Peter and Jessica instructed us on what to do with the white scarves. Hand them to the elder monk to drape over your necks. We were visiting Geshe-La Gendun Samdup and an elder monk who had come from Spiti.

It was a simple home and office space, with beds, a computer, and filing cabinets all competing for space. All tucked into a corner below the winding streets of Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj. With the Himalayan foothills and the actual Himalayas behind them, looking from a distance.

We were fortunate to have an hour or two with Geshe-La, who was essentially the Tibetan Buddhist equivalent of an advanced PhD in religious studies. He had the shaved head and maroon robes of a monk. While I’m terrible at guessing ages, I’d be surprised if he were more than 10 years older than us. His face beamed with a youthful radiance.

The questions we asked were simple and crazy. What is suffering? How does reincarnation work in the Tibetan Buddhist system of thought? If Tibetan Buddhism endorses the idea that our present lives are the result of past actions, does that justify acceptance of status quo oppression? (“That person may need help and is hungry, but they did something to deserve it in a past life.”)

English was apparently Geshe-La’s third language. First came Tibetan, then came Hindi, and then our Western tongue. And so it wasn’t surprising that Geshe-La didn’t get all the nuances of what we were asking in English. So eventually, I switched to Hindi. I couldn’t have done it six months ago, but suddenly I could ask a basic question about Buddhist thought in a language other than English. And Geshe-La could quickly answer.

As we left, I was reminded that I could meet Geshe-La again. In August, he would be back at the Nechung Buddhist Center in Albany, California. Just a stone’s throw away from San Francisco.