Benedict once taught the monks

Actor Benedict Cumberbatch (right) has revealed he once taught English to monks at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery for a year.

According to reports, the 40-year-old actor spent a year in Nepal at a Tibetan Buddhist monastery teaching religious men English. Cumberbatch loved the experience, as post his lessons he would go hiking with his friends, see beautiful sights and he used the time to explore philosophical ideas such as the nature of being. “I used to teach monks in the morning ... When I was at the monastery I read Fritjof Capra’s book The Tao of Physics. The thing about it is even if we can explain everything, the explanations are wonderful,” he says.

“I hit walls trying to understand things in the universe. There’s a spirituality in science, there’s a wonder in logic, and the world just gets bizarre the more you think about it,” he adds.