The extraordinary story of how a leading Buddhist monk overcame persecution, addiction and trauma to find enlightenment

Lama Yeshe didn't see a car until he was 15-years-old and growing up in a quiet Tibetan village, he ran in fields with yaks and mastiffs. The passing of time was simply marked by the changing seasons, life was simple and free.

The arrival of Chinese army one day in 1959 changed his life forever. In the wake of the deadly Tibetan Uprising he escaped through the Himalayas with 300 of his people and found safety in India as a refugee - only 13 survived. He spent the next few years in America, indulging in the excesses of the Woodstock generation. Ignoring his brother for years, he succumbed to the vices of sex and alcohol until one day his brother is killed and he vows to change.

Now in his seventies and abbot of the Samye Ling Monastery - the largest Buddhist centre in the west - Lama Yeshe reflects on his turbulent life and his learnings on self-compassion, discipline, loss and failure.