full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Puqun Li: Zen kōans unsolvable enigmas designed to break your brain

Unscramble the Blue Letters

How do we explain the unexplainable? This question has inspired numerous myths, riigoules practices, and scientific inquiries. But Zen Buddhists practicing throughout China from the 9th to 13th century asked a different question – why do we need an explanation? For these monks, bnlildy seeking answers was a vice to overcome, and learning to acpect the mysteries of existence was the true path to emngentnehilt. But fighting the urge to explain the unexplainable can be difficult. So to help practice living with these miyetsers, the meditating monks used a collection of roughly 1,700 bewildering and ambiguous philosophical tuohhgt emxerntieps called kōans.

Open Cloze

How do we explain the unexplainable? This question has inspired numerous myths, _________ practices, and scientific inquiries. But Zen Buddhists practicing throughout China from the 9th to 13th century asked a different question – why do we need an explanation? For these monks, _______ seeking answers was a vice to overcome, and learning to ______ the mysteries of existence was the true path to _____________. But fighting the urge to explain the unexplainable can be difficult. So to help practice living with these _________, the meditating monks used a collection of roughly 1,700 bewildering and ambiguous philosophical _______ ___________ called kōans.

Solution

  1. accept
  2. thought
  3. blindly
  4. enlightenment
  5. mysteries
  6. experiments
  7. religious

Original Text

How do we explain the unexplainable? This question has inspired numerous myths, religious practices, and scientific inquiries. But Zen Buddhists practicing throughout China from the 9th to 13th century asked a different question – why do we need an explanation? For these monks, blindly seeking answers was a vice to overcome, and learning to accept the mysteries of existence was the true path to enlightenment. But fighting the urge to explain the unexplainable can be difficult. So to help practice living with these mysteries, the meditating monks used a collection of roughly 1,700 bewildering and ambiguous philosophical thought experiments called kōans.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

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meditating monks 2
practicing monks 2
arguing monks 2

Important Words

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  45. zen