Shadowing Practice: Buddhism Explained - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Buddhism.

The religion probably most associated with peace, tranquility and… Bald guys.

One of the oldest surviving religions, Buddhism started 2500 years ago in India and is now the world's fourth largest religion.

With over 520 million followers or 7 % of humanity.

almost all located within this circle.

And if you live outside of this circle you most likely don't know a lot about Buddhist belief.

So what is Buddhism?

Who is the Buddha?

And is life just an endless cycle of pain, misery, disappointment and death?

Well let's find out!

So who was the Buddha?

Well let's travel back 2500 years into the past.

Around 480 BCE the Buddha was born as Prince Siddhartha Gautama in modern day Nepal, right here.

Siddhartha's dad was a powerful ruler of a Hindu republic.

But due to a prophecy he was terrified that

Prince Siddhartha would become a religious leader instead of taking his place on the throne.

To avoid the prophecy he hid all human suffering from Siddhartha.

Siddhartha lived in fancy palaces, had the finest clothes and jewellery, ate and drank what he pleased and married a beautiful bride.

His dad fired all the sick, ugly and aging servants and no one could speak to Siddhartha about any of life's miseries like death.

This could obviously never backfire.

Siddhartha felt a deep sense of dissatisfaction with this luxurious life of his.

At 29 years old, after finally being allowed to go on a trip outside the palace, Siddhartha saw an old man,

a sick man and finally a corpse.

He spiraled into an existential crisis.

He thought, why do anything in life when old age, sickness, and death would get everyone eventually?

Anyway, on another visit outside Siddhartha came across a homeless monk that had given up all possessions.

This guy seemed pretty wise and happy.

So Siddhartha decided that he would abandon his princely life

and become a wandering monk in search of an answer to life's suffering.

Siddhartha spent the next 6 years learning from India's greatest yoga and meditation masters.

Then he joined a group of hermits in the forest that practiced extreme fasting and intense meditation.

After 6 long years of eating nothing but seeds that had blown into his lap, Siddhartha was little more than a living skeleton.

He realized he wasn't any closer to an answer to suffering.

In fact the starvation had clouded his thinking.

He was even further away from an answer than when he had started six years ago.

Something clicked.

The path to enlightenment lay between the extremes of a prince's life of luxury

and a hermit's life of starvation and so he started to eat again.

Re -energized Siddhartha sat beneath the tree and vowed to meditate until he found an answer to life's suffering.

In a deep state of meditation Siddhartha sat there for days.

He realized that by ending desire he could end suffering.

We only suffer because we want things to be a certain way.

His fear of aging, sickness and death slipped away.

He realised all things were always changing and the only thing he could do was accept and love those changes.

Freed from desire, his mind and senses purified, he was filled with a sense of joy and compassion for everything on earth.

Under that tree, now called the Bodhi tree, Siddhartha achieved enlightenment or Nirvana.

He was now an awakened one, a Buddha.

So how exactly did the Buddha become enlightened?

Well, luckily, he laid out a handy dandy guide for everyone to follow.

First, there's the Four Noble Truths.

The Four Noble Truths are the basis of Buddhism.

The First Noble Truth is...

Life is suffering.

Oh, wait, wait.

I know this sounds dark, but it's actually not.

The actual first truth is that life is Dukkha, which is an ancient Sanskrit word that normally translates to suffering in English.

But it's more like dissatisfaction.

Life will always be dissatisfying because humans cling to temporary things.

Knowing about old age, sickness and death, that's Dukkha.

Things changing when you don't want them to change, that's Dukkha.

Not getting what you want, that's also Dukkha.

And things never measuring up to your expectations, that's also Dukkha.

Dukkha suggests that even when life is not physically painful, it can be disappointing and unfulfilling.

The second noble truth is that dukkha is caused by desire.

Humans desire and cling to possessions, people, power and life itself.

So they end up constantly disappointed because all of those things end.

People want things they don't currently have and want things they currently have to never change.

But everything is always changing.

Everything we think we already own is really borrowed.

We want to live forever and we want our loved ones to stay the same forever.

But you can't catch a running stream.

You can't have a permanent relationship with an impermanent world.

It always ends in disappointment.

Eventually you discover that the bottomless breadsticks are in fact bottomed.

The zaya fuels suffering in the same way that wood fuels a fire.

Fire consumes everything that you feed it and will always demand more fuel.

The only way to kill a fire is to stop feeding it breadsticks.

The Buddha taught that the secret to a happy life is to enjoy what you have without attachment

and to not want what you don't have.

The third noble truth is that there is an end to suffering.

Since we cause our own suffering we can also cure it.

You can't change the things that happen to you but you can change your responses.

And the fourth noble truth is that the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path leads to the end of suffering.

The Noble Eightfold Path or the Middle Way is an 8 step guide to deprogramming the desire addicted brain.

It might be called a path

but you should think of it more as a wheel with 8 spokes that you spin all together.

The 8 parts are right view.

Right view is accepting the four noble truths that suffering exists

and that by following the Buddha's teachings there is a way out of it.

Right thought.

The Buddha said that your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own thoughts.

Don't let negative thoughts like greed, fear and anxiety cloud your mind.

Fill your mind with positive ones like love, kindness and compassion.

Right Speech Focus on positive words and stay away from negative ones like gossip, hurtful words and lies.

These only cause yourself and others to suffer.

Right Action The Buddha taught the philosophy of ahimsa or non -violence.

Instead of hurting others with your actions you should try and have an endless love for all life.

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Good actions include conquering anger with love, evil with good, meanness with generosity,

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lies with truth, smickity smashing that likeity like button and clickity clacking the scrippity subscrew button.

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Bad actions include killing, stealing, drugs and engaging in non -consensual sex.

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Right Livelihood Avoid jobs that involve death, weapons, slavery, the harm of animals, drugs and any kind of exploitation.

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But livelihood isn't just occupation.

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Be an honest and kind parent, friend and partner.

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The next three are related to meditation.

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You have right effort.

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Right effort builds on right thought.

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It means putting effort into welcoming and creating good thoughts and pushing out bad thoughts.

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Violence, hatred, greed and anxiety all begin as negative thoughts.

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Using right effort in your little mine garden you water your positive thought flowers

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so they grow and in a garden full of kind and compassionate thoughts, greed weeds will find no space to grow.

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Write Mindfulness.

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Mindfulness is paying pure attention in every moment.

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Remaining in the present without judging or labelling your experiences and without letting distracting thoughts bring you out of the present.

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If you're eating ice cream, eat ice cream.

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Don't let that memory of that one time you peed your pants at school

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and then slipped on your own pee and then everyone laughed

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and called you pee pee pants because they were very uncreative distract you from your delicious ice cream moment.

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Mindfulness helps you understand your mind and body

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so you can see what causes positive and negative reactions from you in each moment.

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Right Concentration While mindfulness is like a giant net catching everything, right concentration is like a laser.

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Right concentration is what people would recognise as meditation.

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Using right concentration you focus your mind on a single thing while meditating.

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Whether that be your breath or thoughts.

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The point is to focus on that one thing without distraction so you gain insight into reality.

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Concentration gives you insight into your thoughts and why they happen.

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So you can just nip them in the bud before you start desiring.

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Each of these 8 parts has endlessly complex additions and extra steps that we don't have time to cover.

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The main takeaway is that the Buddha thought that the Eightfold Path would free people from suffering.

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Following this path does not mean you give up on life, abandoning friends and family and to stop feeling all emotions.

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The truths and the path are about realising that you won't find happiness by clinging to the world.

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Happiness comes from clearing your mind of desire and replacing it with joy and compassion for all things.

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Instead of trying to control what happens you accept what happens and just enjoy every moment as it is.

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Along with the Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path there are other important

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Buddhist core beliefs like Karma.

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Karma is an ancient Sanskrit word meaning action but actions that have consequences.

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When you commit good or bad actions it causes a chain reaction

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that will later come back to you in this life or the next.

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Buddhists see karma more like a natural law, like gravity, rather than some sort of system of rewards and punishments.

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It's a system of cause and effect.

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Think of karma like seeds.

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As you sow, so shall you reap.

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If you plant a mango seed you'll eventually get a mango tree.

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If you plant a murder seed, murder tree.

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Or the worst one of all, if you plant coriander you go straight to hell.

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According to Buddhism, if you want to know about your past life look at your present body.

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If you want to know your future life look at your present mind.

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Even though karma affects your current life conditions it's not destiny.

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Buddhism teaches that at every moment each person can change and make their lives better.

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And when it comes to karma intention matters.

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If you squash a little ant by accident then you don't generate any karma karma.

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If you stamp on it with pure hatred and anger as

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if it was coriander then that will generate a lot of negative karma.

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Karma also influences how you will be reborn after death.

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Rebirth Buddhists believe we live in a beginningless and endless cycle of birth, suffering and death called samsara.

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When the Buddha reached nirvana he escaped from that cycle of rebirth.

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Desire and karma push the cycle on and on.

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When a life ends in one body, karma drags bags the life into a new body with no memory of the previous life.

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Karma, even if it's good or bad karma, keeps people stuck in the cycle.

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The only way to break out of the cycle is to stop desiring, stop suffering, stop the creation of karma and reach nirvana.

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Nirvana or enlightenment isn't a place you go, it's not heaven, it's a state of mind.

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The Buddha reached nirvana and then lived for another 45 years.

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And although some

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Buddhist traditions do have heavens and hells, they're all inside of the cycle.

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Nirvana is an escape from the entire Samsara cycle.

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Nirvana literally means blowing out.

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You blow out the fire of desire.

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When you stop thinking of yourself as me and I and instead fill yourself with compassion for all things.

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Once you do this you stop generating karma and so you stop being reborn.

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Anyone that wants to achieve Nirvana can with the right effort.

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And that's why the Buddha spent the remaining 45 years of

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his life after enlightenment wandering about the Indian subcontinent teaching people how to escape suffering before

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he died at the age of 80.

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After Siddhartha's death his community of monks known as the Sangha spread his teachings or Dharma out of India and throughout Asia.

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Buddhism did eventually decline in India but took hold across

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East and Southeast Asia.

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The Buddhist teachings of the Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path aren't strict rules

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and not following them won't result in punishment from a god.

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There is no capital G god in Buddhism.

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There are gods but they're stuck in the same cycle as the rest of us

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and you can actually be reborn as one if you have good enough karma.

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The Buddhist teachings are simply a guide to escape suffering, to leave the cycle and to achieve nirvana like he did it.

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The important part is using the teachings that work for you in your unique life circumstances.

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As the Dalai Lama once said, if you find that the teachings suit you, apply them to your life as much as you can.

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If they don't suit you, just leave them be.

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That's why there are dozens of different kinds of Buddhism.

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But they can be divided into two major branches – Theravada and Mahayana.

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Theravada means school of the elders and is the oldest surviving branch of Buddhism.

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For Theravadans reading is fundamental.

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They use a series of texts called Suttas which are based on oral teachings of what the Buddha taught.

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They date back almost to the time of the Buddha himself

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and are written in the ancient Pali language so these texts are called the Pali Canon.

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In general Theravada has less religious rituals than the other forms of Buddhism

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and they believe the Buddha to be a much more human figure.

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They see Siddhartha as the only

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Buddha of the current era and that he left behind his Dharma and Sangha to help other people achieve enlightenment themselves.

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Theravada Buddhist countries include

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Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos.

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Mahayana meaning Great Vehicle is younger than Theravada and is mostly found in East Asia.

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Unlike Theravada which sticks with the Pali Canon, Mahayana has loads more texts and teachings.

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At the centre of Mahayana belief is the Bodhisattva.

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Bodhisattvas are enlightened beings

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that instead of leaving the cycle of rebirth have decided to stay in order to help non -enlightened beings achieve enlightenment.

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Mahayana Buddhism believes that you can ask Bodhisattvas, other Buddhas and other holy beings for help in this world.

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In Mahayana you will see people praying to different Buddhas in the same way people would pray to saints

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or gods in other religions.

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Mahayana is primarily practiced in Nepal, Mongolia, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan.

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Mahayana also contains dozens of smaller traditions such as Zen Buddhism and Pure Land Buddhism.

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Another tradition under Mahayana is Vajrayana or Diamond Vehicle Buddhism.

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This is what many people call Tibetan Buddhism.

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Vajrayana uses mantras or repetitive chants, drawing of mandalas, the use of secret rituals,

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incantations, and deep meditation while visualizing different supernatural beings to try and achieve nirvana faster than in other forms of Buddhism.

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This school has a huge emphasis on using gurus or teachers known as lamas to assist you on your journey.

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The famous Dalai Lama is the leader of Tibetan Buddhism.

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If you'd like an even better explanation of the Buddha

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and his teachings I can highly recommend the Buddha episode of the series

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I hope you enjoyed this video.

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This is only about 1 % of Buddhism.

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Unfortunately I can't fit the entire religion into one video.

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But if you'd like to know more as always all of our sources are in the description below.

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Thank you so much for watching and bye!

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108 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Buddhism Explained”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: Nebula, Buddha, Buddhism, karma, suffering. This video has 268 sentences and 3272 words to shadow. The speech runs for 19:49. The speaker talks at a natural 165 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
karma noun	/kərm(ə)/	The sum total of a person's actions, which determine the person's next incarnation in samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth.
noble adjective	/ˈnoʊbəl/	Having honorable qualities; having moral eminence and freedom from anything petty, mean or dubious in conduct and character.
meditation noun	/mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/	A devotional exercise of, or leading to, contemplation.
enlightenment noun	/ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt/	An act of enlightening, or the state of being enlightened or instructed.
concentration noun	/ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/	The act, process or ability of concentrating; the process of becoming concentrated, or the state of being concentrated.
creator noun	/kɹiːˈeɪ̯təː/	Something or someone which creates or makes something.
compassion noun	/kəmˈpæʃ.ən/	Deep awareness of the suffering of others that people have to the point of them being motivated to relieve such states.
belief noun	/bɪˈliːf/	Mental acceptance of a claim as true.
documentary noun	/ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/	A film, TV program, publication etc. which presents a social, political, scientific or historical subject in a factual or informative manner.
generate verb	/ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/	To bring into being; give rise to.
endless adjective	/ˈɛndlɪs/	Having no end.
monk noun	/mʌŋk/	A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service.
sickness noun	/ˈsɪknɪs/	The quality or state of being sick or diseased; illness; an illness.
greed noun	/ɡɹiːd/	A selfish or excessive desire for more than is needed or deserved, especially of money, wealth, food, or other possessions.
pants noun	/pænts/	An outer garment that covers the body from the waist downwards, covering each leg separately, usually as far as the ankles; trousers.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
blow out verb		To extinguish something, especially a flame, especially by means of a strong current of air or another gas.
get off verb		To move from being on top of (something) to not being on top of it.
come across verb		To change sides; to cross over to work for the opposition.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
find out verb		To discover, as by asking or investigating.
give up verb		To surrender (someone or something); to inform on (someone).
help out verb		To provide assistance.
lay out verb	/ˌleɪ ˈaʊt/	To expend or contribute money to an expense or purchase.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

I know this sounds dark, but it's actually not.
If you're eating ice cream, eat ice cream.
If they don't suit you, just leave them be.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	If you plant a mango seed you'll eventually · if it was coriander then that will generate
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is sponsored · was born · being allowed
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	Dukkha, which is · Suttas which are · this which is
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have decided · have made · we've teamed

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 40 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you'll, can't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, throne /θɹəʊ̯n/, algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, rebirth /ɹiːˈbɜːθ/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, compassion /kəmˈpæʃ.ən/, possession /pəˈzɛʃn̩/, subscription /səbˈskɹɪpʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: enlightenment /ɪnˈlaɪtənmənt/, concentration /ˌkɑn.sənˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, documentary /ˌdɒk.jʊˈmɛn.tɹi/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, commentary /ˈkɑ.mənˌtɛ.ɹi/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like karma, noble, meditation.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Buddhism Explained - Learn English Speaking with Video

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