The source of this saying is the Discourse Record of Zen Master Dachuan Puji大川普濟禪師語錄
. As quoted by Dachuan (1179-1253), the saying appears in a verse that has two phrases:
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In the conventions of Zen Buddhist literature, the dragon — a mythological winged serpent who can dive to the bottom of the sea and fly high through the air — is symbolic of an awakened being: a buddha, who moves unimpeded through all environments. The “deep pool of water” referred to here represents the human mind, which is ordinarily caught up in delusion and thus obscured to itself. When the dragon “arises” out of its lair in the water and flies into the air — i.e. when one attains awakening satori 悟 — one gains some detachment from and perspective on the workings of one’s own mind.
The probable source of Dachuan’s verse is one found in the Discourse Record of Zen Master Yuanwu Foguo圓悟佛果禪師語錄
, where the second phrase differs slightly:
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In composing this verse, Yuanwu圓悟
(1063-1135) invokes a winter scene, saying: “When the heavens are cold, people are cold…. any drop of water becomes a drop of ice.” He then quotes an earlier Zen master, Xianglin Chengyuan香林澄遠
(908-987), who compared a true monk’s aspiration for awakening to “a fire burning a mountain in the month of the winter sacrifice.”臘月火燒山
That sacrifice occurred around the time of the winter solstice, in the 12th month, which was not only coldest time of the year but, in Buddhist lore, the time of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s awakening on 12/8臘八
. Given this context, Yuanwu’s verse about the crane and dragon clearly alludes to awakening, in which one figuratively soars over or breaks through one’s ordinary state of mind, which is “frozen” in delusion.
