Do you want to be permanently full of joy just like the world's happiest man?

Of course you do — and luckily, there's one very simple thing you need to do to attain “true happiness.”

According to Matthieu Ricard, a Tibetan monk and a confidante of the Dalai Lama, it's ridiculously simple: Just go vegan.

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In a campaign video for PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the 71-year-old Frenchman urged people to take up the diet, saying,

True happiness can only be attained when we avoid causing pain to others, so please become vegan like me.

And who are we to argue with him?

In 2012, research on Ricard's brain by neuroscientist Richard Davidson produced extraordinary results.

Excessive activity in his brain's left prefrontal cortex compared to the right revealed he has an especially large capacity for happiness, researchers said.

The level of gamma waves produced by his brain had “never (been) reported before in the neuroscience literature.”

In the PETA video, he added,

I am extremely concerned by the fate of the 8 million other species who share this world with us, and who, like us, wish to avoid suffering and live out their lives. When you ask people if they are in favor of justice and morality, everyone will say yes. Do you think you could then ask that it's just and moral to inflict unnecessary suffering on sentient beings? Everyone will say no. And that's exactly the case, because today this suffering is not necessary. If you love animals, watch and take action.

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As well as his claims about eating meat affecting levels of happiness, Ricard, a former genetic scientist who is a scholar of Western religion, cited studies that have linked meat to health conditions. These include a possible link to heart disease, he said.

So if you're looking for the key to true happiness, you might need to ditch the meat.

Citations: The secret ingredient to a happy life? Going VEGAN: Tibetan monk dubbed 'world's happiest man' says eating meat is the reason we feel unfulfilled (MailOnline)