Shadowing Practice: Practice: Being the Buddha of Murderous Rage - Learn English Speaking with Video
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54 sentences
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Come and join me for a few minutes in a practice that I call being the Buddha of murderous rage.
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Settle wherever you are in a comfortable position.
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Let your eyes close if that feels right, or simply soften your gaze.
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Take a breath and let whatever you were doing rest for a moment.
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There's nowhere else you need to be right now.
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Bring to mind a feeling that you've decided you should not be having.
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It doesn't have to be rage.
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It might be spite or envy or some nagging anxiety that won't leave.
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Whatever your own hated flavor of the moment is.
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something that you've caught yourself feeling recently and thought, I shouldn't be like this.
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Now let one specific instance of that feeling come forward.
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One situation or one thought.
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that brings it up.
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Now, for the next few minutes, be the Buddha of that feeling.
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Let that feeling emerge.
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Remain still and don't try to change whatever is flaring up inside of you.
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Stay with it and don't distract yourself from it.
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Don't try to transform it into something else and don't berate yourself for having the feeling in the first place.
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That's just one more way of pushing it away.
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Let the thoughts be there.
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Let the feeling be there.
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Remember that feelings arise.
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That's just what our human hearts do.
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Now, allow yourself to be curious about the sensation,
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about what it actually feels like. Where is it exactly? In your jaw?
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The top of your head?
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Maybe a feeling in the chest?
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The shoulders?
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The muscles of your lower back?
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Maybe somewhere else entirely?
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Notice whether it's constant or is it changing.
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Watch the feeling wax and wane and move.
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Has it grown more intense or less intense?
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Has it shifted somewhere else in the body?
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Perhaps it does nothing at all for a while.
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There's no right answer here.
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You are just watching it.
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Now, holding on to all of that,
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see if you can let some other sensations share your attention.
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the feeling of your breath flowing in and out what it feels like in your nostrils or in your chest
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notice your heart and how it's beating
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Notice the sounds reaching you from your surroundings, whatever those happen to be.
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You're not trading one of these things for another.
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Everything is allowed to be here.
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You're just widening the container to hold more and more of what you're able to experience in this moment.
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And after a while, you might ask yourself again, where is that feeling now?
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whatever you find whether it's faded or moved or is sitting exactly where it was
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that is the practice at work nothing had to be pushed away
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You might carry this kind of awareness of feeling into the rest of your week.
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The next time you catch yourself deciding that you shouldn't be feeling something,
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see whether you can be the Buddha of that feeling.
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for even 30 seconds, instead of talking yourself out of it.
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Watch the feeling morph and change, and then eventually pass away.
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And now, when you're ready, return gently to the rest of your day.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Practice: Being the Buddha of Murderous Rage”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: feeling, whatever, Buddha, notice, feels. This video has 54 sentences and 527 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:15. The speaker talks slowly, about 64 words per minute, so there is time to copy every sound. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 10 of its 54 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| intense adjective | /ɪnˈtɛns/ | Of a characteristic: extreme or very high or strong in degree; severe; also, excessive, towering. |
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
| rage noun | /ɹeɪd͡ʒ/ | Violent uncontrolled anger. |
| sensation noun | /sɛnˈseɪʃən/ | A physical feeling or perception from something that comes into contact with the body; something sensed. |
| anxiety noun | /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/ | An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event. |
| curious adjective | /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ | Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying. |
| awareness noun | /əˈwɛɹ.nəs/ | The state or level of consciousness where sense data can be confirmed by an observer. |
| muscle noun | /ˈmʌs.əl/ | A contractile form of tissue which animals use to effect movement. |
| nowhere adverb | /ˈnoʊ.(h)wɛɹ/ | In no place. |
| settle verb | /ˈsɛtəl/ | To determine (something which was exposed to doubt or question); to resolve conclusively; to set or fix (a time, an order of succession, etc). |
| wherever | /(h)wɛɹˈɛvɚ/ | Regardless of the place in, at or to which. |
| gently adverb | /ˈd͡ʒɛntli/ | Without strong force or quickness: softly, lightly. |
| flavor noun | /ˈfleɪvə/ | The quality produced by the sensation of taste or, especially, of taste and smell in combined effect. |
| spite noun | /spaɪt/ | Ill will or hatred toward another, accompanied with the desire to unjustifiably irritate, annoy, or thwart; a want to disturb or put out another; mild malice. |
| transform verb | /tɹænsˈfɔɹm/ | To change greatly the appearance or form of. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come forward verb | To offer help or information, especially about a crime. |
| pass away verb | To die. |
| push away verb | To apply a force to (an entity) such that it moves to a more distant position. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- There's nowhere else you need to be right now.
- That's just what our human hearts do.
- The top of your head?
- The muscles of your lower back?
- You're not trading one of these things for another.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've decided · you've caught · Has it grown |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is allowed · be pushed |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 14 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, shouldn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
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 intense, breathe, rage.
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.