跟读练习: Zen kōans: Unsolvable enigmas designed to break your brain - Puqun Li - 通过YouTube学习英语口语
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How do we explain the unexplainable?
33 句
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How do we explain the unexplainable?
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This question has inspired numerous myths, religious practices, and scientific inquiries.
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But Zen Buddhists practicing throughout China from the 9th to 13th century asked a different question – why do we need an explanation?
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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.
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But fighting the urge to explain the unexplainable can be difficult.
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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.
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The name, originally gong-an in Chinese, translates to “public record or case." But unlike real-world court cases, kōans were intentionally incomprehensible.
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They were surprising, surreal, and frequently contradicted themselves.
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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.
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By puzzling through these confusing “cases," meditating monks could both internalize and practice Buddhist teachings.
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Hopefully, they would let go of the search for one true answer and trigger a spiritual breakthrough.
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Since these are intentionally unexplainable, it would be misguided to try and decipher these stories ourselves.
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But like the monks before us, we can puzzle over them together, and investigate just how resistant they are to simple explanations.
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Consider this kōan illustrating the practice of no-attachment.
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Two monks, Tanzan and Ekido, are traveling together down a muddy road.
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Ahead they see an attractive traveler, unable to cross the muddy path.
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Tanzan politely offers his help, carrying the traveler on his back across the street, and placing her down without a word.
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Ekido was shocked.
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According to monastic law, monks were not supposed to go near women, let alone touch a beautiful stranger.
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After miles of walking, Ekido could no longer restrain himself.
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“How could you carry that woman?” Tanzan smiled, “I left the traveler there. Are you still carrying her?” Like all kōans, this story has numerous interpretations.
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But one popular reading suggests that despite never having physically carried the traveler, Ekido broke monastic law by mentally "clinging to" the woman.
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This type of conflict— examining the grey area between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law— was common in kōans.
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In addition to exploring ambiguity, kōans often ridiculed characters claiming total understanding of the world around them.
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One such example finds three monks debating a temple flag rippling in the wind.
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The first monk refers to the flag as a moving banner, while the second monk insists that they are not seeing the flag move, but rather the wind blowing.
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They argue back and forth, until finally, a third monk intervenes, “It is not the flag moving, nor the wind blowing, but rather the movement of your minds!” One interpretation of this kōan plays on the supposed wisdom of the arguing monks— the first asserting the importance of the observable world, the second favoring deeper knowledge we can infer from that world.
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But each monk’s commitment to his own “answer” blinds him to the other’s insight, and in doing so, defies an essential Buddhist ideal: abolishing binary thinking.
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The third monk identifies their conflict as a perceptual one— both arguing monks fail to see the larger picture.
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Of course, all these interpretations only hint at how to wrestle with these kōans.
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Neither the wisdom from practicing monks before us, nor the supposedly wise characters in these stories can resolve them for you.
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That’s because the purpose of these kōans isn’t reaching a simple solution.
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It’s the very act of struggling with these paradoxical puzzles which challenge our desire for resolution, and our understanding of understanding itself.
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关于本课
在本课中，学习者将通过探索禅宗公案的哲学，提升他们的英语口语能力。公案是一些复杂且难以理解的辩论，它们不仅帮助修行者接受生活中的模糊性，也可以用来练习英语。通过对这些故事的深思，学习者将有机会提高批判性思维能力，并更好地表达个人观点。
关键词汇与短语
- 公案 (kōan) - 意指没有简单答案的哲学难题，对应英语的 perplexing enigma。
- 无执着 - 表达一种放下物质或精神束缚的状态，英文为 non-attachment。
- 二元思维 - 指只用非黑即白的方式看待事物，英文为 binary thinking。
- 内在的自我 - 指真正的“佛性”，英文为 true Buddha-nature。
- 辩论 - 在公案中，修行者之间的争论，英文为 debate。
- 知觉 - 观察者如何理解世界，英文为 perception。
- 冲突 - 修行者之间的不同见解产生的紧张关系，英文为 conflict。
- 困惑 - 体验到的深奥与复杂感，英文为 bewilderment。
练习建议
在进行英语口语练习时，尤其是使用公案这种具有挑战性的材料时，shadowing 是一种非常有效的练习方法。以下是一些针对视频内容的具体建议：
- 关注视频的语音语调，尝试模仿发音，如同影子一般，运用shadowing site提供的资源。
- 公案的速度可能会有些快，因此可以在初次观看时暂停几秒钟，先理解大意后再进行重复练习。
- 在练习过程中，尽量减少内心对内容的解释，专注于声音的节奏和语调，这能增强雅思口语练习的效果。
- 与他人讨论公案的不同解读，可以帮助扩展思维，并提升英语表达的灵活性。
- 使用shadowspeaks等资源不时回顾练习，以巩固你对难点和新词汇的掌握。
什么是跟读法？
跟读法 (Shadowing) 是一种有科学依据的语言学习技巧，最初开发用于专业口译员的培训，并由多语言者Alexander Arguelles博士普及。这个方法简单而强大：您在听英语母语原声的同时立即大声重复——就像是一个延迟1-2秒紧跟说话者的影子。与被动听力或语法练习不同，跟读法强迫您的大脑和口腔肌肉同时处理并模仿真实的讲话模式。研究表明它能显着提高发音准确性，语调，节奏，连读，听力理解和口语流利度——使其成为雅思口语备考和真实英语交流最有效的方法之一。