Shadowing Practice: Russell Brand - Awakened Man - Learn English Speaking with Video

I think that one's reality is a result of your intention and your attention.

It's through spiritual practice that I've recognised that my own impermanence, my own irrelevance, the fact that I'm just a person shuffling through life.

I ain't really no different now from when I was a little kid.

And all I want really is that I don't want that feeling in my stomach that people are being treated badly.

I don't want a feeling that people are being exploited.

People need to live spiritual lives, all of us.

I'm a person.

And it's good to have access to the infinite consciousness

that is available to all people but through the five senses is delineated keeping us trapped on a material plane.

We think reality is what we can apportion through the limited instruments of the senses

but reality is of course far beyond that.

Spiritual data, we don't have the correct instruments to receive it and we live primarily in the realm of the senses.

Anything that we're describing through science we're describing through the prism of the five limited senses.

Our eyes can only see between infrared light and ultraviolet light there's light bouncing around everywhere.

Our ears can only hear a tiny decibel range can't hear

the noise of a dog whistle can't hear any high -pitched frequency sounds isn't it likely then

that there are other vibrations frequencies energies consciousness moving through their universe consciousness is an amorphous

and expanding entity i think

that we allow our consciousness to be prohibited by our senses

prescribed by our senses living in the realm of these five apertures into our reality

but reality is limitless space is infinite time eternal through yoga one can temporarily break the bonds

that chain us to the mundane the mondial that

which is of the earth

and we can temporarily at least receive a taste of the

infinite i don't want to get too cosmic about it

but we are just this sort of temporary blob of atoms you know

endowed with consciousness for the merest moment in infinite space.

Meditation and yoga, these are fundamental parts of my life.

I think it's difficult these days with religion getting such a rough ride, the Pope resigning, bloody terrorism and nonsense.

It's difficult to find an access to spirituality, but we are, by our nature, spiritual people.

If we don't have access to spirituality, we suffer as individuals, society suffers.

We need to recognise at some point that within ourselves there's an infinite capacity for connection with all things.

Well, I love the fact that you've described it as you have a daily access to unseen realms of power.

Daily access to unseen realms of power.

Not just me.

Everyone has that.

For me, what I've discovered is that Transcendental Meditation is useful to me, not because of a unique set of circumstances, not because of my formerly secret brilliance,

no. But because I am a human being, and it is applicable to all human beings and

that what's really good about that is literally everyone in this room is one.

What I say is that we're basically all right human beings whenever there's a disaster

or an accident people's impulse is to help one another.

I'm thinking anyone that galvanizes people brings people together

and points us to the better aspects of our nature and help us to overcome our basic things like fear and desire.

I think these people are worthy heroes rather than the heroes that are nominated today, heroes that are low vibrational frequency that make us concentrate on daft stuff.

So they want you to be talking about Justin Bieber, they want you to be talking about twerking, they don't want you talking about fracking, they want you talking about twerking, they want to get them with their job,

shut your fucking mouths and watch this shit you fucking morons, and I know, because I've been part of the charade, but you know, I'm awake now,

look beyond the superficial, that's the problem with current affairs, you forget about what's important, you allow the agenda to be decided by superficial information,

what am I saying, what am I talking about, don't think about what I'm wearing, these things are redundant.

And I don't think that we should be continuing to propagate the idea

that famous people are magical and special because it makes people feel that their lives ain't no good.

And I don't think we should be living in that kind of fearful paradigm.

It's that.

I'm like a vegetarian.

I believe we're all equal.

I ain't got the right to kill.

I don't kill.

Like, say a fly comes in me house, I tolerate that little arsehole.

Because I feel like he's a fly.

He's just on his journey here through life.

When I'm meditating or praying,

I say the infinite creative force that brings into being all phenomena and guides all life,

I say, can you move through me?

And things that actually work, you sort of treat them, you sort of shirk them off as if like, you know, as if you owe them money

and you don't want to avoid yoga and meditation they've been portrayed quite brilliantly by the mainstream as sort of somehow luxury,

inter -luxury, or artificial, or superficial.

It's absolutely integral, it's absolutely the most authentic thing, more real than any of us.

If people are happy, they're happy, they don't need it.

If there's not a problem, there's not a problem.

But I think if people have some sort of yearning or dissatisfaction or some itchy irritability,

then it might be because they're not looking in the right direction for a solution and that they should look within, and that within them there is a limitless,

infinite capacity for bliss through connection to our things.

You cannot define yourself in reference to other external coordinates.

You must define yourself internally with your relationship with a higher entity.

Think of yourself as a manifestation of some higher thing, some higher frequency.

This is the visible realization.

Then you know that because you can't see atoms, can you?

And you certainly can't see the forces that hold atoms together.

There, in the micro -quantum world, Richard, lie the answers to everything.

We can't understand it with our logical, rational minds, but we feel it intuitively.

Get yourself in alignment with that stuff and you beam like the sun.

The dead human ape has fulfilled its potential.

The dead human ape has not evolved for the last 10 ,000 years.

These are the achievements of the dead human ape.

Now we must transform, become enlightened, so that we can access the next realm of consciousness necessary for evolution.

I think we elect to ignore the spiritual at our own..

and it causes a deficit for ourselves and for our culture and for our planet.

I think that we are too easy to identify ourselves as individuals.

That idea is fortified daily through, as we said before, the stimulation of primal desires, that which anchor us to the self.

And we ignore that we're here for such a short while, that we're all basically the same as one another.

We're all connected to each other and we have a collective responsibility to it.

God is not something that's about thinking you're better than someone or a reason to have a war with someone.

It's that within us, beneath and beyond our identity as human beings, driven by fear and desire defined by the realm of the senses

and the material self which is transitory there is a divine self

that is connecting to all living things

that isn't part of an infinite source of creativity you could probably describe

that using quantum physics or science if you want i choose to believe in god

because i think what that is is the recognition

that there is divine beauty in all of us and

if we prioritize

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that over our own selfish material needs then we will naturally create a culture more in harmony of our planet

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and we'll have a chance I think it's one of the greatest sadnesses of more modern life

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because of our disenfranchisement and disillusionment with religion that we don't have access to these ideas.

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And yoga and meditation for me is a way in the secular world of accessing very, very beautiful principles that perhaps make us happier at a time when people feel disillusioned with the economy,

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concerned about the ecology, worried with politicians, don't trust what they're being told on television.

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God let go of temporary transient ideas like individualism, the nature of monotheistic faiths,

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these dead desert religions, is to encode us with the idea that individualism is more important than paganism, ideologies that integrally relate us to the earth so that we know that we are integrally,

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indefatigably related to our environment and we live in the service of our environment because self is a temporal illusion.

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I suppose the ultimate truth is oneness, that this is a temporary illusion, that we temporarily occupy these flesh puppets, we believe so much in our identities,

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we believe in our individualism, and I talk as a very sort of egotistical man, look at my hair, look at these bracelets, look at these ridiculous boots, I'm a person who believes in the nature of my own individualism and my own identity.

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But on a deeper level I recognise that all these things are transient

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and what's important and what's defining are the things that we all share love, unity, togetherness as long as we have cultural narratives

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that eschew these ideas that suppress these ideas in favour of negative human traits greed,

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selfishness, lust as long as these ideas are promoted we'll exist in opposition to one another

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and we'll be exploitable by corporations

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that prey upon these negative facets of humanity The line between good and evil runs not between cultures,

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religions or creeds but through every human heart So I recognise in myself the capacity for selfishness, for lustfulness, for egotism.

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And because I recognise these qualities in myself, I would prefer a culture that didn't celebrate, exacerbate, stimulate the most negative aspects of our species,

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inculcate them, reward them financially, till we get to a kind of a cultural hysteria where we're destroying the planet.

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The reality is there is one planet.

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There is a certain amount of people on the planet.

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There are a certain amount of resources on the planet.

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None of them things are going to last forever.

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So we need systems in place that acknowledge the reality, not systems that benefit elites, but systems that acknowledge the reality.

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People need to have access to the resources.

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Can't lie to people so that people in power can continue to augment

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and grow their own power and satisfaction while normal people are exploited.

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We need systems that get the resources to the people while respecting the planet.

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Any system that's detrimental to the planet or detrimental to the people because it helps one or two bods, fuck it off.

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We're allowed to do that, you know, we are we are creatures on the planet.

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We are mammals Look at the faces of the people that we've been asked to vote for as leaders.

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Look at them Look at them feel in your heart

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that ain't who's meant to be leading us Happiness cannot forever

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be sustained like some glistening bauble It's a transitory thing like a butterfly alighting on Snow White's finger in

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that bit of Snow White So like, you know, I'm happy mostly.

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I'm happy mostly when I'm being nice to other people they're not happy you know

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when they analyze the semantics consistently through mythology

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and theology of words like love god they find

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that the the common theme john is union

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that we just want to be connected to something higher

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that can be another person that could be god

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that could be a relationship with nature could even be a

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relationship with West Ham United I think the important thing is

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to have the central tenet of your being love compassion

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and tolerance everyone knows that you know like the realization

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that this is only a very temporary thing that the only thing

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that matters to any of us is love everything about underscoring everything is love

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if it's a biological anatomical human condition the idea of acquisition

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and survival of the species then that 2 %

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that distinguishes us from the great ape somewhere within that is

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that divine spark that philosophers have always espoused upon and written about, that somewhere within that, that's the truth that we're trying to head towards.

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What it felt to me was like the dissolution of my idea of myself.

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Like, I felt like separateness evaporated.

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I felt this tremendous sense of oneness.

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I find it, I'm quite an erratic thinker, quite an adrenalised person.

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And through meditation, I felt this beautiful serenity and selfless connection.

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You know, my sort of tendency towards selfishness, I felt that kind of exposed as a superficial and pointless perspective to have.

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I felt a very relaxed sense of oneness.

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I felt love.

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Follow me on Twitter if you want to, at Rusty Rockets but basically carry on doing what you're doing, being happy in your hearts.

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34 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Russell Brand - Awakened Man”. This video has 123 sentences and 2206 words to shadow. The speech runs for 11:18. The speaker talks fast, about 195 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 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
infinite adjective	/ˈɪnfɪnɪt/	Indefinably large, countlessly great; immense.
consciousness noun	/ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/	The state of being conscious or aware; awareness.
spiritual adjective	/ˈspɪɹɪt͡ʃuəl/	Of or pertaining to the spirit or the soul.
meditation noun	/mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/	A devotional exercise of, or leading to, contemplation.
superficial adjective	/ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/	Existing, occurring, or located on the surface.
temporary adjective	/ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/	Not permanent; existing only for a period or periods of time.
frequency noun	/ˈfɹiːkwənsi/	The rate of occurrence of anything; the relationship between incidence and time period.
yoga noun	/ˈjoʊ.ɡə/	Any of several Hindu or Buddhist disciplines aimed at training the consciousness for a state of perfect spiritual insight and tranquillity; especially a system…
temporarily adverb	/ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/	For a limited period of time; not permanently.
atom noun	/ˈætəm/	The smallest possible amount of matter which still retains its identity as a chemical element, now known to consist of a nucleus surrounded by electrons.
ignore verb	/ɪɡˈnɔː/	To deliberately not listen or pay attention to.
suffer verb	/ˈsʌfɚ/	To undergo hardship.
luxury noun	/ˈlʌk.ʃə.ɹi/	Very wealthy and comfortable surroundings; the state of being that they create.
define verb	/dɪˈfaɪn/	To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness; to ascertain or exhibit clearly.
instrument noun	/ˈɪnstɹəmənt/	A device used to produce music.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
bounce around verb	To discuss or brainstorm (ideas) on a topic.

Sentences worth repeating

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

What am I saying?
What am I talking about?
Don't think about what I'm wearing.
It's that I'm a vegetarian.
I believe that we're all equal.

Grammar in this video

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

Structure	In the video
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being treated · being exploited · is delineated
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've recognised · you've described · I've discovered
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	self which is · person who believes

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 61 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/, beneath /bɪˈniːθ/, authentic /ɔˈθɛn.tɪk/, theology /θiˈɒ.lə.d͡ʒi/, mythology /mɪˈθɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: consciousness /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/, meditation /mɛdɪˈteɪʃn̩/, superficial /ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/, luxury /ˈlʌk.ʃə.ɹi/, illusion /ɪˈl(j)uːʒ(ə)n/
Long words — get the stress right: superficial /ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/, temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, temporarily /ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/, entity /ˈɛn.tə.ti/ [-tʰi], realization /ˌɹɪə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/

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 infinite, consciousness, spiritual.

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 →

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