Who is the happiest guy on the planet?

If you guessed it's the next guy to marry Pamela Anderson, dude, you are seriously out to lunch. Nope, its the guy on the right....his name is Matthieu Ricard. He is a Frenchman (who would of guessed). He started out his working career as biologist and become world renowned. He had a pile of other achievements too long and boring to mention. Then he became a buddist monk and rose to become the Dalai Lama's right hand man.
They took this 'happy monk' and hooked him up to an MRI machine and measured all kinds of interesting stuff. What the scientists concluded was that this guy was off the scale in terms of mind control and his ability to increase the upbeat impulses in his brain! In conclusion Matthieu is one seriously happy guy.
Once they concluded that he was using his control over his mind and not some artificial means (drugs) naturally everyone wants to know how?
Matthieu obliged and wrote a book. Monks love to share and monks love brevity so he called his book...Happiness. Monks don't have much need for money so he donates his proceeds from the book to some Tibetan charity. In the book he tells us how we can become happy like him and his buddy the Dalai Lama and best of all we don't have to join any monestry. Whew, I'm not really big on celebacy!
I haven't read the book yet, but I found some quotes on the internet, which I'm happy to share:

"most people exist like beggars
unaware of the treasures
buried beneath their shack"

interesting..

"we can achieve happiness

like a bird soaring into the sky

when his cage is opened"

poetic guy too...

anyway, he gives practical techniques we can use to become happy like him and from what I've been able to ascertain it has lots to do with meditation and feeling gratitude for everything. Since mediatation has lots to do with being quiet, I'm thinking I'm been getting better at that already.

Something you should know is that these top level Buddist monks, they have a really great sense of humor. I read on the internet that a reporter asked the Dalai Lama what he would do if some nutcase burst into a room full of him and his fellow monks and wanted to murder everyone and the Dalai Lama had a gun. Here is what one the greatest inspirational and religous leaders in the world said.....I'd begin shooting him in the legs....If that didn't work, I'd move up to his head. Beautiful!

Since I am really big on being happy, I'm going to the bookstore tomorrow and see if they have the book. If I stop blogging, you will know that I'm just too darn happy to bother with this stuff anymore!