At Zen Mountain Monastery, up to three teachers are available at any one time to give instruction to residents and retreatants. This happens a number of ways, according to the daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal monastic schedule. Among them are:

• formal talk (dharma discourse/talk or teisho) • informal question-and-answer discussion (mondo) • private, face-to-face teaching encounter (dokusan or, if not with an abbot, daisan) • public, one-on-one teaching encounter (dharma combat or sosan) • casual interaction during the course of living, working, and eating together.

— Jack Maguire, Waking Up