Matthieu Ricard Quotes Page 2

“Whatever you train, you change your brain.”

“When the mind is full of memories and preoccupied by the future, it misses the freshness of the present moment. In this way, we fail to recognize the luminous simplicity of mind that is always present behind the veils of thought.”

“Worries are pointless. If there's a solution, there's no need to worry. If no solution exists, there's no point to worry.”

“You're not insensitive or indifferent, but you're also not vulnerable to the upheavals that cause emotional stress because you can buffer that... So that's the result of meditation; you could call that emotional balance.”

“Anyone who enjoys inner peace is no more broken by failure as he is inflated by success. He is able to fully live his experiences in the context of a vast and profound serenity, since he understands that experiences are ephemeral and that it is useless to cling to them.”

“Genuine fearlessness arises with the confidence that we will be able to gather the inner resources to deal with any situation that comes our way.”

“Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment, not the gratification of inexhaustible desires for outward things.”

“Happiness is a state of inner fulfillment.”

“I have also come to understand that although some people are naturally happier than others, their happiness is still vulnerable and incomplete, and that achieving durable happiness as a way of being is a skill. It requires sustained effort in training the mind and developing a set of human qualities, such as inner peace, mindfulness, and altruistic love.”

“It's not the magnitude of the task that matters, it's the magnitude of our courage.”

“May every moment of my life and of the lives of others be one of wisdom, flourishing, and inner peace!”

“One is not born wise; one becomes it.”

“Repeatedly comparing our situation with that of others is a kind of sickness of the mind that brings much unnecessary discontent and frustration. When we have a new source of enjoyment or a new car, we get excited and feel that we are at the top of our game. But we soon get used to it and our excitement subsides; when a new model comes out we become unhappy with the one we have and feel that we can only be satisfied if we get the new one, especially if other people around us have it.”

“Tibetan poet Shabkar said: "One with compassion is kind even when angry; one without compassion will kill even as he smiles.”

“To love oneself is to love life. It is essential to understand that we make ourselves happy in making others happy.”

“We are very much like birds that have lived too long in a cage to which we return even when we get the chance to fly away. We have grown so accustomed to our faults that we can barely imagine what life would be like without them. The prospect of change makes us dizzy.”

“We find that the optimists have an undeniable advantage over the pessimists. Many studies show that they do better on exams, in their chosen profession, and in their relationships, live longer and in better health, enjoy a better chance of surviving postoperative shock, and are less prone to depression and suicide.”

“We try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world is limited, temporary, and often, illusory.”

“When hearing a door creak, the optimist thinks it's opening and the pessimist thinks it's closing.”

“While it may be difficult to change the world, it is always possible to change the way we look at it.”

“By transforming our way of perceiving things, we transform the quality of our lives.”

“For a few moments, be aware of your potential for change. Whatever your present situation is, evolution and transformation are always possible. At the least, you can change your way of seeing things and then, gradually, your way of being as well.”

“No change occurs if we just let our habitual tendencies and automatic patterns of thought perpetuate and even reinforce themselves, thought after thought, day after day, year after year. But those tendencies and patterns can be challenged.”

“The goal of meditation is precisely to make your mind smooth and manageable so that it can be concentrated or relaxed at will; and especially to free it from the tyranny of mental afflictions and confusion”

“The ultimate reason for meditating is to transform ourselves in order to be better able to transform the world.”