Dilgo Khyentse Fellowship

Teachers

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche Matthieu Ricard More Teachers
Matthieu Ricard Project Manager
Matthieu Ricard has lived and worked in the Himalayan region for the last thirty years. He is a Buddhist monk and resides at Shechen Tennyi Dargyeling Monastery in Nepal. Born in France in 1946, he grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris’ intellectual circles and worked for his PHD degree in biochemistry at the Institute Pasteur. After completing his doctoral thesis in 1972, Mr. Ricard decided to forsake his scientific career and concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies.
He lived in the Himalayas with the greatest living teachers of that tradition and became the close student and attendant of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche until his passing in 1991. Since then, Mr. Ricard has dedicated his activities to fulfilling Khyentse Rinpoche’s vision. Mr. Ricard’s photographs of the spiritual masters, the landscapes and the people of the Himalayas have appeared internationally in numerous books and magazines. Henri Cartier-Bresson has said of his work, “Matthieu’s spiritual life and his camera are one, from which springs these images, fleeting and eternal.”
He is the author and photographer of Journey to Enlightenment and Monk Dancers of Tibet and, in collaboration, the photobook, Buddhist Himalayas. He is the translator of numerous Buddhist texts, including The Life of Shabkar. The dialogue with his father, Jean-Francois Revel, The Monk and the Philosopher, was a best seller in Europe, and The Quantum and the Lotus reflects his long-standing interest in science and Buddhism. His new book, Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill, explores on the meaning and fulfillment of happiness. His signed photographs in limited edition are available for sale at shechen@sprynet.com. (For information on these publications go to Books, Video, CD.) He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East. For the last few years, Mr. Ricard has spent several months a year in Tibet implementing charitable projects that build and maintain clinics, schools and orphanages in the region. Since 1989, he has accompanied the Dalai Lama to France acting as his personal interpreter. For more information on Matthieu Ricard's activities in Europe, e-mail info@karuna.fr. updated 7/22/06