{"id":17788,"date":"2012-11-01T15:39:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-01T20:39:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drishtikone.com\/?p=17788"},"modified":"2012-11-01T15:39:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T20:39:30","slug":"french-disciple-of-dalai-lama-matthieu-ricard-is-worlds-happiest-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drishtikone\/2012\/11\/french-disciple-of-dalai-lama-matthieu-ricard-is-worlds-happiest-man\/","title":{"rendered":"French Disciple of Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard, is "World's Happiest man""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Tibetan monk and molecular geneticist Matthieu Ricard being tested for Gama Waves<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Researchers at University of Wisconsin have found<\/a> out that Western Buddhist Monk and a disciple of Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard (a molecular geneticist by training), produces the highest level of Gama waves (responsible for consciousness, attention, learning and memory) \u2013 ever produced in their recorded history.<\/p>\n

So, hilariously, they were quick to announce that he \u2013 one who has learnt his meditation \u2013 from Dalai Lama \u2013 is the \u201cHappiest Man in the World\u201d.\u00a0 Vanity of Western world and its ignorance is unbelievable.\u00a0 Of course, Ricard hopefully knows better and still regards for his Guru, Dalai Lama.\u00a0 But there are so many Westerners who have gone to Indian and other Eastern Gurus only to come back and declare stuff (knowledge and capabilities) they possess, as if it was their own creation.<\/p>\n

And, that brings me one of the strangest thing I have seen in the Spiritual world.\u00a0 Since Swami Vivekananda set foot on the US shores, its been almost 120 years.\u00a0 Since then, except for one or max two, I haven\u2019t really seen a whole lot of Westerners going all the way to Realization.\u00a0 Instead, folks go to India (or Tibet), get the \u201cstuff\u201d, come back and start their school or write a best seller and they are done!\u00a0 After that there is no urge to go ahead.<\/p>\n

Ricard is a good disciple I am sure and I only have high regard for who he is and his level of realization.<\/p>\n

However, at the same time, I can bet it that there would hundreds of Monks in the Tibetan monasteries who are as good or even better out there.\u00a0 When he spends the time doing promotions, those folks are busy leading an uneventful life.<\/p>\n

Yes, his role is important for Dalai Lama to promote his teaching which is essential in today\u2019s world; but one wonders if that is what should be the goal and only role of Westerners in a Spiritual school?\u00a0 Writing Best-sellers, Promoting something or starting a school to teach things themselves without having really Realized it?<\/p>\n

In their eagerness to share stuff and also look \u201cdifferent\u201d, many like Ken Wilber etc, throw away all the linkages with the source from where they get it and present the whole practice and philosophy as if they just dreamt it one fine day.\u00a0 Some Indian writers are \u2013 for a good reason \u2013 now calling this practice as Digestion of Dharma<\/em>.\u00a0 (read The Tiger and the Deer: Is Dharma being digested into the West?<\/a> by Rajiv Malhotra)<\/p>\n

There are many issues with this practice of digestion.\u00a0 One of the most important one is that the \u201cdigesting\u201d structure is not ready nor built to handle the entire philosophy and practice in its completeness, since it is an inorganic implantation..\u00a0 After all, if it was really \u201cbuilt\u201d for such a process, it would have come up with the practices itself.\u00a0 Ricard wouldn\u2019t have been the \u201cFirst and the Happiest Man on the Planet\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two, it presents an incomplete practice and philosophy devoid of its upstream processes.\u00a0 Let me explain using a business scenario.\u00a0 Erstwhile Continental Airlines tried to mimic Southwest Airlines to create a low cost subsidiary, but it failed miserably.\u00a0 The reason was because Southwest\u2019s processes \u2013 including the flight turnaround times \u2013 are all intertwined with the corporate structure and processes.\u00a0 One couldn\u2019t take simple ONE aspect \u2013 low cost \u2013 of Southwest and hope to transplant that in another structure and hope it will work.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t!!\u00a0 Similarly, you cannot give just Yoga as taught by Yoga studios or Meditation as taught by the New Age enthusiasts, and hope to create an enlightened society.\u00a0 It just doesn\u2019t happen that way.\u00a0 That is why in US you have this bizarre situation where people are \u201cpracticing Zen Meditation\u201d.\u00a0 Zen is a lifestyle.\u00a0 The way you breathe, the way you walk, the way you eat, the way you talk \u2013 everything is part of the whole practice of Zen!\u00a0 You cannot take 20 mins practices from the day of a Zen Master and hope to be benefited by Zen!\u00a0 It is downright foolish.\u00a0 But that is what is happening in Western world where Western \u201cTeachers\u201d are busy using Hindu and Buddhist practices to come up with their own \u201cshort cuts\u201d and \u201ccocktails\u201d to basically bastardize the entire work done by some truly great human beings!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at University of Wisconsin have found out that Western Buddhist Monk and a disciple of Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard (a molecular geneticist by training), produces the highest level of Gama waves (responsible for consciousness, attention, learning and memory) \u2013 ever produced in their recorded history. So, hilariously, they were quick to announce that he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1517,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[938,2194,2836],"class_list":["post-17788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spirituality","tag-dalai-lama","tag-matthieu-ricard","tag-rajiv-malhotra"],"yoast_head":"\nFrench Disciple of Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard, is "World's Happiest man"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Researchers at University of Wisconsin have found out that Western Buddhist Monk and a disciple of Dalai Lama, Matthieu Ricard (a molecular geneticist by\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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