Why Is Happiness A Guide To Developing Life's Most Important

“My deepest wish is that the idea gathered in this book may serve as tiny lights along the path of temporary and ultimate happiness” (Ricard, pg 266). Matthieu embodies the wisdom of Buddhism with neuroscience and cognitive psychology and give humanity a gift of a vision of a more positive human future in his novel Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill. Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who had a career in cellular genetics until he left for France and began studying Buddhism. In the beginning of the novel Ricard talked about how he left Paris at age twenty-six and moved to Darjeeling in India where he studied with a Tibetan master. For him everything changed after meeting remarkable human beings who “exemplified what a fulfilled human life

It is not a feeling or a “Fleeting emotion” (Ricard, pg 19)., but a state of being. It’s a way that we interpret the world. While exploring the true nature of happiness we start to understand the meaning and importance of how we perceive the world around us. Once established, we start to grasp onto the idea of ultimate happiness. We cannot do this fully without addressing our suffering. In Buddhism there are different types of suffering. This includes, pervasive suffering, suffering of change, and multiplicity of suffering. Pervasive suffering is harder to recognize as suffering, suffering of change begins with feelings of pleasure but turns into pain, and multiplicity of suffering is linked with an increase of pain. Suffering is a “universal phenomenon” that will not just vanish, but individuals can liberate from it. (Richard, pg 63). In the conclusion Matthieu says that those who are interested in happiness have to be interested in enlightenment which comes from eliminating delusion and mental toxins. This will give us a taste of ultimate freedom that comes with knowing the nature of