On most days, I wake up at 7:00 am. Earlier if there is excessive chanting. The rest of my day is structured around three meetings with three geshés.

A geshé is a monk who has completed all the required work for the geshé degree, which is sort of like a monk Ph.D., and generally requires 15 years. They are the elite among the monks, aside from the Rinpochés, which I’ll explain later.

Geshé A Trang, from Northeastern Kham, TAR	From 8:00-10:00 I meet with Geshé A Trang, a master of astrology who His Holiness assigned to me shortly after I arrived. In addition to teaching me astrology and helping me translate my treasure revealer’s namtar, he helps me read difficult scripts and works with me to improve my Tibetan cursive handwriting. He speaks very little English and looks alarmed every time I start speaking Tibetan.
Geshé A Sonam, from Mustang	From 10:15-11:15 I meet with Geshé A Sonam, who is also the guestmaster. Every other day he helps me with my treasure revealer’s namtar or gives me teachings about Bön in Tibetan. On the off days I help him with his English writing skills and help him translate a book on Bön philosophy into English. A film crew from NYC recently came to film a documentary about his life story.
Geshé Monlam, from Dergé, Kham, TAR	From 3:00-5:00 pm, I meet with Geshé Monlam, a master of philosophy. We met randomly early in my stay and decided we could help each other. He mostly helps me with translating the namtar, but also teaches me about the Kham dialect, which so many of the monks here speak. He has an acutely Tibetan sense of humor. When I once told him I was sick — I had a minor cold — he said, “I hope you die quickly,” and laughed heartily.

Each of these meetings is one hour Tibetan and one hour English. It’s a very effective reciprocal relationship, and, since Geshés A Trang and Monlam speak very little English and Geshé Sonam wants me to help him translate from Tibetan to English, even the English sessions are helpful for me.