I also have practitioners do variations of hatha yoga exercises in between sittings. This is not found in any Chinese or Japanese tradition. It's just that I feel stretching exercises are healthy for the body and necessary for modern practitioners.

My attempt to give each retreatant several personal interviews is adopted from Zen. I will interview each practitioner a couple of times during retreat, but not every day. I often leave it up to the practitioner. If he or she wishes to speak with me, I am usually available.

Chinese Ch'an monasteries are predominantly closed to lay practitioners. Our Ch'an Center in New York is open to and mostly frequented by householders. A typical Ch'an monastery consists of a group of monks and nuns living and practicing together for many years. One doesn't find householders attending week-long retreats and then returning to their regular lives and daily schedules.

Things are different in the United States. It will never be the same here as it is in China, so I have had to restructure things and modify the way I teach. Ch'an and Zen will have to change and adapt if they are to survive in modern cultures, whether Eastern or Western.

STUDENT:

On retreats at the Ch'an Center, we do prostration practice. Is this also an element of the Zen sect?

SHIH-FU: