"In these times of economic crisis, everybody is searching for solutions. And if altruism could be the solution?"
- Matthieu Ricard
Altruism seems to be the single factor that could integrate three different time-scales related to the well-being of those affected by the economy. In the short term, an altruistic attitude can prevent us from cynically ignoring the well-being of those whose resources we manipulate. In the medium term, altruism makes us care for the quality of life of all those involved in the company’s activities. In the long term, altruism keeps us from neglecting the well-being and survival of future generations through ignoring the impact of our activities on the environment.
Matthieu Ricard trained as a molecular biologist. He is the personal French interpreter for the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso. For more than thirty years, Ricard has been a Tibetan Buddhist monk living in the Himalayas with the great spiritual masters, or travelling the world in a gold and saffron robe talking about spirituality, his love of photography, and the Dalai Lama with whom he often speaks. When not on tour, he spends his time in the Schechen Monastery in Nepal, devoting his time to the practice of monastic life, the preservation of Tibetan culture, and humanitarian projects in Tibet.
AN EXTRAORDINARY LIFE JOURNEY
Matthieu Ricard is the son of Jean-François Revel (philosopher, author, journalist and member of the Académie française) and Yahne Le Toumelin, an abstract painter and former Buddhist nun. Born in 1946, he completed a doctorate in genetics at the Institut Pasteur, and then went to live in the Himalayas, where he was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1978. He has been the personal French interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama since 1989. A series of dialogues with his father was published under the title The Monk and the Philosopher: A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life (Le moine et le philosophe). He has also published The Quantum and the Lotus: A Journey to the Frontiers Where Science and Buddhism Meet (L’infini dans la paume de la main) with astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan, and Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill (Plaidoyer pour le bonheur), a wonderful book that explains in simple language Buddhist guidelines for attaining well-being. He has also published several books of photography, including Motionless Journey: From a Hermitage in the Himalayas (2007). Since 2000, Ricard has been associated with the Mind and Life Institute as an active participant in scientific research on mind training and its long-term effects on the brain (neuroplasticity).
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www.karuna-canada.org
www.esseleadership.ca
www.laffont.fr
$21,25 to $25
SCHEDULE
Saturday September 12, 2009 at 7:30 pm
All sales profits will be donated to the Karuna Canada foundation supporting Matthieu Ricard’s humanitarian projects.
La TOHU's large pay-parking area is open for all events.
