Matthieu Ricard, Buddist Monk, Is 'World's Happiest Man'
Matthieu Ricard, a 66-year-old Buddist monk, has achieved a rare award---he is today called the world's happiest man! Even computers were used to examine his brain to indicate his huge capacity to feel and express happiness.
Richard Davidson linked more than 256 sensors to Ricard's head so that he could get the "best reading possible" on his brain scans. Richard Davidson heads the neuroscience department at the University of Wisconsin, reported DailyMail.
Davidson explained that, "We have been looking for 12 years at the effect of short and long-term mind-training through meditation on attention, on compassion, on emotional balance. We've found remarkable results with long-term practitioners who did 50,000 rounds of meditation, but also with three weeks of 20 minutes a day, which of course is more applicable to our modern times."
When Davidson asked Ricard to go into a meditation on compassion, he found that the gamma waves rose very high. He then said, "[These results have] never been reported before in the neuroscience literature."
The gamma waves are said to coincide with "learning, memory, consciousness, and attention," according to Simple Capactiy.
Ricard has founded Karuna Shechen, a charity organisation in India and is also a French genetic scientist----which makes for a strange and interesting blend for a man who has been called the "world's happiest man". He had moved into India just 40 years ago, and got deeply involved in studies and meditation.
Ricard learnt Buddhism for eight years in Bhutan from a Tibetan Buddhist master, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, according to Shining Hope.
The "land of the thunder dragon," or Bhutan, is knows well for its political philospy. The "Gross National Happiness," that was started in 1972 was designed by Jigme Singye Wangchuck, a concept that encourages people to "use their synergy to balance material and spiritual development within themselves."
"Mattieu Ricard left us with one last special bit of advice. He volunteered to share his hints and tips for achieving happiness," reported SimpleCapactity.
