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Despite his five decades spent on Hollywood’s rollercoaster ride, Richard Gere knows a thing or two about achieving a Zen state. The actor, 76, has been a devout Buddhist for over 40 years.
“It wasn’t a particular event, but I think there was just an ongoing innate questioning of what is this?” he tells PEOPLE of leaning into Buddhism in his late 20s.
“Why am I here? What am I supposed to do of any value? What has meaning? What lasts? Is there anything that lasts? Is there anything that has real meaning and real depth to it? And I think a lot of people in their 20s go through that.”
With the new documentary film Wisdom of Happiness, which Gere produced and which focuses on the teachings of the Dalai Lama and how we can all be happier, he’s hoping to share what he’s learned about finding joy.
“Everyone wants happiness, but how do you get it?” he says. “We kind of trip all over ourselves trying to achieve our idea of happiness, which is usually pretty superficial.”
Instead of searching for money or material possessions, he says, we should be focused on being kind and compassionate, which brings that deeper joy so many people are searching for.
“We’re feeling beings, and we’re creatures of kindness and compassion and empathy, and we feel better when we behave that way. The happiness we’re looking for actually starts to manifest when we behave with kindness,” he says.
“It helps the other being, yes, but it does something to enrich our own hearts. Helping other people is going to make you feel better.”
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As for his own happiness, Gere says he’s achieved it and feels it the most when he’s at his home in upstate New York with his wife, Spanish publicist Alejandra Silva, with whom he shares three sons, including Silva’s son from a previous relationship. (Gere also shares a son, Homer, 25, with his ex-wife Carey Lowell.) They also have a home in Madrid, where Silva, is from.
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“I’m looking out my window here, and I’m so grateful that the trees and gardens are down there,” he says. “I have my piano and guitars and books and stuff, and I have my beautiful wife downstairs and my kids are in school and everyone’s healthy.”
He adds, “That’s it. That’s the key to my happiness.”
Wisdom of Happiness is now playing in select theaters.
