Everest and a Buddhist monk in Monterey. (Laughter) And so I just came, two days ago, from the

Himalayas to your kind invitation. So I would like to invite you, also, for a while, to

the Himalayas themselves. And to show the place where meditators, like me, who began

with being a molecular biologist in Pasteur Institute, and found their way to the mountains.

So these are a few images I was lucky to take and be there. There's the Mount Kailash in

Eastern Tibet -- wonderful setting. This is from Marlboro country. (Laughter) This is

a turquoise lake. A meditator. This is the hottest day of the year somewhere in Eastern

Tibet, on August 1. And the night before, we camped, and my Tibetan friends said, "We

are going to sleep outside." And I said, "Why? We have enough space in the tent." They said,

"Yes, but it's summertime." (Laughter)

So now, we are going to speak of happiness. As a Frenchman, I must say that there are

a lot of French intellectuals that think happiness is not at all interesting. (Laughter) I just

wrote an essay on happiness, and there was a controversy. And someone wrote an article

saying, "Don't impose on us the dirty work of happiness." (Laughter) "We don't care about

being happy. We need to live with passion. We like the ups and downs of life. We like

our suffering because it's so good when it ceases for a while." (Laughter)

This is what I see from the balcony of my hermitage in the Himalayas. It's about two

meters by three, and you are all welcome any time. (Laughter)

Now, let's come to happiness or well-being. And first of all, you know, despite what the

French intellectuals say, it seems that no one wakes up in the morning thinking, "May

I suffer the whole day?" (Laughter) Which means that somehow -- consciously or not,

directly or indirectly, in the short or the long term, whatever we do, whatever we hope,

whatever we dream -- somehow, is related to a deep, profound desire for well-being or

happiness. As Pascal said, even the one who hangs himself, somehow, is looking for cessation

of suffering -- he finds no other way. But then, if you look in the literature, East

and West, you can find incredible diversity of definition of happiness. Some people say,

I only believed in remembering the past, imagining the future, never the present. Some people

say happiness is right now; it's the quality of the freshness of the present moment. And

that led to Henri Bergson, the French philosopher, to say, "All the great thinkers of humanity

have left happiness in the vague so that they could define -- each of them could define

their own terms."

Well, that would be fine if it was just a secondary preoccupation in life. But now,

if it is something that is going to determine the quality of every instant of our life,

then we better know what it is, have some clearer idea. And probably, the fact that

we don't know that is why, so often, although we seek happiness, it seems we turn our back

to it. Although we want to avoid suffering, it seems we are running somewhat towards it.

And that can also come from some kind of confusions.

One of the most common ones is happiness and pleasure. But, if you look at the characteristics

of those two, pleasure is contingent upon time, upon its object, upon the place. It

is something that -- changes of nature. Beautiful chocolate cake: first serving is delicious,

second one not so much, then we feel disgust. (Laughter) That's the nature of things. We

get tired. I used to be a fan of Bach. I used to play it on the guitar, you know. I can

hear it two, three, five times. If I had to hear it 24 hours, non-stop, it might be very

tiring. If you are feeling very cold, you come near a fire, it's so wonderful. Then,

after some moments, you just go a little back, and then it starts burning. It sort of uses

itself as you experience it. And also, again, it can -- also, it's something that you -- it

is not something that is radiating outside. Like, you can feel intense pleasure and some

others around you can be suffering a lot.

Now, what, then, will be happiness? And happiness, of course, is such a vague word, so let's

say well-being. And so, I think the best definition, according to the Buddhist view, is that well-being

is not just a mere pleasurable sensation. It is a deep sense of serenity and fulfillment,

a state that actually pervades and underlies all emotional states, and all the joys and

sorrows that can come one's way. For you, that might be surprising. Can we have this

kind of well-being while being sad? In a way, why not? Because we are speaking of a different

level.

Look at the waves coming here to shore. When you are at the bottom of the wave, you hit

the bottom. You hit the solid rock. When you are surfing on the top, you are all elated.

So you go from elation to depression -- there's no depth. Now, if you look at the high sea,

there might be beautiful, calm ocean, like a mirror. There might be storms, but the depth

of the ocean is still there, unchanged. So now, how is that? It can only be a state of

being, not just a fleeting emotion, sensation. Even joy -- that can be the spring of happiness.

But there's also wicked joy, you can rejoice in someone's suffering.

So how do we proceed in our quest for happiness? Very often, we look outside. We think that

if we could gather this and that, all the conditions, something that we say, "Everything

to be happy -- to have everything to be happy." That very sentence already reveals the doom

of destruction of happiness. To have everything. If we miss something, it collapses. And also,

when things go wrong, we try to fix the outside so much, but our control of the outer world

is limited, temporary, and often, illusory. So now, look at inner conditions. Aren't they

stronger? Isn't it the mind that translates the outer condition into happiness and suffering?

And isn't that stronger? We know, by experience, that we can be what we call "a little paradise,"

and yet, be completely unhappy within.

The Dalai Lama was once in Portugal, and there was a lot of construction going on everywhere.

So one evening, he said, "Look, you are doing all these things, but isn't it nice, also,

to build something within?" And he said, "Unless that -- even you get high-tech flat on the

100th floor of a super-modern and comfortable building, if you are deeply unhappy within,

all you are going to look for is a window from which to jump." So now, at the opposite,

we know a lot of people who, in very difficult circumstances, manage to keep serenity, inner

strength, inner freedom, confidence. So now, if the inner conditions are stronger -- of

course, the outer conditions do influence, and it's wonderful to live longer, healthier,

to have access to information, education, to be able to travel, to have freedom. It's

highly desirable. However, this is not enough. Those are just auxiliary, help conditions.

The experience that translates everything is within the mind. So then, when we ask oneself

how to nurture the condition for happiness, the inner conditions, and which are those

which will undermine happiness. So then, this just needs to have some experience.

We have to know from ourselves, there are certain states of mind that are conducive

to this flourishing, to this well-being, what the Greeks called eudaimonia, flourishing.

There are some which are adverse to this well-being. And so, if we look from our own experience,

anger, hatred, jealousy, arrogance, obsessive desire, strong grasping, they don't leave

us in such a good state after we have experienced it. And also, they are detrimental to others'

happiness. So we may consider that the more those are invading our mind, and, like a chain

reaction, the more we feel miserable, we feel tormented. At the opposite, everyone knows

deep within that an act of selfless generosity, if from the distance, without anyone knowing

anything about it, we could save a child's life, make someone happy. We don't need the

recognition. We don't need any gratitude. Just the mere fact of doing that fills such

a sense of adequation with our deep nature. And we would like to be like that all the

time.

So is that possible, to change our way of being, to transform one's mind? Aren't those

negative emotions, or destructive emotions, inherent to the nature of mind? Is change

possible in our emotions, in our traits, in our moods? For that we have to ask, what is

nature of mind? And if we look from the experiential point of view, there is a primary quality

of consciousness that's just the mere fact to be cognitive, to be aware. Consciousness

is like a mirror that allows all images to rise on it. You can have ugly faces, beautiful

faces in the mirror. The mirror allows that, but the mirror is not tainted, is not modified,

is not altered by those images. Likewise, behind every single thought there is the bare

consciousness, pure awareness. This is the nature. It cannot be tainted intrinsically

with hatred or jealousy because, then, if it was always there -- like a dye that would

permeate the whole cloth -- then it would be found all the time, somewhere. We know

we're not always angry, always jealous, always generous.

So, because the basic fabric of consciousness is this pure cognitive quality that differentiates

it from a stone, there is a possibility for change because all emotions are fleeting.

That is the ground for mind training. Mind training is based on the idea that two opposite

mental factors cannot happen at the same time. You could go from love to hate. But you cannot,

at the same time, toward the same object, the same person, want to harm and want to

do good. You cannot, in the same gesture, shake hand and give a blow. So, there are

natural antidotes to emotions that are destructive to our inner well-being. So that's the way

to proceed. Rejoicing compared to jealousy. A kind of sense of inner freedom as opposite

to intense grasping and obsession. Benevolence, loving kindness against hatred. But, of course,

each emotion then would need a particular antidote.

Another way is to try to find a general antidote to all emotions, and that's by looking at

the very nature. Usually, when we feel annoyed, hatred or upset with someone, or obsessed

with something, the mind goes again and again to that object. Each time it goes to the object,

it reinforces that obsession or that annoyance. So then, it's a self-perpetuating process.

So what we need to look now is, instead of looking outward, we look inward. Look at anger

itself. It looks very menacing, like a billowing monsoon cloud or thunderstorm. But we think

we could sit on the cloud -- but if you go there, it's just mist. Likewise, if you look

at the thought of anger, it will vanish like frost under the morning sun. If you do this

again and again, the propensity, the tendencies for anger to arise again will be less and

less each time you dissolve it. And, at the end, although it may rise, it will just cross

the mind, like a bird crossing the sky without leaving any track. So this is the principal

of mind training.

Now, it takes time because we -- it took time for all those faults in our mind, the tendencies,

to build up, so it will take time to unfold them as well. But that's the only way to go.

Mind transformation -- that is the very meaning of meditation. It means familiarization with

a new way of being, new way of perceiving things, which is more in adequation with reality,

with interdependence, with the stream and continuous transformation, which our being

and our consciousness is.

So, the interface with cognitive science, since we need to come to that, and it was,

I suppose, the subject of -- we have to deal in such a short time with brain plasticity.

The brain was thought to be more or less fixed. All the nominal connections, in numbers and

quantities, were thought -- until the last 20 years -- thought to be more or less fixed

when we reached adult age. Now, recently, it has been found that it can change a lot.

A violinist, as we heard, who has done 10,000 hours of violin practice, some area that controls

the movements of fingers in the brain change a lot, increasing reinforcement of the synaptic

connections. So can we do that with human qualities? With loving kindness, with patience,

with openness?

So that's what those great meditators have been doing. Some of them who came to the labs,

like in Madison, Wisconsin, or in Berkeley, did 20 to 40,000 hours of meditation. They

do, like, three years' retreat, where they do meditate 12 hours a day. And then, the

rest of their life, they will do that three or four hours a day. They are real Olympic

champions of mind training. (Laughter) This is the place where the meditators -- you can

see it's kind of inspiring. Now, here with 256 electrodes. (Laughter)

So what did they find? Of course, same thing. The scientific embargo -- if ever has been

to submitted to "Nature," hopefully, it will be accepted. It deals with the state of compassion,

unconditional compassion. We asked meditators, who have been doing that for years and years

and years, to put their mind in a state where there's nothing but loving kindness, total

availability to sentient being. Of course, during the training, we do that with objects.

We think of people suffering, we think of people we love, but at some point, it can

be a state which is all pervading. Here is the preliminary result, which I can show because

it's already been shown. The bell curve shows 150 controls, and what is being looked at

is the difference between the right and the left frontal lobe. In very short, people who

have more activity in the right side of the prefrontal cortex are more depressed, withdrawn.

They don't describe a lot of positive affect. It's the opposite on the left side: more tendency

to altruism, to happiness, to express, and curiosity and so forth. So there's a basic

line for people. And also, it can be changed. If you see a comic movie, you go off to the

left side. If you are happy about something, you'll go more to the left side. If you have

a bout of depression, you'll go to the right side. Here, the -0.5 is the full standard

deviation of a meditator who meditated on compassion. It's something that is totally

out of the bell curve.

So, I've no time to go into all the different scientific results. Hopefully, they will come.