Monday, May 18, 2009

The Happiest Man

Mathieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who is also an academic, scientist, author and photographer.

He has been labeled as the ‘Happiest Man in the World’. MRI scans have shown that long-term meditators experience high levels in the left pre-frontal cortex of the brain. A study done at the University of Wisconsin-Madison involved attaching 256 sensors to the skull, and three hours of continuous MRI scanning. The scores of hundreds of volunteers ranged between +0.3 indicating depression and -0.3 denoting great happiness. Mathieu Ricard’s score was much beyond the others at -0.45.

Mathieu Ricard talks about ‘mind training’. He says that, happiness is a skill and it requires effort and time.

Matthieu Ricard has his website which contains his photography and writings.