.

But it's not the same when I do the same six to seven in my hermitage,

Crossing the Himalayas,

Knowing that I have a whole day in front of me.

So there's a sense of starting something that is continuous.

So in that sense I think to take some time off,

People go for holiday after all.

So why not giving us a holiday for somehow achieving something that has lasting effects.

So I found myself,

Since you won't ask me about my own personal feeling,

I found extremely useful to have those completely quiet time.

I remember the last time I was able to spend almost a year in my hermitage non-stop,

I felt at the beginning like I was a peasant that is given a beautiful fertile field to cultivate.

Wow,

I have nine months ahead of me.

Not a wonder,

And not a single moment I felt bored.

Everyone was so precious and actually near the end I said,

Oh la la,

I have to come down.

And then I was getting those messages,

The clinic has only two months funds to run.

And here I was there eating some dal bhat and I feel almost guilty.

I thought I cannot feel like that.

I know I can have a life and it's giving me more strength to continue this work.

So you should not think that it's a kind of selfish luxury.

I think it's so formative and it gives you so much strength then to engage in the world.

So anyway,

That's my little recipe for whatever it's worth.

Thank you for all those answers and I'd love to take you up on your kind offer of leading us all in a moment of putting this into a bit of contemplative practice if you'd be willing.

However,

It feels natural to you.

It's funny how when you say that everybody starts.

What's wrong?

I do that too it seems.

That means one thing,

That we do feel that if somehow the body is balanced,

The mind is going to be more balanced.

Right?

We should be straight.

Sleeping meditation,

Why not?

So yes,

So you know the mindfulness movement has been phenomenal.

I mean I was one of the last thing,

I'm trying to do less stuff,

But last year I went for one of the last big symposium of contemplative science by mind and life.

There was a thousand researcher in Phoenix,

Arizona.

Thousand researcher,

Not just like spooky lunis type.

Really good ones.

It was so encouraging.

And John Kabat-Zinn did a review of 30 years of mindfulness.

It was so amazing.

He said in China there are thousands of people doing that in hospitals and all that.

So it was amazing.

And that's the only way to do it in a secular way,

In hospital,

In schools,

In business.

So no qualms about that.

This being said,

Of course,

Nobody pretends the whole of Buddhism.

It's not.

It's not even Buddhism.

It's just a tool taken from Buddhism.

So now I think if we could,

If we have interest,

Add some kind of dimension to it by having a motivation,

An altruistic motivation.

And very strongly at the start,

You know,

I'm doing this in order to become a better human being so I can better be at the service of others.

And in fact,

You know,

People speak enlightenment,

Enlightenment,

Buddhahood.

In the great vehicle,

We are not trying to become a Buddha for the sake of becoming Buddha.

This clearly said is for the sake of having the infinite capacity to help sentient beings.

That's the goal.

Not just to sit in nirvana.

Wow.

No problem anymore.

So yes,

To cultivate this very powerful aspiration that through whatever meditation techniques we'll do is to become a better human being,

Of course to flourish ourselves,

But also to contribute something to removing the suffering of others.

And we should have also some kind of a kind of view that is a little bit bigger than just being mindful of the present moment.

But things are not just as,

And that has to do with inner freedom.

Things are not as solid as they seem.

Now when we say this is beautiful,

This is ugly,

This is a friend,

This is an enemy,

We just superimpose those beauty,

Ugliness,

Whatever,

Good,

Bad,

As if they were intrinsic quality,

Belonging to that object,

Though it's all superimposition from our mind.

So we reify so much the outer world,

What is transient,

Impermanent,

Interdependent,

Actually is devoid of intrinsic autonomous existence.

So to see things as not as solid as they seem is also an important part,

But usually we don't cultivate so much in the regular mindfulness training.

So I'm not inventing any of those things,

But I heard one of my teachers saying those two points are very important,

The motivation and the view.

So I would suggest in the few moments we are together to first generate this motivation.

Whatever we do,

First for five minutes,

May that be dedicated so that I make my human quality bloom,

So that I become better human beings and that's translated somehow into a better world,

Not just feeling good.

Okay,

We'll just try that.

And then,

Yes,

We need some attention,

We need to be mindful,

So that's as you,

Many of you I guess might be,

Have tried meditation,

We take a support to rest our attention upon,

It could be an outer object,

Very often we use the coming and going of the breath,

Because it's not very obvious,

You can see it,

It's not like a flashing red light that even you completely distracted you still see it,

If you are distracted it's gone.

So let's for a moment try to follow the coming and going of the breath,

Simply just paying attention.

And then let's move to caring mindfulness,

That means yes,

Try to generate loving kindness,

While you do that,

Remember the example of sailing with a nice weather,

With a light breeze to begin with,

So first generate unconditional love for someone who is very dear to you,

Towards whom there's no,

With any hindrance to feel unconditional love,

May this child,

May this dear person,

Whoever it is in your life,

May that person find happiness,

Be spared suffering,

Flourish in life and so forth,

Just wish nothing but good to that person,

Let it fill your mental landscape,

If it declines,

Revive it,

If you are distracted,

Come back to it.

Then try to extend that.

Remember the Sun,

Not just this few sort of narrow Sun beams,

To all sentient beings.

Strangers,

Those who don't like particularly,

Those who might harm others.

Let them be free from what caused them to be harming others.

We can wish that,

Of course.

So let's extend this Sun of benevolence so that it embraces all sentient beings who deep within rather not suffer and find happiness.

That's the deepest aspiration any sentient being have at the very bottom of everything.

And when that unconditional loving-kindness meets with suffering,

It just becomes compassion.

May sentient beings be free from suffering and the cause of suffering.

And if you start feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of suffering in the world,

You may sometimes shift to celebrating the qualities of others,

Rejoicing in the achievement.

Whatever positive things they might have done,

Intellectual ideas they might have contributed,

Discoveries they might have made that improved the fate of humanity,

Rejoice.

It's a very unselfish attitude to rejoice.

Nobody is going to blame you if you don't rejoice.

Nobody is going to praise you if you rejoice.

From the depth of your heart,

Rejoice in,

I don't know,

Mahatma Gandhi's work,

The Sun Mandela's work,

The Dalai Lama's work,

Unsung heroes of compassion work that do wonderful things in society.

Just rejoice.

Intellectuals who have brought change of ideas for a better world,

Rejoice from the depth of your heart.

May those continue and increase further.

And then finally,

Always remember this idea of impartiality.

We gave the example of the Sun.

So those wonderful sort of states of mind,

Loving-kindness,

Compassion,

Only work if they are not partial.

Otherwise,

It's like again falling in the same sort of divisions,

Fragmentation.

That's what gives rise,

Of course,

To intolerance,

Populism and all that.

So let's try to genuinely,

There's nothing wrong in wishing everybody happiness and freedom from suffering.

Why should we not wish that to anyone?

Why should we say,

There's dozens of bad guys?

It doesn't work.

Don't spoil it by being partial.

So remember the beginning,

We try to generate a motivation.

Then we try to practice.

And I'm sorry,

But what can you do in five minutes?

And then at the end,

You have to put some kind of seal.

And the seal is the complement of the motivation,

Which is some kind of dedication.

May through what I have done,

We have done together tonight,

May that serve to something that will continue,

That will be nurtured,

That will have its own momentum to make an increased good in my own transformation,

In transformation of society,

In transformation towards a better world.

So dedicate what we have done so that it may continue to have positive effects.

So that's quite important.

It sort of puts a momentum in motion.

So thank you.

So normally meditation is about silence,

But if I don't say anything,

Then you might be upset.

But frankly,

Again,

It's doing the same thing over a slightly more extended period of time.

Mathieu,

Thank you so much.

I do have a couple of final announcements,

But I'd really just like to invite everyone to be saying a huge thank you to you for your time this evening.

Reviews

Very interesting and informative. Sadhu sadhu sadhu. ☺️🙏

Excellent talk

BEST TALK EVER!! Well worth the time to listen all the way through!! How to practice on and off the cushion, in quiet or not, in equanimity, "no matter if one bird flies across the blue sky or twenty, rouse these tools to reduce suffering of all sentient beings. Dedicate the merits of our practice to helpfulness, compassion, benevolent action. To become better human beings to help other beings. Thank goodness I found this talk! It will surely help listeners and practitioners to contribute to a better world in the micro and macrocosm!

At the beginning of listening to this talk, I thought, maybe I'll do it in a couple of sittings. I found it utterly enthralling. The wisdom, kindness and sense of joy just radiates from him

Excellent and requires full attention which I didn’t give as I nodded off which was a good thing as I needed more sleep. Will return and listen again. Crazy dreams, all sorts going on. Hospitality galore. There is a lot to learn in this talk by the wise and venerable Mattieu. Thank you 🙏🏼

So inspiring and practical! Thank you 🙏

Love the honest sincerity of this discussion, mixed with touches of humor. Blessings 🙏☯️

So much wisdom. Such an incredible blessing and challenge to my own humanity. I have much more to learn. Thank you, Matthieu Ricard. Linda

Good to the last second 🙏🏼❤️🔥💖💯✅

Wonderful words to live by

Beautiful and especially timely 🙏🏻

Tells it like it is !!
No FLUFF..
No Phoo Phoo !! 💪🏼🙏🏽💪🏾

Vast, yet put eloquently into words in an easy-to-understand manner

Cohérent and well-spoken, in awe of the wisdom and practice of the great masters

Witty and with humour