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Many Voices, one journey. Sounds true.com. You're listening to Insights at the Edge. Today my guest is Matu Ricard. Mathieu is an author and

photographer who earned a PhD in cell genetics. He is also a Buddhist monk who has

served as the Dalai Lama's French interpreter since 1989.

Matthew has written several books including The Monk and the Philosopher, The Quantum and the Lotus, as well as the art of meditation.

With sounds true he has released an audio learning program based on his book called

Happiness, a guide to developing life's most important skill.

In this episode of Insights at the Edge, I spoke with Matthew via Skype while he was at his monastery in Nepal quite late at night.

We discussed the skill of happiness as well as the conditions for happiness. We also discussed the physical and

psychological effects of meditation along with ways to track the progress you make

in your spiritual practice.

Here's my conversation with Matthew Ricard.

You talk and write about happiness as a skill.

And since I heard you introduce that idea that happiness is a skill,

honestly I've been thinking about

happiness as something that descends from the clouds if you're lucky.

How is it a skill?

Well, there are two things that puzzles me when people say, well, you know, you cannot define

happiness because it's very personal.

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