In the beginning this is not easy. After using the method their master has given them, some people feel they want a different, hopefully better, method. Actually, every method is the best method. There is no method which is especially good for a particular person, and there is no method that is especially useless to someone. The basic methods are suitable for most people. It is only after you have been practicing for a while that you should think about changing your method. The important thing is to have patience. As long as you put time and genuine effort into it, any of the methods of Ch'an will yield powerful results. If you don't persist, how do you know if the method is effective? If your practice has not matured, how can you know if the method is suitable? In practice the rule is to stick with the method your Shih-fu gives you. Some people are avid for techniques. They may learn a few methods from a master, pick some up from books or friends, and they use them one after the other. Each new technique seems to go very well, but after a while the mind gets scattered, so they find another one. These people are like the farmer in a Chinese fable who is worried that his rice crop is not growing fast enough, so he went around pulling at the shoots to encourage them to grow. Of course he only succeeded in uprooting them, and the next day when he checked again, the plants were dead. Don't be an anxious farmer; be patient. If you are, you will definitely get results. After getting even a little bit of benefit, you will feel very relaxed and blissful in mind and body, and your faith will grow, motivating you to practice very hard.

The third aspect of faith is faith in Shih-fu. It is very difficult to have complete faith in a master you have met for the first time on retreat. If the master is very famous, some people may feel that since everybody has faith in him they should also. But the faith of most people can only be partial. They think that the master can help them, but just how much, they are not sure. They are willing to give him a chance. On the other hand, what this master says and does may be quite different from what they imagined a master should say and do. So doubts naturally arise.