DOKUSAN
Going to See the Teacher

WHY
There are any number of reasons why you may wish to go to a formal interview with a Zen teacher. Foremost among these are those deepest burning questions in your life. But perhaps the question is smaller:
> How to I begin my practice?
> How do I best continue this practice?
> How do I engage the issues that have arisen within my practice?

Here is an opportunity to speak in a special place with a person who has traveled the spiritual path for many years, who has passed hundreds of koans, and who has the sanction as a teacher within a line that goes back more than a thousand years.

HOW
Within our tradition, dokusan, the formal Zen interview, is extremely brief, often lasting no more than twenty or thirty seconds. However, our practice is more expansive, allowing a little more breathing time in the interview. Still, dokusan is meant to be intense and on point. As such it is rare for a dokusan interview to last ten minutes. Expect the interview to be no more than three to five minutes.

On occasions when dokusan is offered, if you wish to see James you will be asked to place a card in front of your zabuton or chair. People who need to leave early will be asked to signal that to the Tanto. On these evenings zazen periods will continue until everyone who wishes will have seen James.

When you are informed it is time to go to the dokusan line, get up, bow to your seat, turn, bow to the community, and then leave. You do not gassho as you leave the zendo. There will be a row of chairs in the hall. Take the first one available to you, starting from the chair closest to James's office. As people move forward, do so as well.

When the door opens and you hear the dokusan bell, enter. Traditionally there are three full bows: The first, at the threshold of the room. The second, after you've entered the room and closed the door behind you, toward the altar. Then take your seat in front of James.

Say your name and your question, or otherwise announce your practice. ("My name is ____, and my practice is counting the breath.") Or, if you have a koan, repeat it. Then let the encounter unfold.

When the interview is over, James will ring the bell. First you give a tea bow -- that is, from your seated position you put your hands on your thighs and make a slight bow. You then stand and make the third bow.

(Rather than full bows, standing and making simple gassho at the three points is fully acceptable.)

Return to your seat, hands in gassho. You make no bows entering the hall or at your meditation space.

Resume zazen.