It's good to be concerned about the differences between the Tibetan and the Vipassana traditions, because there are differences. Now all of you have heard me say, on the last evening of the retreat, about going to other teachers. A teacher can be a great teacher, but just not quite right for us. I talked about playing the violin, playing piano, swimming and tennis, it's like you've just got to be careful. You've really got to be careful. If you want to learn how to swim, and you sit in front of a tennis coach on a tennis court, you ain't going to learn anything about swimming, forget it, and vice versa. So you do have to be careful with any teacher you go to, whether it's the Dalai Lama or anyone else, who's teaching in a way different to the way you want to go. It's just that simple. The Dalai Lama is seemingly a nice person, he's written some nice stuff, he gives some nice talks, he also says some things in his talks which are quite opposite to the perspective of Theravadin Buddhism, sometimes quite dramatically opposite. So you have to decide for yourself whether it is going to beneficial or not to sit in front of and listen to somebody who may give you some nice stuff, but may also give you some stuff that might lead you in the wrong direction.
Now it's not just Theravadin Vipassana type stuff and Tibetan and a big difference there, but we've got Zen practice, we've got Chinese Buddhist practice, and within Theravadin Buddhism we've got different schools as well. Some of you know about the Goenka school, some of you know the strict Mahasi school that this center originally catered for, and now balances a little. In Thailand there are some traditions where they teach you to be aware of your breath and go "Buddho, Buddho, Buddho", with your breathing. So even within Theravadin, the same thing still applies. You've got to be careful, the teacher may simply be teaching in a way that's very different to how you personally can go.
Now in light of that, once we were explained something helpful. One of our teachers said that a student could grow fastest if there was a teacher who matches their leading Paramis. This is interesting, this is almost the same as the swimming coach that can teach a swimmer faster than they can teach a tennis player. When we think of the Paramis, some are dramatically different in the way that they manifest. Regarding Rosemary and myself, you could say that some of our leading Paramis are Compassion, Patience and Wisdom. There might be another teacher who's very stern, who's very strong, kind of macho-orientated, who wants you to sit perfectly still, who talks about drive and push and push and push. And they may be a very good teacher. But that attitude is very different to the way that Rosemary and I teach. They could also have wisdom, but we could say that teacher's leading Paramis might be energy and determination., rather than a softer approach coming from Compassion, Patience, and Equanimity being more the focus. So even in Theravadin Buddhism, two teachers can both be great, but you may not match one with their leading Paramis.
In light of that, there's a story from the scriptures where a lay person went to one monk and asked the monk a question. This monk was fully enlightened and he answered in five minutes. It was too short for the person, they couldn't quite get the gist of it, the teacher was too brief. This person then went to Sariputta. Sariputta was the top monk under the Buddha for wisdom growth, and had a very analytical mind. This person asked Sariputta the exact same question. Sariputta took three hours. He answered the same question. But it was too much, it was overwhelming for this person. So they figured, "Well, both of these people are aren't wise," and they went to the Buddha. They explained to the Buddha exactly what had happened. They said "Obviously these people are wrong, what can you tell me?" The Buddha said they were both right, they both answered him correctly. But they didn't match that person's Paramis. Even though they were fully enlightened, they didn't match. So, whether it's the Dalai Lama, or whether it's the teacher that shows up here next month, you've got to see whether you really match up with the teacher.