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Books Authored by Matthieu Ricard | Scribd

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Matthieu Ricard (Author of Happiness) | Goodreads

Matthieu Ricard (Author of Happiness) | Goodreads




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Matthieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk, trained as a molecular biologist before moving to Nepal to study Buddhism. He is the author of The Monk and the Philosopher (with his father, Jean-François Revel); The Quantum and the Lotus (with Trinh Thuan); Happiness; The Art of Meditation; Altruism: The Power of Compassion; A Plea for the Animals; and Beyond the Self: Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience (with Wolf Singer). He has published several books of photography, including Motionless Journey and Tibet: An Inner Journey, and is the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama.


39 postsMATTHIEU RICARD'S BLOG
Matthieu Ricard isn't a Goodreads Author (yet), but they do have a blog, so here are some recent posts imported from their feed.

Good and Bad Self-Esteem 2


The positive aspects of having a healthy sense of self-esteem have been explained and proven in depth by the French psychiatrist Christophe André in two of his books.




According to my good friend Christophe, self-esteem “when all is said and done, is what can enable us to make the best of what we are in the present moment, depending on our environment.” Positive self-esteem facilitates resilience aRead more of this blog post »
View more on Matthieu Ricard's website »
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Published on April 25, 2013 01:50
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Combine EditionsMATTHIEU RICARD’S BOOKS
Average rating: 4.11 · 17,377 ratings · 1,399 reviews · 225 distinct works • Similar authors

Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
by
Matthieu Ricard,
Daniel Goleman (Goodreads Author) (Foreword)

4.07 avg rating — 7,087 ratings — published 2003 — 73 editions
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Why Meditate: Working with Thoughts and Emotions
by
Matthieu Ricard

3.99 avg rating — 1,831 ratings — published 2008 — 58 editions
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The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet
by
Matthieu Ricard,
Trịnh Xuân Thuận

4.15 avg rating — 1,734 ratings — published 2000 — 33 editions
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Altruism: The Power of Compassion to Change Yourself and the World
by
Matthieu Ricard

4.23 avg rating — 844 ratings — published 2013 — 31 editions
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A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion
by
Matthieu Ricard

4.40 avg rating — 582 ratings — published 2014 — 6 editions
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On the Path to Enlightenment: Heart Advice from the Great Tibetan Masters
by
Matthieu Ricard

3.99 avg rating — 299 ratings — published 2010 — 10 editions
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Beyond the Self: Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience
by
Matthieu Ricard,
Wolf Singer

4.14 avg rating — 217 ratings — 15 editions
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Enlightened Vagabond: The Life and Teachings of Patrul Rinpoche
by
Matthieu Ricard,
Dza Patrul Rinpoche,
Constance Wilkinson (Editor)

4.31 avg rating — 177 ratings — 4 editions
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En defensa de la felicidad
by
Matthieu Ricard

4.42 avg rating — 144 ratings — published 2003
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La Citadelle des neiges
by
Matthieu Ricard

3.32 avg rating — 106 ratings — published 2005 — 17 editions
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More books by Matthieu Ricard…


QUOTES BY MATTHIEU RICARD (?)


“We try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
tags: happiness, life, problems, sadness
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“Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It completely changes your brain and therefore changes what you are.”
― Matthieu Ricard
tags: bliss, brain, buddhist, buddhist-monk, change, changes, genetics, mango, mango-tree, meditation, molecular-geneticist, molecular-genetics, monk, science
28 likes
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“Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.”
― Matthieu Ricard, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill
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Taechang Kim | The Monk and the philosopher 1999

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Taechang Kim
orpsSotedntch14377agtug7fc871942389hc4c41a1umfll91f480g2a651 ·




Taechang Kim

明日午後のイチャンス教授による宗教特講を傾聴するための事前準備として、既に何回も読み終えたものであるけれど、改めて一覧しておきたい. いろんな切っ掛けで再読する度に
生命開新の感興が湧く.


이찬수

Taechang Kim 한결같이 지식의 공공성에 대해 고민하시면서 쉼없이 그리고 겸손하게 공부하시는 선생님, 존경스럽습니다.

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The Monk and the philosopher 2016




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Jean-François Revel
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The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life 
by Jean Francois Revel (Author), Matthieu Ricard (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars 247 ratings


Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life in our time, became world famous for his challenges to both Communism and Christianity. 

Twenty-seven years ago, his son, Matthieu Ricard, gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism -- not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters.

Meeting in an inn overlooking Katmandu, these two profoundly thoughtful men explored the questions that have occupied humankind throughout its history. 

  • Does life have meaning? 
  • What is consciousness? 
  • Is man free? 
  • What is the value of scientific and material progress? 
  • Why is there suffering, war, and hatred? 

Their conversation is not merely abstract: they ask each other questions about ethics, rights, and responsibilities, about knowledge and belief, and they discuss frankly the differences in the way each has tried to make sense of his life.

Utterly absorbing, inspiring, and accessible, this remarkable dialogue engages East with West, ideas with life, and science with the humanities, providing wisdom on how to enrich the way we live our lives.

Review

"The wonderful thing about this book is that it shows how fruitful open-hearted dialogue can be. Although these two men have pursued their humane concerns and their quest for knowledge by different means, I believe they both reveal that it's not so important whether life has meaning, but whether we give meaning to the life we live." -- His Holiness The Dalai Lama

"The Monk and the Philosopher is an intellectual banquet -- an enlightening and lively encounter that explores man-kind's most profound questions." -- Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence


From the Back Cover

Jean Francois-Revel, a pillar of French intellectual life in our time, became world famous for his challenges to both Communism and Christianity. Twenty-seven years ago, his son, Matthieu Ricard, gave up a promising career as a scientist to study Tibetan Buddhism -- not as a detached observer but by immersing himself in its practice under the guidance of its greatest living masters.

Meeting in an inn overlooking Katmandu, these two profoundly thoughtful men explored the questions that have occupied humankind throughout its history. 

Does life have meaning? What is consciousness? Is man free? What is the value of scientific and material progress? Why is there suffering, war, and hatred? Their conversation is not merely abstract: they ask each other questions about ethics, rights, and responsibilities, about knowledge and belief, and they discuss frankly the differences in the way each has tried to make sense of his life.
Utterly absorbing, inspiring, and accessible, this remarkable dialogue engages East with West, ideas with life, and science with the humanities, providing wisdom on how to enrich the way we live our lives.

About the Author

Jean-Francois Revel, a member of the Academie Francaise, was born in 1924. He studied and taught philosophy but abandoned university teaching to concentrate on writing. He was editor for many years of the influential political weekly L'Express. His books, including the best-seller Without Marx or Jesus and How Democracies Perish, have gained worldwide recognition.

Matthieu Ricard lives in the Shechen Monastery in Nepal. Born in France in 1946, he received his doctorate in molecular biology from the Institut Pasteur in Paris. In 1972 he decided to forsake his scientific career to better concentrate on his Buddhist studies, which he had begun years earlier. He has published Journey to Enlightenment, a book of photographs about his teacher, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (one of the most eminent Tibetan masters of our times and a teacher to The Dalai Lama), as well as translations of many Buddhist texts. He often accompanies The 
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Schocken Books Inc (1 January 1900)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 out of 5 stars 247 ratings
Jean-François Revel

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Matthieu Ricard


Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who had a promising career in cellular genetics before leaving France to study Buddhism in the Himalayas 35 years ago. He is a bestselling author, translator and photographer, and an active participant in current scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain. He lives and works on humanitarian projects in Tibet and Nepal.
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Sally
5.0 out of 5 stars “Amazing”Reviewed in Australia 🇦🇺 on 23 August 2018
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Amazing read loved it


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Marcos Luz
5.0 out of 5 stars Indispensable for lifeReviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on 7 January 2022
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This book is one one of a kind, totally indispensable for life. There’s no way to live the same life (go back) after read the entire book. The dialogue between the Philosopher and the monk (dad and son) has so much excellent information that - for quite a while, I’ve got myself without air for some days...(time to breathe, rethink something in your life) before coming back to this book. Five stars for sure.
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5.0 out of 5 stars It is deep in both western and oriental philosophyReviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on 7 March 2017
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I am interested in budhism and this book answer many important questions that I had about that type of phylosophy. It also offers a critical point of view with very interesting arguments on each topic they speak about in the book. Awesome. I love this book.
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MattyS
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, answers so many questionsReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 25 August 2013
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The book is a great and thought provoking read. I have become lost in the translation of the Western Literature on sale. That said, I have found a link and topical debate between father and son on a massive topic in my world.
I have to confess that I was also apprehensive ordering from the US. I liked the service from the Marketplace seller. Great packaging and speedy delivery albeit over the Atlantic. Will be ordering from them again, thanks.

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4.0 out of 5 stars ExcellentReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 2 August 2020
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Very informative
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PeterDz
4.0 out of 5 stars Nonetheless a recommended read.Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 9 January 2016
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A fascinating book a little divergent and factually inaccurate and confused and confusing at times. Nonetheless a recommended read.
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https://philosophynow.org/issues/122/The_Monk_and_the_Philosopher_by_Jean-Francois_Revel_and_Matthieu_Ricard

The Monk and the Philosopher by Jean-François Revel & Matthieu Ricard
Lachlan Dale explores some of the philosophical implications of Tibetan Buddhism.

The Monk and the Philosopher is an exploration of Tibetan Buddhist belief and practise, and an attempt to understand the religion’s growing popularity in the West. The book is in the form of a series of conversations between Jean-François Revel, a French intellectual known for his defense of liberalism and wariness of the totalitarian tendencies of religion, and his son Matthieu Ricard, who in the early 1970s abandoned a promising career in molecular genetics to study Tibetan Buddhism in Darjeeling. 

For Revel, his son’s decision to choose Eastern wisdom over the fruits of Western liberalism must have come as a shock. So on top of his desire to understand the appeal of Tibetan Buddhism in the West, Revel also wanted to better understand his son. 

Moreover, the disagreements between father and son roughly mirror the split between Eastern and Western forms of knowledge, making this book an excellent critique of Tibetan Buddhism for the philosophically-minded Westerner.

In recent decades Buddhism has enjoyed considerable growth in Western countries, in part due to a growing body of research confirming the effectiveness of mindfulness and meditation. These techniques have been demonstrated to reduce stress and anxiety, improve memory, and enhance cognitive flexibility. Psychologists also report an increased capacity for empathy and compassion, while neuroscientists note the increased density of grey matter in the hippocampus of long-term meditators. As a result, these techniques are often transplanted into a secular context. This troubles purists like Ricard, who believe the practises must remain rooted in a Buddhist program of spiritual development. When combined with visualisation, repetition of mantras, and the study of sacred texts, these techniques are said to allow an individual to directly grasp the fundamental nature of reality, including the unity of all phenomena, the transitory nature of existence, and the illusion of the self.

The ultimate goal of Tibetan Buddhism is not merely to reduce anxiety, but to reach nirvana. 
Ricard denies that this is an alternate metaphysical realm, instead understanding it as a state ‘beyond suffering’ in which one can directly contemplate absolute truth and “experience an unchangeable state of bliss and perceive the infinite purity of all phenomena” (p.150).

 He argues that Buddhists do not seek to flee this world, but merely to no longer be enslaved by it: “Dissolving the mind’s attachment to the reality of a self does go hand in hand with annihilation, but what’s annihilated is pride, vanity, obsession, touchiness, and acrimony. As that attachment dissolves, the field is left clear for goodness, humility, and altruism. By no longer cherishing and protecting the self, you acquire a much wider and deeper view of the world” (p.156). On the surface this seems a perfectly noble, secular, aspiration. However some aspects of Tibetan Buddhist doctrine prove more problematic to Western thinking.

Buddhist 1
Tibetan Buddhist spirit
Karma versus Free Will
Take the issue of free will. While Ricard is happy to acknowledge that humans exist within an immense web of interdependence, and are subject to causation, he denies that physical laws drive the causative process, believing instead that karma – a universal moral governing-force deeply linked with a belief in reincarnation – is the ultimate driver. 

In other words, in this moral causal process, the universe ensures that your past deeds are paid back good for good and evil for evil, if not in this life, then in a future incarnation. The form of an individual’s rebirth depends on the karma they’ve accumulated over past lives. Depending on your balance of good deeds versus evil deeds, you may return as a human, animal, or insect. (Traditional Tibetan Buddhist cosmology also holds that you can be reborn as a god or demon in another realm, although Ricard doesn’t mention this.) Moreover, Tibetan Buddhists believe that when an individual dies, the person’s consciousness lives on in a non-material plane called bardo to await rebirth. But although a non-material basis for consciousness is merely against current scientific orthodoxy, the concept of karma also carries troubling moral implications. By Ricard’s orthodox Buddhist interpretation, everything that happens to an individual is the result of past action. When his father gives the example of a small child whose short existence is racked with disease and misery, Ricard explains that “Whatever happens to us, [Buddhism] teaches, is never just by chance. We’ve created the causes of our present suffering ourselves” (p.127). This denies the possibility of an innocent victim, and is as unsettling as a Christian’s rationalisation of an innocent suffering as ‘part of God’s plan’.

The doctrine of karma also holds implications for euthanasia. When asked what Buddhism recommends for someone in great pain at the end of their life, Ricard replies that the pain provides an opportunity for spiritual growth: “since suffering is the result of our past negative actions, it’s better to pay off our debts while we have available the help of spiritual practice… neither euthanasia nor suicide are acceptable.” (p.269)

Although we might be tempted to draw parallels here to Viktor Frankl’s view that suffering provides opportunity for the creation of personal meaning, Ricard’s perspective has a troubling corollary: if all suffering is self-caused, and to avoid pain is to merely postpone it, then an embrace of suffering is spiritually mandated. Such romanticisation of suffering leads Revel to protest on ethical grounds. It creates worries for me, too. How should we regard compassionate acts that reduce someone’s suffering? Are they tampering with the law of karma or otherwise inhibiting the spiritual growth of the individual? Unfortunately, these questions are not addressed.

Deeper contradictions, such as how humans can possess free will in the face of karmic determinism, are also left unexplored by Revel. Focus instead shifts onto the Tibetan Buddhist conception of consciousness.

The Problem of Consciousness

Ricard persists in defending what he terms the ‘law of the conservation of consciousness’ – which is a quasi-scientific framing of the claim that consciousness can never be lost or destroyed, and therefore lives on after death.

Revel unpacks this idea for the benefit of the readers. He explains that there are two primary philosophical positions when it comes to the nature of reality. The first is monism, which claims there is a single fundamental reality or substance in the universe. While historically some monist philosophers have argued that reality is ultimately composed of god or spirit, modern monists are more often physicalists, who claim that everything in the universe is matter/energy. This position holds that consciousness can be explained in terms of the functioning of the brain. The physicalists claim that although we don’t yet understand the precise mechanics of consciousness, we can use Occam’s Razor to reject any hypothesis that adds to the physical laws of the universe. The second position is dualism, which argues for another principle in addition to matter, thus positing a division between mind and matter, or body and soul. By claiming that consciousness persists after death in a non-material form, Ricard seems to be arguing for dualism, thus breaking away from the majority of the scientific community.

When pressed for evidence for the survival of consciousness after bodily death, Ricard recounts the testimony of Buddhist teachers who claim to be able to recall past lives, and experiences of the afterlife. Since he has known these teachers for decades and has never known them to hurt or deceive anyone, he feels it reasonable to accept their accounts on face value.

Unsurprisingly, Revel rejects this line of defense. In the scientific world, testimony of this kind can never stand in for empirical evidence. As he says, “Someone can very well be perfectly sincere and have never tried to deceive anyone, and still be subject to illusions…” (p.49). Although Ricard protests against this, he cannot escape Revel’s assertion that “Tibetan Buddhism attempts to build a science of the mind on a completely unproven theory” (p.114).

Buddhist 2
Towards a Secular Buddhism

In the final section of the book Revel theorizes about why Buddhism is becoming increasingly popular in Western countries. He suggests that in the 20th century many people in the West abandoned philosophy as a source of individual wisdom because it became a highly technical and specialised endeavour divorced from the concerns of the wider population. This created a moral vacuum which has been filled by various utopian political projects, including the totalitarian systems of communism and fascism, resulting in atrocities on an unimaginable scale. In this context, Revel views Buddhism’s rise as an indication that people are becoming interested in developing their inner life and personal system of ethics rather than finding meaning through collective ideologies.

Notably, Revel’s analysis disregards the influence of the dominant ideology of the West, consumer capitalism, which seems to promise inner development and personal fulfillment through the accumulation of possessions. For Revel to ignore the effect of the most influential political ideology in the world while blaming declining morality on Marxists and Hegelians seems absurd to me. It is perhaps indicative of his personal political bias. When contrasted with the work of a contemporary philosopher such as Peter Sloterdijk, Revel’s comments seem simplistic. Sloterdijk’s argument is that a complex process of ‘de-spiritualisation of ascetic practises’ is underway, in which aspirations for self-improvement and self-transformation have been transferred from spiritual to secular channels, such as sport, art, and entrepreneurialism.

In his closing remarks, Revel expresses an appreciation for Tibetan Buddhism as a system of philosophy, but notes that its metaphysical beliefs will limit its appeal to a non-religious, materialistic Western audience. And although Ricard is eager to claim that Tibetan Buddhism constantly purges itself of superfluous teachings, this book demonstrates that its task of separating myth from practice is far from complete. It was the unsubstantiated and unquestionable belief in reincarnation that caused the writer Stephen Batchelor to walk away from Tibetan Buddhism and begin his search for ‘Buddhism Without Beliefs’. His work on the demythologization of the historical Buddha and the establishment of a framework for secular Buddhism is recommended for further reading.

Taken as a whole, The Monk and the Philosopher is a captivating read. Both speakers are sharp-minded and highly knowledgeable about their fields, and the friction of their intellectual sparring yields many insights to enjoy. For those after an engaging introduction to Tibetan Buddhism coupled with a healthy dose of secular skepticism, look no further.

© Lachlan R. Dale 2017

Lachlan Dale is a writer and musician. He is currently undertaking a Masters of Creative Writing at the University of Technology, Sydney.

• The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life, by Jean-François Revel and Matthieu Ricard, Schoken Books Inc., 2005, 384 pages, £12.94 pb, ISBN: 978-0805211030

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cover image The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life

The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life
Jean-Francois Revel, M. Richard, J. F. Revel. Schocken Books Inc, 
$24 (336pp) ISBN 978-0-8052-4162-4

French philosopher Revel (Without Marx or Jesus) and his son, Tibetan Buddhist monk Ricard, engage in a dazzling intellectual tete-a-tete on metaphysics, morality and meaning. In 1972, Ricard abandoned a promising career in molecular biology and announced his intention to study with Tibetan Buddhist lamas in Asia. Initially, Revel was disappointed with his son's decision to study Buddhism, for, as an atheist, Revel had never taken Buddhism or any other religion very seriously. He and Matthieu remained close, and father and son began a series of conversations about the different and common ways that philosophy and Buddhism describe humanity's search for meaning. The dialogues recorded in this book took place in 1996 in Hatiban, Nepal, ""a peaceful spot high up on a mountainside above Kathmandu."" The give-and-take between these two lively thinkers ranges from the differences between religious and secular spirituality, ""faith, ritual and superstition,"" and Buddhist metaphysics and the philosophy of mind, and on the violence in the Chinese occupation of Tibet. Each conversation covers an astonishing range of history and philosophy from the pre-Socratics in the West to the current Dalai Lama in the East. Revel concludes from these conversations that the East can provide a system of wisdom or ethics for a West where the triumph of science has largely eradicated these systems. Ricard concludes that Buddhism does provide a ""science of the mind"" that deals with the ""basic mechanisms of happiness and suffering."" Although these talks reveal little new about either Western philosophy or Buddhism, they do offer a rare glimpse into the workings of two sparkling intellects. (Feb.)


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A Biologist-Turned-Buddhist and His Philosopher Father on the Nature of the Self and the True Measure of Personal Strength

“You first need to have an ego in order to be aware that it doesn’t exist.”
BY MARIA POPOVA

For the past few centuries, Western philosophy has maintained that human beings are driven by enlightened self-interest — a view predicated on the needs and desires of a solid self. Meanwhile, Eastern philosophies and spiritual traditions have long considered the self an illusion — a view with which modern science has recently begun to side.

These contradictory conceptions of the self as a centerpiece of identity and success, per the Western view, and as an illusion, per the Eastern one, are what French philosopher Jean-François Revel and his biologist-turned-Buddhist son, Matthieu Ricard, explore in their extraordinary conversation, published as The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life (public library).

What makes the conversation particularly compelling is the unusual pairing of perspectives — it is not only an intergenerational dialogue between a father and a son who both possess enormous intellectual potency, but a dialogue between Western philosophy and Eastern spirituality with a strong emphasis on science. The scientific perspective, in fact, comes not from Revel but from Ricard, who gave up a promising career as a molecular biologist — he had worked with Nobel laureate Jacques Monod — to move to Nepal and study Tibetan Buddhism. Doubly significant is Ricard’s route to Buddhism: Raised in the strongly secular home of two prominent French intellectuals — his mother, Revel’s wife, was the painter Yahne Le Toumelin — he grew up with only an intellectual curiosity toward religion and turned to Buddhism not out of disappointment with Western faiths but out of what his father calls “a state of indifference to any religion, a kind of religious weightlessness.”


Matthieu Ricard (right) with his father, Jean-François Revel (Photograph: Raphaelle Demandre)

So in 1999, when Revel traveled to Ricard’s home in Kathmandu and the two sat down for this remarkable intellectual encounter, it was the philosophical rather than the religion dimensions of Buddhism that took center stage as the father and son contemplated such immutable human concerns as free will, the meaning of life, the value of scientific progress, and the pillars of the good life. As they speak, each addresses the other as much as he is confabulating with himself, which results in a masterpiece of the art of conversation at its most elevated and ennobling — an exchange of dynamic contemplation between and within minds, driven not by the self-righteous slinging of opinions but by a deep commitment to mutual understanding and to enriching the shared pool of wisdom.

One of the most pause-giving dimensions of the conversation deals with this notion of the self and its illusory nature. When Revel takes issue with the Buddhist concept of reincarnation, pointing out its mystical and scientifically ungrounded suppositions, Ricard emphasizes its metaphorical and philosophical importance over its literal interpretation. Embedded in that notion, he suggests, is the key to unmooring ourselves from the tyranny of the self in the here and now:

It’s important to understand that what’s called reincarnation in Buddhism has nothing to do with the transmigration of some “entity” or other… As long as one thinks in terms of entities rather than function and continuity, it’s impossible to understand the Buddhist concept of rebirth.

[…]

Since Buddhism denies the existence of any individual self that could be seen as a separate entity capable of transmigrating from one existence to another by passing from one body to another, one might well wonder what it could be that links those successive states of existence together… It’s seen as a continuum, a stream of consciousness that continues to flow without there being any fixed or autonomous entity running through it.


Illustration from ‘The Magic Boat’ by Tom Seidmann-Freud, Sigmund Freud’s niece. 
Ricard likens this concept to “a river without a boat descending along its course” and is careful to point out a common misconception: Although Buddhism denies the existence of the individual self, it doesn’t deny individual consciousness. He explains:

The fact that there’s no such discontinuous entity being transferred from one life to the next doesn’t mean that there can’t be a continuity of functioning. That the self has no true existence doesn’t prevent one particular stream of consciousness from having qualities that distinguish it from another stream. The fact that there’s no boat floating down the river doesn’t prevent the water from being full of mud, polluted by a paper factory, or clean and clear. The state of the river at any given moment is the result of its history. In the same way, an individual stream of consciousness is loaded with all the traces left on it by positive and negative thoughts, as well as by actions and words arising from those thoughts. What we’re trying to do by spiritual practice is to gradually purify the river. The ultimate state of complete clarity is what we call spiritual realization. All the negative emotions, all the obscurations that render the underlying wisdom invisible, have then been dissolved.

Echoing the great Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki’s assertion that “the ego-shell in which we live is the hardest thing to outgrow,” Ricard argues that this recognition of individual consciousness is central to the dissolution of the ego-shell:

It’s not a question of annihilating the self, which has never really existed, but simply of uncovering its imposture. Indeed, if the self did have any intrinsic existence we’d never be able to bring it from existence into nonexistence.

[…]

A nonexistent self can’t really be “abolished,” but its nonexistence can be recognized. What we want to abolish is the illusion, the mistake that has no inherent existence in the first place… whatever we judge to be disagreeable or harmful. But as soon as we recognize that the self has no true existence, all these attracting and repelling impulses will vanish… The self has neither beginning nor end, and therefore in the present it has no more existence than the mind attributes to it.

Ricard, who has since written about the secret of happiness, considers how our natural, everyday experience of the “I” mutates into the illusion of the self, from which all of our suffering stems:

There’s a natural feeling of self, of “I,” which makes you think “I’m cold, I’m hungry, I’m walking,” and so forth. By itself, that feeling is neutral. It doesn’t specifically lead to either happiness or suffering. But then comes the idea that the self is a kind of constant that lasts all your life, regardless of all the physical and mental changes you go through. You get attached to the idea of being a self, “myself,” a “person,” and of “my” body, “my” name, “my” mind, and so on. Buddhism accepts that there is a continuum of consciousness, but denies any existence of a solid, permanent, and autonomous self anywhere in that continuum. The essence of Buddhist practice is therefore to get rid of that illusion of a self which so falsifies our view of the world.


Illustration by Mimmo Paladino for a rare edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Click image for more.

When his father probes how one is expected to effect positive change in the world without a sense of personal agency — another common critique by those who misunderstand the foundational philosophies of Buddhism — Ricard responds:

The wish to allay others’ suffering, which may inspire a whole lifetime’s work, is an admirable ambition. It’s important to distinguish between negative emotions, like desire, hatred, and pride, that solidify still further our self-centered outlook, and positive ones, like altruistic love, compassion, and faith, that allow us to free ourselves little by little from those negative and self-centered tendencies. Positive emotions don’t disturb our mind, they reinforce it and make it more stable and more courageous.

In a sentiment that calls to mind David Foster Wallace on the dark side of ambition, Ricard makes an important distinction between the two types of ambition:

Positive ambition — the pursuit of others’ well-being by all possible means, the fervent wish to transform oneself — is one of the cardinal virtues in Buddhism. In fact, Buddhists nurture one main ambition without any limits, that of removing the suffering of all living beings throughout the whole universe. That sort of ambition stops you succumbing to inertia and makes you strong-minded and determined. So the distinction between the positive and negative, selfless and self-centered sides of ambition is important. You could say that ambition is positive if its aim is to help others. That’s the simplest definition. Conversely, ambition is negative if achieving it is detrimental to others, and an emotion is negative if it destroys your own and others’ inner peace.

He illustrates this with a verse from the eight-century Buddhist sage Shantideva:

All the joy the world contains
Has come through wishing happiness for others.
All the misery the world contains
Has come through wanting pleasure for oneself.
Is there need for lengthy explanation?
Childish beings look out for themselves,
While Buddhas labor for the good of others:
See the difference that divides them!

With that great Eastern capacity for holding paradox and fusing contradictory concepts into a unity of wisdom, Ricard argues that shedding the ego-shell actually requires first fortifying our ego — more than that, he suggests, true altruism is the product not of selflessness but of a strong sense of self:

Buddhism’s goal of uncovering the “imposture of the ego,” this ego that seems so powerful and causes us so much trouble while having no existence in itself. Nevertheless, as a first step it’s important to stabilize this feeling of a self in order to distinguish all its characteristics. You could say, paradoxically, that you first need to have an ego in order to be aware that it doesn’t exist. Someone with an unstable, fragmented, amorphous personality has little chance of being able to identify that powerful feeling of “me,” as a prior step to recognizing that it doesn’t correspond to any real entity. So you need to start with a healthy and coherent self to be able to investigate it. You can shoot at a target, but not in fog.

[…]

But it’s important not to think that once the imposture of the ego is unmasked you find yourself in a state of inner nothingness, to the point that the destruction of the personality renders you incapable of acting or communicating. You don’t become an empty container. It’s quite the opposite. When you’re no longer the plaything of an illusory despot, like the shadows in Plato’s cave, your wisdom, love for others and compassion can be freely expressed. It’s a freedom from the limitations imposed by attachment to a self, not at all an anesthesia of the will. This “opening of the eyes of wisdom” increases your strength of mind, your diligence, and your capacity to take appropriate and altruistic action.

Revel contrasts this with the West’s “cult of the self” and our civilizational emphasis on “the strong personality” as a hallmark of success, questioning whether there can be a common ground between cultural and philosophical traditions so diametrically opposed in this regard. But Ricard, once again, meets the problem with semantic lucidity that melts away the apparent conflict:

If by personality you mean exacerbation of the ego, simply to have a strong personality seems to me, unfortunately, a highly dubious criterion of success. Hitler and Mao Tse-tung had very strong personalities.


Illustration by André François from ‘Little Boy Brown’ by Isobel Harris. Click image for more.
Echoing Bertrand Russell’s famous assertion that “construction and destruction alike satisfy the will to power, but construction is more difficult… and therefore gives more satisfaction to the person who can achieve it,” Ricard adds:

It’s important not to confuse strong individuality and strength of mind. The great teachers I’ve been able to meet had indomitable strength of mind. You could say they had very impressive personalities, and that they radiated a sort of natural strength that everyone who met them could perceive. But the big difference was that you couldn’t find the slightest trace of ego in them. I mean the kind of ego that inspires selfishness and self-centeredness. Their strength of mind came from knowledge, serenity, and inner freedom that were outwardly manifested as an unshakable certainty. They were worlds apart from Hitler, Mao Tse-tung and the like, whose powerful personalities arose from an unbridled desire to dominate, and from pride, greed, or hatred. In both cases, we’re faced with immense power, but in the first that power is a flow of constructive altruism, while in the second it’s negative and destructive.

The Monk and the Philosopher is a remarkable read in its totality, addressing with enormous depth and dimension such aspects of the human experience as happiness, suffering, education, ethics, and love. Complement it with D.T. Suzuki on how Zen can help us cultivate our character and Jack Kerouac’s Zen-inspired meditation on the self illusion and “the golden eternity,” then revisit Albert Einstein and the Indian philosopher Tagore’s historic conversation entwining Eastern and Western perspectives with great mutual curiosity and goodwill.

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