Shadowing Practice: I studied Buddhism for 1 month. It changed me. - Learn English Speaking with Video
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108 sentences
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i spent one full month studying his religion buddhism
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i'm over the higher i read buddhist books i talked to buddhist monks
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and i visited buddhist temples here in nepal where buddha himself was born
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and i discovered that i am secretly buddhist and you are secretly buddhist
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But first, some background.
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I am on a six -month challenge to study six top religions, one every month.
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Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and even Atheism.
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This is the story of what I learned from Buddhism.
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What I learned from Buddhism.
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Buddhism started with this man Buddha.
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He was born right here in this exact place in Nepal 2500 years ago
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and today more than 500 million people follow his wisdom.
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Buddhism.
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Buddhism is deep and rich.
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I cannot cover it in one short video.
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So I'm gonna focus on the little bit of Buddhism that changed my life.
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In Buddhism, there is no God.
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There are no angels and no prophets.
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There is no devil and no Satan.
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There is no commandments and no prayers.
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There is even no eternal heaven
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or eternal hell what the hell this shocked me don't be shocked i learned
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that buddhism doesn't worry about life after death heaven
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or hell buddhism only worries about life before death how do I live a happy life today before dying that's what
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Buddhism is about you don't own your past you don't own your future
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you cannot control you cannot do anything about it you have only
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this moment the Buddha teaches you you come to this moment and see what really inside us that's why
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Buddhism focuses only on your mind.
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Your mind is your God.
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It is the source of all happiness and sadness, of all good and evil.
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If we can control our mind, we can be happy.
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The mind is everything.
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What you think, you become.
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The Buddha said.
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That is the core of Buddhism.
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The mind is so powerful in this religion that it became a sixth sense.
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We are used to five senses in the West.
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See, hear, smell, taste, touch.
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But Buddhists believe in a sixth sense, the mind.
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We have five senses.
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Everything is linked by mind.
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That is why we need to focus on our mind in Buddhism.
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The Buddha said, when your mind is pure, the happiness and the joy follows like a shadow that never leaves you.
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Buddhism is full of wisdom.
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When you read the religious books, you'll get the step -by -step guide on how to control your mind and make it happy.
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Yes, Buddhists think it is possible to live a happy life today this is how.
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So how can my mind be happy and pure?
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The Buddha teaches you that let go of the attachment and then you will be happy.
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Let go of the attachment.
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Yes.
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Let go of attachments.
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turns out our mind gets sad
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when it gets attached you get attached to money to people to emotions
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and when your money is gone then you suffer
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when your father is gone then you suffer
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when your job is gone you suffer because you are attached to all of them when we get attached to things.
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We expect a lot.
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When we expect a lot, sometimes we don't get it.
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When we don't get it, we become sad and we suffer.
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Expectations is the thief of joy.
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Really.
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Buddhism teaches us not to get attached, because in life, nothing lasts forever.
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Our parents, they don't last forever.
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Our job, it doesn't last forever.
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Our nice car, our country, our money, everything will be gone one day.
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Is there anything that's not subject to change?
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Yes.
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What is it?
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That is the process of changing.
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So, this is a true story.
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I did a one -hour meditation today and I almost cried.
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Just thinking about the idea that nothing in my life would last forever made me cry.
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The Buddha said, let go of attachment and you will be at peace.
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this sounds simple but it's really hard to accept it's hard to accept
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that your job will be gone and your parents will be gone too
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and that's fine you can still love your parents
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but you must accept that they are impermanent that your happiness cannot be attached to them love
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and attachment are two different things when you love someone you love seeing them grow
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and becoming happy but when you get attached to someone you expect them to make you happy
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and ask why are you not making me happy
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that's the difference yes i spent one month trying to understand this concept
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and here in Nepal talking to Buddhist monks it finally clicked
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I finally understood it in my company people coming in
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and leaving the company it's hard every time to see somebody come
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and then after two three years they leave every person
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that I work with I'm not gonna work it forever
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and I didn't realize that until recently you have to be like a tree think of your company like a tree, a big one.
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The birds come and they eat the fruits and they be happy and they go.
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But tree stays the same as the big tree, tall and profound and evergreen.
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Bruce Lee says be like water and Buddhism be like a tree.
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Buddhism taught me
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that happiness does not come from the outside it comes from the inside it has always been inside of us here
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and the best part about buddhism is
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that you don't have to convert to it it is not just a religion
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it's also a philosophy a way of life take what you want from it dalai lama once said that do
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Do not try to use
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Buddhism to be a better Buddhist.
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Try to use
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Buddhism to be a better version of what you already are.
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If you understand the power of your mind, you can become a better
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Muslim, a better
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Jew, a better Christian, and even a better atheist.
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And that is the beauty of Buddhism.
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It can help all of us become better humans.
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See you next month for a video about Hinduism.
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What an incredible experience.
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Learned so much, inspired so much.
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Now to the next challenge.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “I studied Buddhism for 1 month. It changed me”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: buddhism, buddhist, buddha, attached, gone. This video has 108 sentences and 1047 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:49. The speaker talks at a steady 119 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| attach verb | /əˈtæt͡ʃ/ | To fasten, to join to (literally and figuratively). |
| attachment noun | /əˈtæt͡ʃmənt/ | The act or process of (physically or figuratively) attaching. |
| suffer verb | /ˈsʌfɚ/ | To undergo hardship. |
| happiness noun | /ˈhæpinɪs/ | The emotion of being happy; joy; elation. |
| shock noun | /ʃɔk/ | A sudden, heavy impact. |
| sixth adjective | /sɪksθ/ | The ordinal form of the number six. |
| wisdom noun | /ˈwɪzdəm/ | An element of personal character that enables one to distinguish the wise from the unwise. |
| eternal adjective | /ɪˈtɝ.nl̩/ | Lasting forever; unending. |
| secretly adverb | /ˈsiː.kɹɪt.li/ | In secret, covertly. |
| monk noun | /mʌŋk/ | A male member of a monastic order who has devoted his life for religious service. |
| angel noun | /ˈeɪ̯n.d͡ʒəl/ | An incorporeal and holy or semidivine messenger from a deity or other divine entity, traditionally depicted as a youthful, winged figure in flowing robes. |
| temple noun | /ˈtɛm.pl̩/ | A house of worship dedicated to a polytheistic faith. |
| shadow noun | /ˈʃædəʊ̯/ | A dark image projected onto a surface where light (or other radiation) is blocked by the shade of an object. |
| prayer noun | /pɹɛɚ/ | A practice of communicating with one's God, or with some spiritual entity. |
| discover verb | /dɪˈskʌvə/ | To find or learn something for the first time. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Our parents, they don't last forever.
- Our job, it doesn't last forever.
- Is there anything that's not subject to change?
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 16 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, doesn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: sixth /sɪksθ/, thief /ˈθiːf/, atheist /ˈeɪ.θi.ɪst/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: shock /ʃɔk/, shadow /ˈʃædəʊ̯/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like attach, attachment, suffer.
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.