Medical staff and social workers often find themselves in highly stressful and emotionally burdensome situations working long hours while dealing with difficult cases. So that they feel appreciated and supported, a show of gratitude - in thought, word and deed - is needed in order to nourish their motivation and give them courage while st...

Excerpt from Matthieu Ricard's book, Altruism. Despite progress still to be made, Western countries are evolving more toward respect and increased acknowledgment of the role of women in society. With a few rare exceptions, war is planned, decided upon, and perpetrated by men, and 99.9% of soldiers who take part in combat are also men (even i...

The holiday season is a time to celebrate the bonds that unite us with our loved ones and to demonstrate kindness.  These moment of sharing are essential and allow us to develop an altruistic state of mind, but they can often be conditioned by institutionalized over-consumption which diminishes the experience of true relationships, deple...

In our current times, we are confronted with many short, medium, and long-term challenges and imperatives to which are superimposed three different types of interest – ours, those of our close ones, and those of all beings. One way to respond to these challenges could be to create a more cooperative and altruistic society, one which takes i...

The recently aired documentary, “Buddhism: The Law of Silence,” examines the alleged system abuses of Sogyal and the crimes committed in the 80s and 90s by the so-called Buddhist master Robert Spatz. These abuses and the suffering they caused, often to very young victims, are indeed abhorrent. The situation is rendered even more revolting bec...

Our sense of belonging to one planet, to a common humanity and to a conscious awareness shared with other species has been reinforced by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. A virus of nanometric size managed in a few weeks to bring part of the world to a standstill and impact the lives of more than 6 billion humans. Our interdependence has...

Social bonding is an essential and vital need for humans, bringing benefits to both physical and mental health as many studies have shown. Yet, in the age of social networks (which sometimes become « anti-social ») and an unprecedented ease of communication , the number of people who are isolated keeps climbing, leading to greater distrust a...

In July 2021, Matthieu Ricard lent his voice to the animated video “How to build a more altruistic world”, in collaboration with Minimento. His aim is to explain with simple words what altruism is and provide ways of developing and nurturing this state of mind in our daily life. Discover it here Let's come back to some points cov...

Year-end celebrations are an opportunity to act together on social, economic and ecological issues. At our level, we can carry out simple and effective actions to make a change of culture happen. By choosing to buy locally, moderately and responsibly, [see previous blog], but also by avoiding the consumption of animal products produced ind...

Matthieu Ricard will meet with Jane Goodall on December 14th, 2021, at 7PM (Paris Time), for an exceptional virtual round table on the theme of Hope – a necessary commitment. They will explore the topic of the urgency to establish a new social contract between humans and the rest of the living world. To participate, click here. When mak...