Notebooks of a Wandering Monk

Featured in the New York Times Magazine: The ‘World’s Happiest Man’ Shares His Three Rules for Life

Included in Publishers Weekly’s Fall 2023 Adult Announcements Memoirs & Biographies List

“Matthieu Ricard is an ordained Buddhist monk and an internationally best-selling author of books about altruism, animal rights, happiness and wisdom. His humanitarian efforts led to his homeland’s awarding him the French National Order of Merit. (Ricard’s primary residence is a Nepalese monastery.) He was the Dalai Lama’s French interpreter and holds a Ph.D in cellular genetics. In the early 2000s, researchers at the University of Wisconsin found that Ricard’s brain produced gamma waves — which have been linked to learning, attention and memory — at such pronounced levels that the media named him ‘the world’s happiest man.’”
—The New York Times Magazine

“In Notebooks of a Wandering Monk, the memoirs of renowned Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, he reflects on how our culture often associates happiness with achieving goals, acquiring possessions, professional accomplishments and, more lately, seeking validation on social media.”
—El Pais


“This beautifully written tome details [Ricard’s] life journey out of the world, as it were, and into wisdom and compassion. Ricard is an extraordinary exemplar. Even after decades traversing India, Nepal, and Bhutan, he demonstrates a sense of stillness and groundedness.”
—Lion’s Roar

Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk, humanitarian, writer, photographer, doctor in cellular genetics, and the French interpreter for the Dalai Lama. All of his royalties are donated to Karuna-Shechen, the humanitarian association he created twenty-two years ago, which benefits more than 450,000 underprivileged people every year in India, Nepal, and Tibet.

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