Our Zen Master often used to say when he talked about different styles of Buddhism that it is very important that you "go there", that you don't just check which is the best, which is not so good, and compare. It is very important to "do it". So, if you like some form of meditation, he didn't say that you must change. No, you must "do it". This is very important. It is his teaching. And he always, in any country, at any time or place, he gave this teaching.
But we do have a lot of interest in Korea in different kinds of Buddhist teachings, for example Vipassana teaching. We also have a lot of interest in different schools of Buddhism. And many Korean monks like to travel and go around the world and learn about different kinds of practicing. And that is very wonderful. It means that Korean Buddhism is growing up. Because if the children only stay at home, when they grow up, they don't really grow up. When they get older, they need to go out and look and travel widely and learn in different places, and then they can come back to the family. But it is also important not to forget your roots and not forgetting your obligation to your original teacher and those people who brought the truth to you. So our teacher says that if you want to go from Seoul to Pusan, there are many different ways to go. You can go by bus, or train, or plane, or you can take a bicycle or walk. Maybe somebody feels that they don't want to be dependent on anybody, so they insist on walking or taking a bicycle to Pusan. Our teacher says that this is like practicing only with insight into my body, my breathing. This is Theravada Buddhism. He doesn't praise it very highly. He says, of course you have the sensation of doing it yourself, but it takes a long time because you don't do it together with any other people. Then he says that Mahayana Buddhism (from most of the countries in Asia, and also Tibet, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, China, and Taiwan) is like taking the bus, or taking the train.
