Chan originally stressed teaching through nonlinguistic intuition, but the number of people who can really achieve spiritual awakening in this way is small, so more convenient methods had to be developed, a congregation accepted, and self-cultivation through the use of riddles and paradoxes adopted. It was thus that the flourishing of Chan Seven came about.
禪宗原本以心傳心，然而真能當下開悟的人畢竟不多，於是只好開出種種方便法門，引接眾生，參話頭、參公案，時下盛行的禪七便是這麼來的。