Looking for quotation information.

September 20, 2006 2:26 PM

I'm trying to track down author and source for a specific quotation.

I am trying to find the author and source of this quote: "How many fish have turned into dragons while the frogs are still croaking?" I've checked Google, bartleby.com and various library reference resources and have come up with nothing. Any and all assistance appreciated!

posted by initapplette to writing & language (5 comments total)

Could you tell us the context for the quotation?
posted by Iridic at 2:48 PM on September 20, 2006

It appears on page 42 of the book To Realize Enlightenment: Practice of the Cultivation Path by Nan Huai-Chin. If you have an Amazon account you can see the page itself by "searching inside" the book (or follow the first link; I think it should work).

I think the quote is originally from the writings of Buddist pilgrim Xuanzang (see p. 40 of the book linked above), but I may be misunderstanding the text.
posted by arco at 2:53 PM on September 20, 2006

Thanks, arco!
posted by initapplette at 3:26 PM on September 20, 2006

I found a translation of Xuanzang's "Verses Delineating the Eight Consciousnesses" (the work quoted in the Nan book) online, and there doesn't appear to be anything resembling the quote, so I'm guessing it's from another source.
posted by languagehat at 5:28 PM on September 20, 2006

It appears on page 42 of the book To Realize Enlightenment: Practice of the Cultivation Path

Metafilter rules!!
posted by Neiltupper at 11:21 PM on September 20, 2006