With palms together,
Good Evening Everyone,
A question came up today at the Temple. It had to do with the nature of dokusan in our Order. I tried to answer, stumbling as I am prone to do on occasion. I thought I would offer a more comprehensive answer this evening.
Dokusan is typically a private interview between a student and his/her teacher. In the tradition, the general term is sanzen, and it has three types. The first deals with listening to the teacher’s lectures in a group, the second is the private interview, and the third is visiting the teacher “in secret.”
My former teacher held dokusan in his office which was a small room that acted as a connection between the two bedrooms of his house in the mountains. It had a door on one room entrance and a set of swinging louvered doors on the other. I have done dokusan in my small Zendo in my residence. This had a door. At the current temple, we do not have a door on the office entrance, although I have asked the landlord for one. When we move into the new temple, I am hopeful we will have an office where we could do dokusan in a more private context than we have at this time, if we chose to do so.
Dokusan has a long and varied history in Zen. It is typically a brief encounter where the student is essentially asked to show their true nature, their understanding, or offer something about their practice. Many of the stories throughout the history of Zen are a result of such encounters, although these do not usually take places in offices, but rather on walks, during work, or on some other off-hand occasion. Offices, we might say, are a fairly modern and, I believe, “western” comfort.
I have not often used an office for dokusan. It reminds me too much of being a therapist, and a Zen teacher is decidedly NOT a therapist. My private interviews are much more conversations than tests of a student’s understanding. I see my student’s practice as witnessed in Zazen, kinhin, oryoki, and samu, as its own best “test.” I might say that dokusan is a moment to moment experience of practicing under the teacher’s eye. For scheduled dokusan, I like to see it as a personal dialogue, typically using a text to compliment the process.
There are times, of course, when I might go directly to a student’s understanding. It may be at a time the student least expects it and it may feel uncomfortable. Zen is a practice that often takes us out of our comfort zone. This is a good thing. Comfort zones have become our contemporary places to hide in plain sight. They allow us to decline anything that will challenge us and, as a result, we decline possibilities for growth.
I would like to invite any of you to ask for time with me. This is a first, “out of our comfort zone,” step. I will be happy to see you. We can talk in person or via Skype video conferencing. The procedure is to go to our Temple calendar, find a time, and then email Soku Shin for an appointment. She can be reached at clearmindzen@yahoo.com.
Be well.
Good Evening Everyone,
A question came up today at the Temple. It had to do with the nature of dokusan in our Order. I tried to answer, stumbling as I am prone to do on occasion. I thought I would offer a more comprehensive answer this evening.
Dokusan is typically a private interview between a student and his/her teacher. In the tradition, the general term is sanzen, and it has three types. The first deals with listening to the teacher’s lectures in a group, the second is the private interview, and the third is visiting the teacher “in secret.”
My former teacher held dokusan in his office which was a small room that acted as a connection between the two bedrooms of his house in the mountains. It had a door on one room entrance and a set of swinging louvered doors on the other. I have done dokusan in my small Zendo in my residence. This had a door. At the current temple, we do not have a door on the office entrance, although I have asked the landlord for one. When we move into the new temple, I am hopeful we will have an office where we could do dokusan in a more private context than we have at this time, if we chose to do so.
Dokusan has a long and varied history in Zen. It is typically a brief encounter where the student is essentially asked to show their true nature, their understanding, or offer something about their practice. Many of the stories throughout the history of Zen are a result of such encounters, although these do not usually take places in offices, but rather on walks, during work, or on some other off-hand occasion. Offices, we might say, are a fairly modern and, I believe, “western” comfort.
I have not often used an office for dokusan. It reminds me too much of being a therapist, and a Zen teacher is decidedly NOT a therapist. My private interviews are much more conversations than tests of a student’s understanding. I see my student’s practice as witnessed in Zazen, kinhin, oryoki, and samu, as its own best “test.” I might say that dokusan is a moment to moment experience of practicing under the teacher’s eye. For scheduled dokusan, I like to see it as a personal dialogue, typically using a text to compliment the process.
There are times, of course, when I might go directly to a student’s understanding. It may be at a time the student least expects it and it may feel uncomfortable. Zen is a practice that often takes us out of our comfort zone. This is a good thing. Comfort zones have become our contemporary places to hide in plain sight. They allow us to decline anything that will challenge us and, as a result, we decline possibilities for growth.
I would like to invite any of you to ask for time with me. This is a first, “out of our comfort zone,” step. I will be happy to see you. We can talk in person or via Skype video conferencing. The procedure is to go to our Temple calendar, find a time, and then email Soku Shin for an appointment. She can be reached at clearmindzen@yahoo.com.
Be well.
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