Shadowing Practice: How to Tap into Your Awareness | Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche | TED - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Meditation So I would like to discuss about meditation.
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Meditation So I would like to discuss about meditation.
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But first of all, I'd like to ask you a very simple question.
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Can you see my hand?
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Yes, raise your hand.
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OK, can you hear me?
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Yes?
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Great.
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That is meditation. So finish.
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My tattoo is finished.
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Of course, I'm just kidding.
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But in a way, that is true.
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Why?
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What we call the essence of meditation is awareness.
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And what is awareness knows what you're thinking, feeling, doing, seeing, hearing.
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That's all.
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So actually, meditation is very easy.
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But many people found it difficult.
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Why?
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There are true misunderstandings about meditation.
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So the first is, many people think meditation means think of nothing.
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Stop thinking.
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Concentration.
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I'm meditating.
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Keep quiet.
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So the more when you try to stop thinking, What happens?
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You will think more.
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So we will do a small experiment, OK?
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Now, please don't think about pizza.
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No pizza?
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No pizza?
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What happened?
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Did you think about pizza or ...
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No?
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Yes, raise your hand.
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I know.
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So, actually, we don't need to stop thinking.
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We just need to connect with awareness.
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And another misunderstanding about meditation is what we call bleasing out,
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looking for peace, calm, joy, relax.
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The more you feel relaxed,
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then peace, calm, joy, relax, and run away.
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So let me share you my own experience.
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When I was young, I had panic attacks.
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Although I was born in the right middle of the Himalayan mountain,
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the area, the village, wonderful,
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but panic followed me as like shadow.
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And I have so much fear for strangers.
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I cannot go out and meet people.
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And a lot of storms in the Himalaya mountains, thunderstorms, snowstorms.
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These storms drive me crazy.
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And when I was nine years old,
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I asked my father to teach me meditation.
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Luckily, he was a great meditation teacher.
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And the first thing, what he said is,
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don't try to fight with panic.
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Don't try to get rid of panic.
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And actually, he said, you don't have to.
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Why?
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Awareness is like sky in the mountain,
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and the panic is like storm in the mountain, like clouds.
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And no matter how strong storm is,
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it doesn't change the nature of the sky.
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So sky is always present, pure, calm.
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Similarly, our fundamental quality of mind,
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awareness, is always present, pure, calm.
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But the problem is we don't know how to connect with awareness.
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What we see, only thought, emotion, that's all.
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So he said there are three steps of practice to connect with awareness.
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The first one, we have to use an object,
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support, to connect with awareness.
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So this is one of my first meditation techniques,
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what I learned from my father.
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So you can join and you can relax your muscles in your body.
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If you cannot relax, also OK, it's allowed.
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And close your eyes, and please listen to sound.
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And when you hear the sound through ear and mind together, that is the meditation.
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And let pane come and go,
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let pizza come and go.
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And maybe two pizzas, three pizzas, ten pizzas.
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As long as you remember the sound, you can have pizza.
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Okay, how was it?
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Did you hear the sound?
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Yes, raise your hand.
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Great.
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That is the meditation.
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Very easy.
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Just hear, that's all.
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You don't have to do anything.
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So a pene comes, let pene come and go,
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don't care, just listen to sound.
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Monkey mind comes, blah, blah,
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blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
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blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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Let it come and go, just listen to sound. So I did that.
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But I have a big problem.
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The problem is lazy.
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I'm a lazy boy.
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I love the idea of meditation,
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but I don't like the practice of meditation.
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So on and off like that for five years,
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when I was 13 years old,
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in India, there's traditional three-year retreat going to start.
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I thought I should join this because good for my laziness.
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And I joined.
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The first month, wonderful, not lazy.
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Second month, lazy comeback.
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Now what happened, my lazy and my panic,
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they too become good friends.
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The life in the retreat became disaster.
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And I thought I should leave.
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But I feel embarrassed to leave because I told all my childhood friends that I can do the retreat, you know.
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I don't want to lose my face.
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But if I stay, almost three years to go,
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then I thought, what should I do?
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In the end, I decided to learn how to live with panic.
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So now we have this second step, what we call ...
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Actually, we can meditate everywhere, anytime, with anything.
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So you can meditate with a panic.
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How do you do that?
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Just like listen to sound,
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when you listen to sound,
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sound becomes support for your meditation.
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Now you can watch panic.
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If you see the panic, great.
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What we call, when you see the river,
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you're out of the river.
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When you see the mountain,
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you're out of the mountain.
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So now awareness becomes more than panic,
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more than depression, stress, monkey mind, whatever.
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Let them come, let them go.
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So that is the first benefit.
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And second benefit, what we call wisdom comes.
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So when you look at the panic,
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panic is not solid stone anymore.
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Panic becomes pieces.
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Sensation here, frightened image, voice, background belief.
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And if you take one of these away, you cannot find panic.
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So what I call panic becomes like shaving foam,
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looks like a piece of rock,
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but inside full of bubbles.
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Then three, what I call this is acceptance, like self-kind, self-love, self-compassion.
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You let panic come and go,
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that's really acceptance, isn't it?
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So three in one, awareness, love and compassion, wisdom.
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Sometimes what I call buy one, get two free.
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Big deal, right?
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And all this because of panic.
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So now panic becomes your teacher, your best friend.
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So I did this practice,
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and in the end, me and my panic become very good friends.
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And a few weeks later, panic is gone.
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I miss my friend.
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And I finished my retreat.
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My retreat went very well.
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And after that, I was very eager to share this wonderful technique to the world.
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So I taught meditation in many places,
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wrote a few books, became a bestseller,
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and then students, and became abbot of a few monasteries.
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And what happened?
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A kind of new ego emerged within me.
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I thought, oh, I have to watch out this.
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Then I decided to do something very special,
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what we call wandering retreat,
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meaning you left everything behind,
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go on the street with nothing.
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So I decided to do that in 2011.
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I left my monastery, my student,
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my wonderful cozy bed, everything,
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and go on the street with only a few thousand Indian rupees.
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And that finished within a few weeks.
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that I have to bake food.
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And I got food poisoning.
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Vomiting, diarrhea, I'm alone on the street.
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Now I'm going to die.
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Then I thought, what should I do?
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So now we have the third step,
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what we call open awareness meditation.
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Awareness be with itself.
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Sky be with itself.
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Now no need to have support.
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Just be awareness itself.
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So I did that practice.
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Then what happened?
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My body became decaying.
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I cannot see, I cannot hear.
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But my mind became so present, beyond, free.
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And I was in that state for a few hours.
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Luckily, I didn't die.
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I come back.
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So when I come back,
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the street becomes like my home.
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When I look at the tree,
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the tree becomes like a tree of love.
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and wind blows to my face, become joyful experience.
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And the rest of my retreat went very well.
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I learned a lot from my retreat.
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So I like to share this open awareness meditation,
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but it is very difficult to explain.
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But I want to do something drama.
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And this is what I learned from my father.
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So what we call this mala is the crazy monkey mind,
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bala bala bala yara yara.
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And the open awareness meditation means you don't have to do anything.
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Just be.
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That's all.
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And you don't need to meditate the sense of presence,
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being, but not lost. Be free, be present.
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Thank you very much.
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Context & Background
In a recent TED Talk, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche explored the essence of meditation and awareness. He conveyed that meditation is fundamentally about being aware of one's thoughts, feelings, and surroundings rather than forcibly stopping thoughts. His personal anecdotes, including overcoming panic attacks through meditation, emphasize the importance of embracing awareness without the expectation of achieving peace or bliss. Rinpoche's insights offer a unique perspective for English learners interested in using meditation concepts to enhance their language skills, especially when integrating techniques like shadowing to improve English pronunciation.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- “Can you see my hand?” – A simple way to engage an audience and check understanding.
- “I’d like to discuss...” – A polite phrase for introducing a topic.
- “What is awareness?” – A foundational question that spurs deeper thinking.
- “Don’t try to fight with the panic.” – An expression that implies acceptance rather than resistance, useful for emotional contexts.
- “You just need to connect with awareness.” – A motivational statement suggesting a focus on presence and mindfulness.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To effectively incorporate Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's teachings into your English language practice, follow these steps:
- Listen attentively: Start by watching the video with subtitles. Pay attention to how Rinpoche emphasizes key phrases and ideas.
- Pause and repeat: Use the shadowing technique by pausing the video after each sentence or significant phrase. Repeat what he says, focusing on mimicking his tone and pronunciation. This practice will help you improve your English pronunciation.
- Record yourself: After practicing the shadow speak method, record your voice. Compare your pronunciation and intonation with Rinpoche's to identify areas for improvement.
- Reflect on meanings: As you practice, think about the meanings behind the phrases. This reflection deepens your understanding and helps you use the phrases in different contexts, enriching your vocabulary.
- Use the phrases in daily conversation: Try to integrate the top phrases from this session into your daily English conversations. The more you use these expressions, the more naturally they will come to you.
By following this structured approach, you can not only harness the wisdom of mindfulness shared by Rinpoche but also refine your language skills through effective practices. Combining the principles of awareness with language learning techniques like shadowing can enhance your ability to communicate successfully in English, allowing you to successfully navigate the "shadows" of speaking challenges.
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.
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