Making it fit

Brooke Schedneck writes: "In the 1960’s Soen Shaku, a popular Zen teacher new to America, told his students if they wanted to practice meditation, then they should sit with him at 5:30AM. While Japanese students were required to bow 3 times after a meditation session, Shaku asked his American students to bow nine times. He made it harder for his American students than his Asian ones, and they liked the strict discipline." The article doesn't go very deep to inquire the dynamics behind some ubiquitous modifications, though. Read the whole piece.