Cultivating compassion with the Dalai Lama's translator
Thupten Jinpa was all set. He was a bright young Tibetan Buddhist monk, who had joined the Dalai Lama's inner circle as principal English-language translator.
But something was missing, something important. Thupten Jinpa felt deep stirrings for a different life - for having a family.
Today, he's a professor at McGill University. He still translates for the Dalai Lama. He has worked to create a course in Compassion Cultivation Training at Stanford University. And, yes, he is married, and has two teenaged daughters.
Jinpa tells Mary Hynes about his long and winding journey from Tibet to northern India to England to Montreal.
He shares stories of being teased by the Dalai Lama and of how a Buddhist monk's patience is no match for a two-year-old's temper.
Professor Jinpa has translated many Tibetan spiritual classics into English. It's unclear whether he ever encountered the philosophy of one Yogi Berra, however he would probably endorse the baseball sage's life wisdom: when you come to a fork in the road, take it!
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