full transcript

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

Unscramble the Blue Letters


The name, originally gong-an in Chinese, taatrsnles to “public rroced or case." But unlike real-world court cases, kōans were intentionally ihempsncbinrloee. They were surprising, surreal, and frequently contradicted themselves. On the surface, they contained a proverb about the Zen Buddhist monastic code - such as living without physical or mental attachments, avoiding binary thinking, and realizing one’s true “Buddha-nature." But by framing those lossens as illogical acdoentes, they became tests to help practicing monks lrean to live with ambiguity and paradox. By puzzling through these confusing “cases," meditating monks could both internalize and practice bdhsudit tieghcnas. Hopefully, they would let go of the search for one true answer and trigger a spiritual breakthrough.

Open Cloze


The name, originally gong-an in Chinese, __________ to “public ______ or case." But unlike real-world court cases, kōans were intentionally ________________. They were surprising, surreal, and frequently contradicted themselves. On the surface, they contained a proverb about the Zen Buddhist monastic code - such as living without physical or mental attachments, avoiding binary thinking, and realizing one’s true “Buddha-nature." But by framing those _______ as illogical _________, they became tests to help practicing monks _____ to live with ambiguity and paradox. By puzzling through these confusing “cases," meditating monks could both internalize and practice ________ _________. Hopefully, they would let go of the search for one true answer and trigger a spiritual breakthrough.

Solution


  1. learn
  2. buddhist
  3. translates
  4. anecdotes
  5. incomprehensible
  6. record
  7. teachings
  8. lessons

Original Text


The name, originally gong-an in Chinese, translates to “public record or case." But unlike real-world court cases, kōans were intentionally incomprehensible. They were surprising, surreal, and frequently contradicted themselves. On the surface, they contained a proverb about the Zen Buddhist monastic code - such as living without physical or mental attachments, avoiding binary thinking, and realizing one’s true “Buddha-nature." But by framing those lessons as illogical anecdotes, they became tests to help practicing monks learn to live with ambiguity and paradox. By puzzling through these confusing “cases," meditating monks could both internalize and practice Buddhist teachings. Hopefully, they would let go of the search for one true answer and trigger a spiritual breakthrough.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
meditating monks 2
practicing monks 2
arguing monks 2


Important Words


  1. ambiguity
  2. anecdotes
  3. answer
  4. attachments
  5. avoiding
  6. binary
  7. breakthrough
  8. buddhist
  9. case
  10. cases
  11. chinese
  12. code
  13. confusing
  14. contained
  15. contradicted
  16. court
  17. framing
  18. frequently
  19. illogical
  20. incomprehensible
  21. intentionally
  22. internalize
  23. kōans
  24. learn
  25. lessons
  26. live
  27. living
  28. meditating
  29. mental
  30. monastic
  31. monks
  32. originally
  33. paradox
  34. physical
  35. practice
  36. practicing
  37. proverb
  38. puzzling
  39. realizing
  40. record
  41. search
  42. spiritual
  43. surface
  44. surprising
  45. surreal
  46. teachings
  47. tests
  48. thinking
  49. translates
  50. trigger
  51. true
  52. zen