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Chapter 1: Introduction

“Matthieu Ricard” is the world's happiest man. His level of mind control is astonishing and
the upbeat impulses in his brain are off the scale. Now Matthieu Ricard, 60, a French
academic turned Buddhist monk, is to share his secrets to make the world a happier place.
The trick, he reckons, is to put some effort into it. In essence, happiness is a "skill" to be
learned. His advice could not be more timely as tomorrow Britain will reach what, according
to a scientific formula, is the most miserable day of the year. Tattered new year resolutions,
the faded buzz of Christmas, debt, a lack of motivation and the winter weather conspire to
create a peak of misery and gloom.

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1. 1. Purpose of the study
i. To the main purpose of the term paper is to know the happiest person and learning the
points what way he follow in his life.
ii. To in our life we should be can used this way.
iii. To anyone can be the happiest person in the world if they look for happiness in the
right place.
iv. To happiness is not the pursuit of an endless succession of experiences. Happiness is a
way of being.
v. To the challenge is to let that way of being overtake all other emotional states.
vi. To life is not all about sitting on our balcony and looking at the Himalayas. If we can
try we will made happy our life not only single time but also many times.

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1. 2. Scope of the study
i. To be made our life happiest.
ii. To adopting positive things in life.
iii. To happiness creating a great pole in every people’s life.
iv. To happiness is a skill and cultivated.
v. To if we can we must happy our shrouding peoples who really needed.

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 Chapter 2: Literature review

Previously there has been few reports on “Matthieu Ricard”

But in some scattered articles/webpage’s/blogs a few short notes on different topics about
Matthieu Ricard” has been referred.

According to” KIRKUS REVIEW” An overlong but vigorous gloss on the Dalai Lama’s
famous remark, my religion is kindness. Former geneticist and longtime Buddhist monk
Ricard sets out to prove that true altruism exists, but he winds up exploring nearly the whole
of human nature. His task is compounded by the Hobbes an mood of the age, when the
individualistic mode is one of “irresponsible selfishness and rampant narcissism, to the
detriment of the well-being of all. However, altruism means many things to many people.
Ricard generally agrees with researchers who hold that it is the motivation and not the
intensity involved that counts: for it to matter, in other words, altruism is less the instinctual
sacrifice of throwing oneself atop a hand grenade in a foxhole than the self-negation that
comes, in one of the author’s examples, with abandoning a promising white-collar career in
order to dig wells for impoverished villagers. One great virtue of this virtuous book is
Ricard’s ability to poke holes in received wisdom.

According to “Daniel Khneman “Although we are materially better off than ever before,
surveys show that we are depressed and listless. In his revolutionary book, Buddhist monk
Matthieu Ricard shows that happiness is not just an emotion, but a skill that can be
developed. Free of jargon, Happiness contains simple exercises that will train the mind to
recognize and pursue happiness by concentrating on the fundamental things in life, and in
doing so change the way we view the world.

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 Chapter 3: Methodology
3.1. Secondary data
Use secondary data. At first, data were collected from various external sources like Internet
or Social Media. Then, few data were eliminated and some were selected to analyze the
process of preparing this term report. Reading some online reports and article.

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 Chapter 4: Data Findings & Analysis

4.1. Life lessons of happiest person

"If you can learn how to ride a bike you can learn how to be happy," says 67-year-old
Buddhist monk and Happiest Man in the World, Matthieu Ricard.

As a child, poet Andre Breton, film-maker Louis Buñuel and composer Igor Stravinsky were
regular guests to Ricard's philosopher parents' Parisian home. However, observing that the
genius of his parents' friends didn't seem to make them any happier he set off for the
Himalayas (abandoning his work as a molecular biologist at the Pasteur Institute) and
transformed his life via meditation.

At the last count, he did clock up more than 10,000 hours. Highly complex MRI scans by
cognitive scientists at the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience in Wisconsin have shown
extraordinarily high levels of upbeat activity (-0.45 on a range where -0.3 is described as
"beatific") and almost invisible levels of negative emotions. "I don't see everything as rosy,"
he says, "but the ups and downs of life don't unsettle me in the usual way.

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4.2. What way to choose for happiness
Anyone can be the happiest person in the world if they look for happiness in the right place.
The problem is that we tend not to. Happiness is not the pursuit of an endless succession of
experiences. That's a recipe for exhaustion more than happiness. Happiness is a way of being.
The challenge is to let that way of being overtake all other emotional states. Unlike pleasure,
which exhausts itself as you experience it, happiness is a skill and cultivated. We all have the
potential for it. We have to examine what contributes to a flourishing in our life. In
Buddhism, we say the root cause of unhappiness is ignorance.

4.3. A bit of negativity can define a person's character

Being happy is about raising your "baseline". It's not about seeking sudden fireworks or
euphoric experiences. The first step to take is to realize that you want to improve that the
world is not a mail order catalogue for our fantasies and desires and that we have a relatively
limited control over those transient, illusory conditions. We might argue that a bad temper or
a bit of negativity can define a person's character so it's not necessarily bad. That's as maybe
we all have a different mix of light and shadows but should we just give in to that view and
think that it is optimal? We don’t say, "it's human nature to get ill and die so why go to see a
doctor” so we must remove our bit of negativity for happy life.

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4.4. Mind interprets
The way the mind interprets the world is a crucial element in determining the quality of every
instant that goes by yet we pay so little attention to our inner condition. We must learn to
recognize that there are mental states or emotions that are conducive to flourishing and some
that are destructive. I call it antidote training. Usually when we have a flash of anger there
follows a sort of refractory period where we can't even begin to acknowledge the positive
aspects of the person with whom we're angry. They are just 100 per cent despicable and our
whole mental landscape is full of that. A direct antidote approach is to treat it like heat and
cold. This means that the more you bring benevolent or altruistic thoughts at that instant to
the mind, the less space there is for the opposite. This is antidote training.

4.5. Emotions impact

By keeping aware of the anger, it cannot sustain itself, it stops being fueled and slowly dies
out. If we become skilled in that, then with awareness we can simply let those afflictive
emotions dissolve without keeping them in like a time bomb, or exploding them each time.
It's about realizing that we not anger any more than we are the flu. Everyone have emotions
we always not control it properly but if we can do it we must be happy more than several
times. Emotions like a boat if we don’t take control it will be must lose our life.

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4.6. Meditation helped everyone
Meditation is a very vague term and there's a lot of cliche like emptying your mind and
relaxing and all that stuff. But it's really a means to cultivate or be familiar with a better
understanding of the way the mind works. Studies have shown that meditation combined with
cognitive therapy can help people who suffer from severe depression and reduce the risk of
relapse by up to 40 per cent.

4.7. Happiness meaning

Happiness is a way of being rather than an endless search for experiences. Pleasure is fine but
depends on things that are subject to change people, places, things. Something tastes good
fire warms our when we cold. But then this experience turns neutral or averse: Even the most
beautiful music is unpleasant after 24 straight hours. But happiness is a more durable state.
It’s a cluster of basic human qualities that nurture a state of fulfillment, flourishing, of
appreciating your life. Its inner freedom, inner strength, inner peace. These are the resources
to deal with the struggles of life. The more we experience happiness, the deeper and more
stable it becomes.

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4.8. Meditation & happiness is mind training
Meditation is not an exotic eastern practice but is actually mind training. We all have a mind
and can work with it. In the sense that mind training means harnessing the potential we have
for less vulnerability to provocation from outside. Meditation helps you cultivate a better
emotional balance and inner freedom so you are not a slave of impulses like anger and
craving. There are different types of meditation, and we tried to gather all these exercises into
a small manual for a Western audience. But in clinical trials that study the effects of
meditation in the West, 30 minutes a day has been the foundation. We always see that after
three months, meditation has had a significant effect in reducing stress and the tendency
toward depression. It reinforces the immune system and positive emotions. It’s been studied
for 10 years in the West. Sitting for that precious 30 minutes modifies the quality of the other
23 hours and 30 minutes.

4.9. Happiness is a skill

Pleasure cannot be cultivated only renewed. But we can cultivate inner peace, strength,
freedom the qualities that create genuine happiness. We start with different baselines. For
instance, everyone will not become a champion of tennis, but within a few months or a few
years of training, even a beginner can become a decent player and enjoy it.

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4.10. Negative emotions like anger
If we witness someone beating a child or an injustice, anger can motivate we to do
something. But all the studies have shown that people who systematically vent their anger
just reinforce their tendency to be angry. We don’t just want to suppress it or we’ll be like a
time bomb. Instead, we look at our anger and let it vanish. When we cease to fuel a fire, it
slowly dies out. A mother who gets angry and aggressive is taken over by nerves. A mother
can love but still firm, straight and a bit severe. We can extend that attitude of the mother to
others.

4.11. Relationship sadness, happiness and ambition

Sadness is not incompatible with happiness because happiness is not just a pleasant sensation.
Sadness can help our feel compassion. Even when we are sad, we can continue to do
wonderful things. Ambition for wealth, fame or power puts our hopes and fears outside
ourselves. It’s individualistic, self-centered and egocentric. But ambition in terms of
becoming a better person, preserving the environment or finding inner peace can motivate us.

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4.12. Happiness ways in life
Understand what it is that will make us happy. Everyone has unique requirements for
attaining happiness and what makes one person happy may be very different from what
makes someone else happy. Revel in our individuality and do not worry about whether or not
our desires are comparable to those of our peers. Make a plan for attaining goals that we
believe will make us happy. Our mood will very likely increase as us pursue our goal because
we will feel better about ourselves for going after something we value. Surround ourselves
with happy people. It is easy to begin to think negatively when we are surrounded by people
who think that way. Conversely, if we are around people who are happy their emotional state
will be infectious.

4.12.1. Be with others who make our smile

Studies show that we are happiest when we are around those who are also happy. Stick with
those who are joyful and let rub off on us.

4.12.2. Hold on to our values

What we find true, what we know is fair, and what we believe in are all values. Over time,
the more we honor them, the better we will feel about ourselves and those we love.

4.12.3. Accept the good

Look at our life and take stock of what’s working, and don’t push away something just
because it isn’t perfect. When good things happen, even the very little ones, let them in.

4.12.4. Imagine the best

Don’t be afraid to look at what we really want and see our self-getting it. Many people avoid
this process because they don’t want to be disappointed if things don’t work out. The truth is
that imagining getting what we want is a big part of achieving it.

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4.12.5. Do things we love
Maybe we can’t skydive every day or take vacations every season, but as long as we get to do
the things we love every once in a while, we will find greater happiness.

4.12.6. Find purpose

Those who believe they are contributing to the well-being of humanity tend to feel better
about their lives. Most people want to be part of something greater than they are, simply
because it’s fulfilling.

4.12.7. Listen to heart

We are the only one who knows what fills us up. Our family and friends may think we be
great at something that really doesn’t float our boat. It can be complicated following our
bliss. Just be smart, and keep our day job for the time being.

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4.12.8. Push yourself, not others
It’s easy to feel that someone else is responsible for your fulfillment, but the reality is that it
is really your charge. Once you realize that, you have the power to get where you want to go.
Stop blaming others or the world, and you’ll find your answers much sooner.

4.12.9. Be open to change

Even if it doesn’t feel good, change is the one thing we can count on. Change will happen, so
make contingency plans and emotionally shore our self-up for the experience.

4.12.10. Bask in the simple pleasures

Those who love us, treasured memories, silly jokes, warm days, and starry nights these are
the ties that bind and the gifts that keep on giving.

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4.13. Practical ways to live a happier life
Living a happier life often seems to be about living our big dreams and putting in a lot of
work over a long time. We agree that it is one part. But another part of happiness is here in
small ways today.

4.13.1. Be kind in small ways

Let someone in into our lane while driving our car. Hold up the door or hold the elevator for a
stranger. Not just because that we tend to get back what we give in some form. But for
ourselves too, these little things add up and make us feel better about ourselves.

4.13.2. Be appreciative of other people

Replace the habit of spotting the things that annoy us about people with one where we make
small or big positive observations about them. It could be their great sense of style when it
comes to shoes, how they always make us laugh when we need it or simply that they are
always on time. Be sure to tell them that.

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4.13.3. Cut down negative person and media influence in life
Cut back on the time we spend with most negative person in our life. And spend more time
with the most positive persons. Cut out or cut down on the most negative media influence in
our life. It could be the news on TV, the newspaper, some magazine or type of music, type of
books or blogs or websites. Replace that time and find new energy and inspiration from one
or more positive sources like inspiring movies and books. Or uplifting music and people.

4.13.4. Do what is not “you”

Try a new dish for lunch. Read a book or watch a movie that is not in your usual genre. Learn
a little about a topic that is not something you are usually into. This is a great and fun way to
find new perspectives in life, to grow and to expand your comfort zone just a little on a daily
or weekly basis. Cultivating this habit also makes it easier to get out of your comfort zone
when larger and “scarier” opportunities present themselves.

4.13.5. Let go of one thing from our past

Clinging on to an old conflict, argument or that we were wronged by someone can consume a
lot of time, energy and space in our life. It can also be oddly comforting since we are so used
to it. But life happens right now, day by day. So, to stop hurting ourselves we have to accept
that what is in our mind is in the past now. By accepting that it is in the past but also in there
inside of we as a memory we can start to decrease the hold this memory has over us. By
accepting that is there and that we need to let go to live our life fully now that memory will
lose much of its power. And we can let go.

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4.13.6. Take the smarter and higher road
Don’t be someone the people can walk all over, set boundaries and say no when needed. But
recognize that unnecessary conflicts just waste our time and energy. And that some people
are so addicted to the drama and conflicts that we will never win or reach an understanding
between the two of us. There are more fun and good things to spend time on in our life. So,
try to reach an understanding. But if it doesn’t work then remove ourselves from getting
drawn into their conflicts and make the day better for both us and possibly them.

4.13.7. Kind & Appreciate ourselves

The next time we make a mistake or fail don’t treat ourselves like a jerk of a boss would.
Instead, be kind, see what we can learn from what happened, gently nudge ourselves in the
right direction again and keep going. It’s ok and something that a lot of people don’t do
enough. Spend 5 minutes tonight with thinking about or writing down in journal the things
we can appreciate about ourselves and how far we have come.

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 Chapter 5: Conclusion
In conclusion, each person defines happiness in his own ways based on personal perceptions
and life stages. In general, determining the top priority elements in achieving one's objectives
and living a good life are the two most important factors to attain happiness. I mention in this
report the happiest person’s life lessons. What way to follow for happiness in our life what
we done for happiness also about the happier life things. Considering the fact that people are
all motivated to attain objectives for their happiness, they should first give different weight to
different subjects, such as health, money, family or occupation. Few people can attain several
aims at the same time. Therefore, the primary factor to achieve happiness is identifying the
top priority elements. In addition, in order to be truly happy, it is necessary to live a good life
as well as to do something useful with their lives. Some people get a sense of achievement
from their work, whereas others find happiness is bringing up their children.

Even though the data and organizing the report was done at the best, few limitations were
there while finalizing the report. Here are the few limitations. Lack of reliable sources. Data
were insufficient and forged sources were available in online.

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 Reference
1. Anthony Barnes;(2007). Independent online journal. Retrieved from
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-happiest-man-in-the-world-
433063.html
2. Mat Smith;(2017). Esquire online article. Retrieved from
http://www.esquire.co.uk/life/fitness-wellbeing/news/a4915/matthieu-ricard-what-ive-
learned/
3. Kirkus reviews;(2012). Happiness book. Retrieved from
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/matthieu-ricard/altruism/
4. Matthieu Ricard;(2012). Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important
Skill (Paperback).
5. Lifehack;(2016). Some Tips in Life that Lead to Happiness online article. Retrieved
from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/9-tips-in-life-that-lead-to-
happiness.html
6. Der justine leun van;(2010). Triumph of the Spirit Q&A article. Retrieved from
https://bolstablog.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/ricard/
7. Barton Goldsmith Ph.D;(2012). Emotional fitness blog. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/emotional-fitness/201204/10-simple-ways-
find-happiness
8. IELTS Writing Sample;(2011). Happiness is life. Retrieved from
http://ielts.studyhorror.com/writings/happiness-considered-very-important-life-
difficult-define/106

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