Thupten Jinpa has been the primary translator for the Dalai Lama for over 20 years now. He translates during teachings and public talks and also during interviews. At a recent teaching in San Francisco, producer Julie Adler turned the microphone on him to talk about the pleasures and pressures of interpreting the speeches of man whose audience often clings to every word.

Robert Kiyosaki is the international best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad and world famous entrepreneur.  Following a distinctly different path is his younger sister, Emi Kiyosaki (aka Ani Tenzin Kacho), a Tibetan Buddhist nun.  Their two worlds collide when cancer and heart disease threatened Ani Kacho's health and she was unable to pay the bills.  Robert came to the rescue but not without a catch.  He required that his sister get with it, start learning how to be in the world financially.  Hence their new book, Rich Brother Rich Sister, which explores their life changing experiences and their two different approaches to money and to spirituality and how they influence each other.  In this month's OPEN MIND segment, producer Julie Adler invites Robert and Ani Kacho over to her place in Los Angeles to talk about some of the things they have learned working with each other.

"In reconnecting with Tenzin, I realized that a rich life has two balance sheets...a financial one and a spiritual one," writes Robert.  "My financial balance sheet was strong, but my spiritual one paled in comparison."

"When I faced cancer and heart disease, I realized for the first time that money - or the lack of it - affected not only the quality of life...but life itself," notes Tenzin.

BIOS:

Robert Kiyosaki grew up  in Hawaii and then served in the Marine Corps in Vietnam.  Following the war, he started a company that brought the first nylon and Velcro 'surfer' wallets to market.  Continuing in this entrepreneurial spirit, he founded an international financial education company which enabled him to retire at age 47.  Subsequently, he created the best selling and widely popular series of Rich Dad books that have sold over 28 million copies world wide.  

Ani Tenzin Kacho (aka Emi Kiyosaki) is Robert's sister and also grew up in Hawaii.  While Robert was in Vietnam, Emi was on the peace trail during which time she was also a single mother, caring for her daughter.  Drawn to the Buddhist path, in 1985, she ordained with the Dalai Lama as a Tibetan Buddhist nun, and for 6 years was the Buddhist chaplain at the US Air Force Academy.  She holds a Masters degree in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan language from Naropa University and currently is assistant spiritual director and teacher at Thubten Dhargye Ling Buddhist Center in Long Beach, California and also works as hospice chaplain in Los Angeles.

Singer songwriter, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer (for The Byrds & Crosby Stills & Nash), Grammy honored voice of a generation Woodstock era supergroup, and author of the book, Stand and Be Counted: the Dramatic Story of the Artists and Causes that Changed America', David Crosby has been making music and expressing the message of peaceful resistance for decades. On the eve before the Dalai Lama is to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, prominent musicians such as he and spiritual leaders come together at the National Cathedral in Washington DC to participate in a Pray for Peace concert inspired by His Holiness. This very windy afternoon, producer Julie Adler sits down to talk to him about his connection to Tibet.

At the end of a full week of events around the Dalai Lama receiving the Congressional Gold medal, perhaps the visit closest to his heart is the one His Holiness makes to N Street Village, a womens' homeless shelter in the center of downtown Washington DC where up to 800 women a year come for help. Producer Julie Adler is on the scene for this rare and moving occasion.

Explorer, Tibet scholar and author Ian Baker talks about his life's work, experiencing the fabled 'hidden lands' of Tibet, which are considered by Tibetans to be the most sacred places on earth. One such place, Pemako (aka Land of the Lotuses), is the subject of his book, 'The Heart of the World', which not only "recounts one of the most captivating stories of exploration and discovery in recent memory... to one of the wildest and most inaccessible places on earth, (but is) a meditation on our place in nature, (and) a pilgrimage to the heart of the Tibetan Buddhist faith." Ian reveals what the ultimate goal is of reaching such a secret land and describes how vital these places are to future of our world. ?Ian Baker?s journeys into one of the least explored regions of Tibet will inspire others not only to venture into unknown lands on a geographical level, but also to discover the inner realms within which our own deepest nature lies hidden? His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Over a three year period, veteran journalist Thomas Laird conducted 18 candid interviews with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in India, in which the Dalai Lama shared the history of Tibet in conversation, something not done since the 1600s. These conversations comprise a new book, 'The Story of Tibet: Conversations with the Dalai Lama'. Thomas Laird has over 25 years of experience as a journalist in Asia. He is also a photographer and the author of 'Into Tibet: The CIA's First Atomic Spy and His Secret Expedition to Lhasa'. He has lived over half of his adult life in Asia, based for a number of years in Kathmandu, Nepal. Only recently has he resettled in the States, in New Orleans. An excerpt from the Introduction to 'The Story of Tibet": He [The Dalai Lama] looked at me quizzically."There are excellent academic histories of Tibet," I explained,but what is lacking is a popular history of Tibet-aimed at modern Westerners and Chinese-that is accurate, concise, and easy to read. You told me two years ago, in our first meeting, that Tibetan history is complex. You sounded despondent, as if it was impossible to explain Tibet's history to the average person. The way you said that haunted me, and since then I found myself reading everything available about Tibetan history. It is not impossible. I want to strip away the complexity and reveal the heart of the matter. I think that by focusing on your viewpoint of Tibetan history, this could be achieved. Most people will not read an academic history about Tibet, and they don't care what I think about Tibetan history, but they do want to know what you think about this history." He continued to look at me, waiting."Would you work with me so I can write a popular history of Tibet?" I asked."You know that no Dalai Lama has written a history of Tibet since the 1600s." THE STORY OF TIBET ? 2006 by THOMAS LAIRD, and reprinted with the permission of the publisher, GROVE PRESS

For three days in Pasadena, it might well have been called Little Tibet; with Buddhist teachings by the Dalai Lama attended by over 3000 people, a Tibetan bazaar offering traditional Tibetan food and dance performance, and crosswalks suddenly made brighter from hundreds of maroon-robed monks and nuns. Producer, JULIE ADLER, was on the scene to capture the atmosphere and to find out people's impressions of the teachings...you may be surprised by what you hear, and by who says it.