>>Dan Ariely: I want to start with the question
of what can we learn from Buddhism and your
own experience about happiness?
How do we become.
>>Matthieu Ricard:Well, I was thinking about
when the panel started with pleasure, the
relationship between the two.
You know, people speak of magic moments.
Walking in the snow and under the stars with
a wonderful person.
But sometimes this is magic moment, there's
nothing I can do about it, but when you think
about why was it magic?
At that time, it was a sense of having no
inner conflicts, of feeling a bit spacious
with the universe, with a loved one, this
kind of peace.
So it's not that magic.
You can understand why it happened.
So could we consider that as something like
a way of being that we could cultivate as
a skill?
Now, to come back to pleasure, you come back
from this walk in the snow and under the stars
and you take a wonderful hot shower.
It's bliss.
Pleasure.
Now, you stay 24 hours in that hot shower,
it's not so interesting.
So pleasure is very much dependent upon time,
circumstances.
It's something that uses itself as we consume
it.
And if it's -- on top of that you add craving
or grasping, then somehow it dims the feeling
of deep satisfaction.
Actually, you can enjoy something pleasurably,
and in the brain build up the wanting circuit
which is different, and at the end you may
experience something that you want without
feeling pleasure.
That's called addiction.
So in a way --
>>Dan Ariely: Just a moment there.
So you're trying to separate happiness from
pleasure and you say pleasure is much more
temporary and --
>>Matthieu Ricard: Well, pleasure, you look
for pleasurable sensations.
And so those are very vulnerable, let's say,
to outer circumstances.
And basically if you are keeping on trying
to renew that all the time, and this is the
recipe for happiness, it looks more like a
recipe for exhaustion.
