Enchu's Three Calls

The Reading:

THE CASE
The National Teacher called the attendant three times, and three times he answered.  The National Teacher said, "I thought I had transgressed against you, but it seems you transgressed against me."
...

A monk asked Hogen, "What is the meaning of the National Teacher's calling the attendant?"  Hogen said, "Ask me some other time."
...
A monk asked Joshu the same question.  Joshu answered, "It is like a man writing in the dark; the letters are not quite right, but they are legible."

Mumonkon, Zen and Zen Classics Volume Four, Case Seventeen

R.H. Blyth

Discussion:

Whatever else we say of Blyth, this is where his genius lies.  Where else can we find the source text, the translation, and then a commentary which includes how two different Zen Masters, Hogen and Joshu, replied to questions about this case?  It's ridiculously amazing.  It renders all other scholarship on the subject laughable.  When I go to the shelves of books stores, internet or otherwise, I am saddened to see that ground which has already been covered so definitely is walked again and again, while so much is left to be done.

We can console ourselves with the fact that no one is reading this stuff anyway, and more than that, there is very little in the way of Zen teaching in America.  But what do I know?  Even now enclaves of Zen Masters could be meeting to read Blyth aloud, shake their heads, clasp hands, and sit down to tea and table tennis.