Shadowing Practice: What does it mean to be happy in life? | Buddhism In English - Learn English Speaking with Video

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To be happy, Is every living being right in this world?
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Everything that we do, everything that we say, Why we are doing them?
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We do that to be happy.
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Just ask from yourself, "Why am I doing what am I doing?" You can answer to yourself.
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You will find that the reason why I do everything in life to make myself happy.
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If I ask from you, why do you wake up early in the morning and just prepare some food and go out to work?
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to make yourself happy and to make others happy, isn't it?
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Yes.
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You gain happiness by making others happy as well that you have to remember.
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Right?
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So there are two types of happinesses in this world.
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The first type of happiness is cold.
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the material happiness.
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Right?
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And also the other type of happiness is called the spiritual happiness.
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To call it a good life, to call it a perfect life, One must achieve these two types of happinesses in his life.
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One must experience both of these happinesses in their life.
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Right?
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So from this video, I would like to share a wonderful teaching from the Buddha,
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that explains about what are the types of happinesses that a person who is living in a household life.
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A family life must achieve.
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Now, according to Buddhism, there are two types of lives.
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The first type of life is called the household life.
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That means the people who are living in a family life, right?
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Maintaining a family, living in a house, you know, engaging in material pleasures and all this stuff.
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Right?
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A household life.
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That means you.
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And also, there is this other type of life, it is called the monk's life.
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which we can call them the homelessness life.
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That means we leave our houses, We leave our families and become monks so that we no longer own a house,
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we no longer own a family, we no longer maintain a family.
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So the ones who renunciate the household life, the ones who leave the household life, they seek a higher kind of happiness.
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right?
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That doesn't mean that they don't seek any kind of happiness.
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We as monks, why we become monks is to seek the spiritual happiness.
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Now, When you become a monk, it doesn't mean you totally deny seeking the material happiness.
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Right?
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But for a monk, there must be a limit for seeking the material happiness,
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because as living beings, we can't totally deny seeking material pleasure.
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As living beings, we must consume some sort of material pleasures in this world.
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But that seeking, that consumption of material pleasure must not disturb the peace and the spiritual happiness that a monk is seeking.
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So for monks there are limitations for material happiness.
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Okay, but it is less of the material happiness and more of the spiritual happiness.
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So, in this teaching of the Buddha, the Buddha focuses on household life a household, a person who is living a family life.
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To call that life a perfect life,
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a good life, The Buddha says that there are four types of happinesses that a householder must achieve in their life.
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Right?
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The first type of happiness, the Buddha called it, "Athi Sukha".
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What is it?
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Ati Sukkha.
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Ati Sukkha can be translated into English as the happiness of ownership.
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Now what do you mean by the happiness of ownership?
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Buddha explains the happiness of ownership as: "One must Work hard, put his time and energy and strive,
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and earn money righteously in the correct way.
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Right?
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He must earn money, he must earn wealth in the writer's way.
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Now what do you mean by in the rightest way?
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is by you should earn money without harming anyone.
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without harming yourself and without harming the other people, without harming the society.
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Right?
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If you earn money without harming anyone, that is the rightest way of earning money.
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Now Buddha said, as a householder, you must Be happy, and you must enjoy earning money.
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Buddha was someone who did not say that you should not pursue happiness.
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You should not pursue material happiness.
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The Buddha said, "If you are a householder, you must do that." That is your duty.
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Right?
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So, the Buddha said, "Strive hard, work hard, put your time and energy to what you are working on,
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and earn money righteously." That is a happiness that you can gain.
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Right?
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When you have enough money to your life, then you can be happy about thinking that I own this wealth.
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This is my wealth, that is sort of a happiness that one can gain.
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That is the first type of happiness that Buddha said a household must
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achieve in their life at some point in their life.
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Right?
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That is the first one.
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The second type of happiness that Buddha taught for householders to achieve is called bhoga sukha.
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So The bogus hooker can be translated into English as the happiness of enjoyment.
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Now, first you earn money, right?
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Now you spend money and enjoy it in the correct way.
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Right?
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The Buddha says that you have to spend money In a way, that you should not harm yourself and you should not harm the other people as well.
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in the writer's way.
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Right?
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So that when you enjoy, when you spend money doing good things like helping people, helping your parents, you know,
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with your money, with the money that you rightously earned, and when you spend that money on the people who you love,
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right, to make them happy, it gives you happiness.
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Right?
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It is a great happiness that one can achieve.
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That you have to achieve in your life.
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Okay, so the second type of happiness the Buddha taught to achieve is called the Bhog of Sukha, the happiness of enjoyment.
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The third type of happiness that Buddha taught us to enjoy in the life is called the happiness of freedom from debt.
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That we called Anane Sukkah.
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Ananasukha is the happiness of freedom from death.
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Now when you are free from debt, let's say you don't have any loans or any debt to pay.
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You are financially free.
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then how much freedom that one can feel, right?
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You feel freedom, you feel a happiness that I'm no longer in debt to anything.
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I don't have any loans to pay, I don't have any debt to pay, so I'm financially free.
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That is a happiness that a householder must achieve in their life.
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Right?
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There is a great happiness that one must achieve.
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the freedom, financial freedom, right?
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This is the third type of happiness.
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And then the fourth type of happiness, this is the most important thing, this is the most valuable happiness that a householder must achieve in their life,
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according to the Buddha.
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Buddha said, "The fourth type of happiness is called Anavajja Sukha." Anavajya Sukha means: the happiness from blameless life.
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Now what do you mean by a blameless life?
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The Buddha says that you have to do things, you have to say things, you have to live your life in a way that you do everything with a good heart.
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with a good mind, with a wholesome heart.
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When you spend your life As a good -hearted person, as a good person, as a wholesome -hearted person,
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It gives you a bigger happiness, bigger enjoyment thinking about who you are.
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That is the most important thing, because all the other material happinesses, right, all the other three material happinesses, it can give you happiness.
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Right?
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I don't say that it cannot give you happiness, but if you did not have this happiness, Anawajjusuk.
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If your heart is complaining who you are, what you do If your heart is regretting about who you are,
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then The other things doesn't matter.
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What matters the most is how you live in this life.
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Right?
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At the end of our life, The most important thing that we can be happy about is how we live this life,
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how much love we give to other people, right?
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How much we help to other people.
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how rightously and how correctly we lived our life.
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So the Buddha said, you must achieve this happiness as well.
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So these are the four happinesses that a household one who is living in a family life, spending a family life must achieve.
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So I hope this video and this teaching from the Buddha gave you a little light to your life.
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So I wish you all, may all of you be able to achieve all of these happinesses in this very life.
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Now we'll be the highest.

Context & Background

The video titled "What does it mean to be happy in life? | Buddhism In English" presents a thoughtful exploration of happiness as understood through Buddhist teachings. The speaker emphasizes the dual nature of happiness—material and spiritual—and encourages viewers to reflect on their motivations and actions in life. Through a deep dive into household and monastic lives, the discussion offers insights into achieving a fulfilling life. This context can serve as a rich resource for learners looking to improve their English vocabulary and comprehension in a meaningful way.

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

  • "Why am I doing what I am doing?" - A reflective question that invites self-exploration.
  • "You gain happiness by making others happy." - A phrase highlighting the interconnectedness of personal and communal happiness.
  • "There are two types of happinesses in this world." - A clear statement that sets up the concept of dual happiness.
  • "A good life must achieve these two types of happiness." - An assertion about the balance of happiness in life.
  • "Achieve in their life." - A motivational phrase encouraging action towards personal goals.

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

To effectively learn English with YouTube using this video, follow this shadowing guide:

  1. Watch and Listen: Begin by watching the video without subtitles. Focus on understanding the overall message and the speaker's tone.
  2. Turn on Subtitles: Activate English subtitles to read along. This will help you connect spoken words with their written forms, essential for improving your reading and listening skills.
  3. Choose Key Phrases: Select the top phrases listed above. These are essential for daily communication and reflect common themes in conversations about happiness.
  4. Shadow the Speaker: Use a shadowing app to repeat the speaker's words. Mimic their pronunciation, pace, and intonation. This helps in enhancing your speaking practice, critical for IELTS speaking preparation.
  5. Reflect and Practice: After shadowing, pause the video and reflect on how you can incorporate these phrases into your daily life. Practice speaking with these phrases in various contexts to solidify your learning.

This structured approach not only aids in vocabulary retention but also boosts your confidence in speaking English fluently. Engage in this practice regularly for continued improvement and a deeper understanding of complex themes such as happiness as discussed in Buddhism.

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.