For most students, the only context in which this can happen is the Ch'an retreat. While the retreat experience is a matter of individual effort and interaction with the master, it is also a profoundly shared collective experience. As participants settle into the practice and surrender their private outlook, the boundaries of their sense of identification gradually soften, and in so doing, widen. The retreat routine dictates that everybody does the same thing at the same time, foregoing distractions such as conversation and socializing. The schedule is filled with meditation, interviews with the master, preparing meals, working, reciting morning, afternoon, and evening services, and hearing Dharma talks by the master. There is no surplus time for pursuing private interests. Even time in the bathroom is minimal because of the limited accomodations. Finally, there are frequent reminders from the master to maintain the practice even during rest periods after meals.

All this has a powerful effect on mood and feeling. There is a collective mind from which all draw strength and encouragement. While struggling with their private drama, all find in this common well some comfort and energy to help them move forward. Setting the tone and tempo, is the Ch'an master. His words, actions, gestures, even silence, provide the focus and the motivating energy. To those who have stilled their minds and attained deep concentration, there may come feelings of great peace, exhilaration, bliss, and awe. Their samadhi and composure in turn affect the others, lifting all to higher dedication.

However, such feelings may become distractions, ends in themselves, easily mistaken as genuine realization. Now, the Ch'an master's work becomes one of midwifery. He must guide and inspire the student, whose mind has ripened, to the more arduous effort that will be needed to give birth to the Buddha-mind. Before this can happen, the student must develop "a great ball of doubt." Master Sheng-Yen says, "getting the Buddha-mind depends on developing a great ball of doubt which drives the student to energetic and diligent practice. This is not the everyday kind of doubt, but doubt that comes from great faith and determination." The Ch'an master's skill is most revealed in how he brings the student to this state, how he causes the "ball of doubt" to grow in the student's mind. While we call this "skill, " it is actually a spontaneous expression of the master's compassion, which is not a sentiment, but a function of wisdom.