MATTHIEU RICARD: CONTEMPORARY TIBETAN BUDDHIST

Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, an author, translator, and photographer.  He has lived, studied, and worked in the Himalayan region for over forty years.

The son of French philosopher Jean-François Revel and artist Yahne Le Toumelin, Matthieu was born in France in 1946 and grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris’ intellectual and artistic circles.  He earned a Ph.D. degree in cell genetics at the renowned Institut Pasteur under the Nobel Laureate Francois Jacob.  In 1967, he traveled to India to meet great spiritual masters from Tibet.

After completing his doctoral thesis in 1972, he decided to concentrate on Buddhist studies and practice.  Since then, he has lived in India, Bhutan, and Nepal and studied with some of the foremost teachers of that tradition, among them Kyapje Kangyur Rinpoche (1897-1975) and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991).

He is the author of many books including The Monk and the Philosopher, a dialogue with his father; The Quantum and the Lotus, a dialogue with the astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan; Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill; and, The Art of Meditation.  His books have been translated into over twenty languages.

Living in close proximity to Tibetan teachers and culture has enabled him to capture on camera the spiritual masters, landscapes, and people of the Himalayas.

Henri-Cartier Bresson said of his photographs: "Matthieu's camera and his spiritual life are one, and from this spring these images, fleeting yet eternal."

Since 1989, Matthieu has served as the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama.  He is a board member of the Mind and Life Institute, an organization dedicated to collaborative research between scientists and Buddhist scholars and meditators.  His interest is the effect of mind training and meditation on the brain.  He has researched at universities in the USA (Madison, Princeton, and Berkeley), Europe (Zurich) and Hong Kong.

Matthieu donates all proceeds from his books, and much of his time, to forty humanitarian projects, including clinics, schools, bridges, orphanages, and elder care.  He is involved in vocational training in Himalayan areas, and in the preservation of the Tibetan cultural heritage. 

When he is not traveling, Matthieu resides at Shechen Monastery in Nepal.