Case 88: Gensha's "Three Diseases"

Gensha, instructing the assembly, said,
   "All old masters said, 'Attend to the living beings and save them.'
    Suppose you face three people with different diseases, how would you
    attend to them? The blind person can't see, even if you take up a gavel
    or raise a whisk. The deaf person can't hear, even if you speak beautiful
    phrases. The dumb person can't speak, even if you ask him to speak up.
    How would you attend to them?  If you cannot attend to these people,
    Buddhist Dharma has no true efficacy."
A monk asked Unmon about this. Unmon said, "Make a deep bow." The monk made a
deep bow and stood up. Unmon poked his staff at him. The monk retreated.
Unmon said, "So you are not blind." Further he said, "Come here." The monk
came closer to him. Unmon said, "So you are not deaf." Then he said,
   "Have you understood?"
The monk said,
   "No."
Unmon said,
   "So you are not dumb."
With that, the monk came to an insight.