Zen kōans: unsolvable enigmas designed to break your brain – Puqun Li

Check out our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/teded

View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/zen-koans-unsolvable-enigmas-designed-to-break-your-brain-puqun-li

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? Puqun Li details the bewildering and ambiguous philosophical thought experiments these Buddhists called Zen kōans.

Lesson by Puqun Li, directed by Cabong Studios.

Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Stephanie Perozo, Marc Bilodeau, Ruby Solorzano, Ivan Tsenov, Claudia Mayfield, Pavel Zalevskiy, Yankai Liu, Duo Xu, Ghassan Alhazzaa, Miloš Stevanović, Joy Love Om, Gi Nam Lee, Shawn Quichocho, Simone Kidner, Anika Westburg, Barun Padhy, Brandy Jones, Devin Harris, Tony Trapuzzano, Stephen Michael Alvarez, Tom Lee, Juliana, Jason Weinstein, Kris Siverhus, Alexander Walls, Annamaria Szilagyi, Morgan Williams, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Mandeep Singh, Sama aafghani, سلطان الخليفي, Marylise CHAUFFETON, Marvin Vizuett, Jayant Sahewal, Quinn Shen, Caleb ross, Elizabeth Cruz, Elnathan Joshua Bangayan, Gaurav Rana, Mullaiarasu Sundaramurthy, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Dan Paterniti, Jerome Froelich, Tyler Yoshizumi, and Martin Stephen.