Archive for 2011
Dialogue with Jane Goodall : Part 2 Becoming Aware of the Suffering behind Eating Meat
By Matthieu Ricard on July 16, 2011Matthieu: It seems also that slaughterhouses are guarded as if they were top-secret military facilities. You can't see anything. But if it were shown even a little bit to people, they would find it intolerable. Jane: There is a wonderful woman in America. She got a job in an abattoir and managed to secretly film what was going on. But th...
Dialogue with Jane Goodall -- Part1 How Animals are Treated.
By Matthieu Ricard on July 11, 2011Matthieu: There is an unbroken connection and continuity between the various animal species and humans. The reality of this continuum should make humans re-examine the way we treat other animals Jane Goodall: There is of course no question that there is a continuity of feelings and emotions. There is no question that animals feel pain. I ...
Dealing with craving
By Matthieu Ricard on July 07, 2011Desire is a mainly a drive. You may desire to save the planet or to free all sentient beings from suffering. But when desires become entangled with craving and powerful attachments, our experience shows that they lead to suffering. Desire usually starts with an image. If the image is enticing and promises pleasure, it triggers a chain rea...
‟One has never seen a safe on a coffin.”
By Matthieu Ricard on June 25, 2011Recently, I met an elder person who was expressing her sadness that many of her friends where so attached to their money, even as death was coming near. She concluded: ‟What is the point? One has never seen a safe on a coffin. » What would we like to leave to our children? An embellished image of ourselves? Material possessions about whic...
Silent Spring
By Matthieu Ricard on June 19, 2011In France, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 26% of the breeding birds (568 species) are considered to be endangered. Urban concentration and the massive use of pesticides are deemed to be the main causes. Due to a careful study that was conducted by a thousand ornithologists, the ‟Suivi tempo...
Children no longer climb trees
By Matthieu Ricard on June 13, 2011I recently visited a friend who lives in Franche-Comté and whose parents, now retired, were the last independent farmers of that region. Now, there are no more. As we travelled across the countryside, my friend told me, ‟In the past, during the cherry-picking season, we were all in the trees feasting. Now, cherries remain on the branches. Tod...
Full Moon in Nepal
By Matthieu Ricard on June 09, 2011
Altruism and Self-Centeredness: Two Outlooks
By Matthieu Ricard on June 03, 2011A 14-year-old Thai girl student fell onto a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) track in Singapore on the morning of April 3. Nitcharee Peneakchanasak, also known as Nong Than, lost both her legs below the knees. One of her legs was severed by the train as it came into the station, and the other was so badly mangled that it had to be amputated by surgeo...
‟How can I deal with a sense of despair and worthlessness?”
By Matthieu Ricard on May 26, 2011Please try to contemplate the following: No matter what, Buddha-nature is always present in all sentient beings. Therefore, there is nothing in any human being, you or anyone else, which is fundamentally wrong. This is not just some naïve belief. Think about the basic nature of mind. It is even more fundamental than happiness or sufferin...
What to do when I have been the cause of misery to others?
By Matthieu Ricard on May 25, 2011Feeling guilty does not help. Regret does. Guilt creates the impression in the mind that one is forever and intrinsically unworthy, which is not true of anyone. It is more productive to regret negative things that you have done with the wish to not repeat the same mistakes, to do better in the future and, if possible, to repair the harm ...