Power English

Taoism Mini-Story Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Taoism."

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There was a girl, a very happy girl...a very beautiful girl, an amazing girl. She had

a big smile. There was an amazing, beautiful, intelligent, wonderful girl. Her

name was Tomoe and she wanted to fight a gorilla.

What was her name?

Her name was Tomoe.

She was Japanese.

What did Tomoe want to do?

Tomoe wanted to fight a gorilla.

What did she want to fight?

A gorilla, Tomoe wanted to fight a gorilla.

So first she contemplated her goal.

What did she do?

She contemplated her goal. She thought about her goal calmly and slowly.

What did she contemplate?

Her goal, she contemplated her goal.

What was her goal?

Her goal was to fight a gorilla.

Did she want to be nice to a gorilla?

Taoism Main Text

Hello, this is AJ again. Welcome to our next lesson, this one's a really interesting one

from one of my favorite writers. Absolutely love him, his name is Alan Watts. He

actually died back in the '70s but just an amazing man, so intelligent and actually quite

funny actually, just a great sense of humor. And Alan Watts is a very interesting guy.

He was one of the first western people, meaning American or European, to learn about

eastern spiritual practices, eastern religions. So he studied Buddhism, Taoism and

Hinduism, most especially Buddhism. He was a Buddhist. He became a Buddhist. And

then he came back, for example, he lived in Japan actually for several years and

learned Buddhism there in a monastery.

And then he came back and he wrote in English about these religions. The other

interesting thing about him is that he was a Christian minister before he became a

Buddhist. I believe he was Episcopalian which is a kind of Christian, but he was a

minister, he was a preacher. And so the very interesting thing about Alan Watts is that

he has a great understanding of both the western and the eastern religious practices,

religious beliefs. And not just the normal kind of religion, just go to church and pray and

read your little book, but really the deeper meanings of both Christianity, Buddhism, etc.

And he has a great way of teaching eastern religions, especially Buddhism and Taoism,

to western people in a way we can understand.

So anyway, he's also just a really funny, interesting guy and a very intellectual guy, very

intelligent. So this is from one of his books about Taoism. Now Taoism is actually

spelled with a "T", T-a-o-i-s-m, but it's pronounced "Daoism" like it's a "D". Why is that?

Because English spelling is crazy. English spelling, as you already know, is very difficult

and there's no logic about it, or very little logic about it. So it's spelled with a "T" but

pronounced as a "D". I don't know why. Why didn't we just spell it with a "D"? I don't

know. It comes from Chinese words so I guess they wrote it, they heard it wrong and I

don't know. Anyway, it's pronounced "Daoism" and the book is called "Taoism Way

Beyond Seeking" by Alan Watts, A-l-a-n and then his last name W-a-t-t-s. And by the

way, he has a great podcast, alanwatts.com I believe is his podcast. So in this book

Alan Watts talks about Taoism.

Taoism is a philosophy, not really a religion, I don't think. Maybe it is, I don't know, but

in my opinion it's really more of a philosophy. It's a way of living. It's a philosophy about

life. And it's a very natural philosophy. The basic idea of Taoism is that you should live

in harmony with nature. You should follow nature, be part of nature. And if you live with

nature instead of fighting it, your life will be much more successful and happy and easy.

It's a little bit like Thoreau's idea. Remember Thoreau, Walden, remember that lesson?

Well, Taoism has a similar kind of feeling. This idea that we don't fight against things,

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Superior Man Point-of-View Text

Hello, this is AJ. Welcome to the point of view stories for "Superior Man." Same story,

different points of view. Let's start.

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Since 1999 Kristin has wanted to go to the moon.

What has she wanted?

She has wanted to go to the moon.

She has wanted to go to the moon since when?

Since 1999.

Since 1999 Kristin has wanted to go where?

She has wanted to go to the moon since 1999.

Who has wanted to go to the moon since 1999?

Kristin, of course, Kristin has wanted to go to the moon since 1999.

Why has she wanted to go to the moon?

Well, for spiritual reasons.

She has wanted to go for spiritual reasons.

What kind of reasons?

Spiritual, she has wanted to go to the moon for spiritual reasons.

In fact, she has wanted to meditate on the moon. She's dreamed about

meditating on the moon. That has been her dream.

What has been her dream?

Superior Man Mini-Story Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Superior Man." Are you strong? You

feeling good? Let's get started.

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Kristin wanted to go to the moon. She wanted to visit the moon.

Who wanted to visit the moon?

Well, Kristin did. Kristin wanted to visit the moon.

Where did she want to go?

She wanted to go to the moon.

Who wanted to go there?

Kristin, Kristin wanted to go to the moon.

What did she want?

To go to the moon, Kristin wanted to go to the moon.

Why?

Why did Kristin want to go to the moon? She wanted to go for spiritual reasons.

What kind of reasons did she have?

She had spiritual reasons. Kristin wanted to go to the moon for spiritual reasons. Of

course, obviously.

She wanted to meditate on the moon for 10 days.

What kind of reasons did she have?

She had spiritual reasons.

Who had spiritual reasons for going to the moon?

Superior Man Main Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the next lesson. This lesson is called "The Way of the

Superior Man" and we're going to talk about a book with the same title, The Way of the

Superior Man, by David Deida, his last name is D-e-i-d-a. David Deida, another very

interesting book. I'm trying to introduce you to a lot of interesting books and after these

lessons are all over maybe you can go find these books and read them yourself. What

a cool idea. But first, let's get started. Get your body strong, strong physiology, right?

Breathe deep, chest up, chin up, eyes up. Smile big. Deep breaths, move your body.

Come on, get some energy in your body. Let's get started.

So, The Way of the Superior Man, it's an excellent book and it is in fact written for men,

although I think there are a lot of great ideas in there for women, too. But l do think that

men especially will enjoy the book. So, if you're a man, I especially recommend that

you go get it. But even if you're a woman you could read it. You're allowed to. It's

okay. Now this book is really about how to be a superior man, I guess what the title

says.

How to be a great person is what it really means. How to live that life of your dreams,

very similar to a lot of the topics we're talking about, right? They all have a similar

theme. Do you notice the topics are similar? Do you think I'm trying to convince you of

something? Well, I am. I'm trying to convince you to live the life of your dreams,

whatever that it. I don't know what it is, but you know. Whatever those big dreams you

have, I want you to get them. Now, of course, one of those dreams is to speak excellent

English and l'm helping you with that right now. You're helping yourself with that right

now, too.

And you're going to continue helping yourself speak excellent English, even after you

finish all of these lessons. You're going to keep following this system. You're going to

find more listening, more English listening, and you're going to listen to it every day.

You're going to find cool, fun, interesting English books, novels especially. And you're

going to read them every day. You're going to keep following this system even after you

finish all of my lessons. It never stops. It never ends. But that's okay because you

enjoy it. Because you're smiling, you're moving. This is great. You love it. So why

would you stop? No reason, you're going to keep going forever. Alright, so get that big

smile, come on – smile. And let's get started.

I'm going to read a section of The Way of the Superior Man. This section talks about

fear, because what stops us? What stops us from living our dreams? Usually it's fear.

Some kind of fear, fear of failure is a very common one. Probably the most common, I

think, fear of what other people think. Fear of other people's opinions. Fear of not

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Superior Man Vocabulary Text

Hi, this is AJ Hoge. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Superior Man." Let's start.

Our first word is intimate, intimate. In the first sentence David Dieda says pick an area

of your life, choose an area of your life. And he says perhaps your intimate

relationships. So intimate, intimate relationship for example, intimate just means very

close, very personal. So your intimate relationships are your closest relationships. Your

husband or wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, mother, father, daughter, son, those kind of

relationships. Maybe your very close, closest friends, so your intimate relationships,

your very close relationships.

Sometimes if someone says your intimate relationship, no “s", relationship, then they're

usually talking about someone you're dating or you're married to, so they're talking

about your

that kind of love relationship between a husband/wife boyfriend/girlfriend. But

sometimes it's a little more general and it just means your closest relationships. So if

there's an "s" there, intimation relationships, then we're talking about the people who

are closest to you.

husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend. So sometimes it's used just to mean

Our next word is spiritual. He says perhaps you should think about your spiritual

practice. Spiritual is similar to religious. It's quite close to religious...spiritual, religious,

very similar. The difference is that religious is organized, or religion is organized, right?

So we're talking about Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, those are

religions. So if you're practicing one of those specifically, you can say "Oh, I am

religious. I am a religious person. I am a Buddhist, I am a very strong Buddhist. I am

religious."

But spiritual is really very personal. It's not organized. You might say you have a belief

about god or you have a belief about the universe or about life. But maybe it's not

Buddhism or Christianity or Islam, maybe it's not a specific religion. It's your own

personal feeling. Your own personal experience, that's spiritual. Spiritual. So spiritual

is the direct experience, the direct feeling. Religion or religious refers to something

organized. Okay, so your spiritual practice, it's your practice or how you pray or

meditate, for example.

Next we see the phrase "earn a living." He says are you currently doing something to

earn a living that gives you passion. To earn a living means to make money. It really

means to work, usually it's how you make money. So you can say "I earn a living by

teaching English," right? I make money by teaching English. It's my job. It's my career.

Alright, so to earn a living means to make money or to work. So in this article he talks

Walden Vocabulary Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson for "Walden." Let's get started.

Our first word is advance, to advance. So this is a verb. Now you probably know

advanced in another meaning, meaning high level. But this is a different meaning. This

is a verb. It's an action. To advance means to move forward, to move forward. So

advance towards your dreams means move towards your dreams. Go forward towards

your dreams.

Alright, our next word is to endeavor. This is a noun also but in this paragraph it's a

verb, to endeavor to do something. To endeavor to live the life you have imagined. To

endeavor to live your dreams and endeavor means to try, to attempt. So, to attempt to

live your dreams, to try to live your dreams, to endeavor to live your dreams. So

Thoreau is saying you should endeavor to live your biggest dreams. You should try to

live your biggest dreams.

Okay, and then a little later he says if you do this, if you try to live your biggest dreams

and you try hard then you will have success unexpected in common hours. Unexpected

is kind of like a surprise, right? But in common hours means during normal times, like in

your normal life. So maybe right now, during your normal life you imagine your big, big

dream and you can't imagine success. It seems so difficult. It's like “Oh my god." So

this is sort of your normal time, your common hour. But if you take a big chance, if you

really try, your success will be huge. It will be bigger than you can imagine normally. So

in common hours means normally, during normal times, usually. It has that idea.

Little bit later he uses the word liberal. Liberal has a lot of different meanings and uses.

It can be used in a political way, but here it's used in a much more general way. He

says if you try to reach your dreams, then liberal laws will begin to happen around you.

So liberal here means flexible, free, open, tolerant. Okay, so it's this idea of more

flexible, more free, more tolerant and open. So what he's saying is that liberal laws,

laws as in like religious laws, spiritual laws, scientific laws, physical laws. He's just

saying that the universe or God or whatever will make things easier for you.

That the more you try for your big, big dream that things will become more liberal. Your

life situation will become more flexible. Your life situation will become more easy and

free. Your life situation will become more open. So he''s saying that your experiences,

your situation, your environment will become more liberal because you have this strong

belief for your big, big dream. Because of that your environment will become liberal,

liberal meaning flexible, liberal meaning free and open.

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Walden Point-of-View Text

Okay, welcome to the POV, point of view, lessons/stories for "Walden." Same story,

different points of view. The first point of view starts with “Since she was 16..." Since

she was 16 years old.

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Since she was 16 years old Inka has wanted to build a beautiful castle. She has

wanted to build a beautiful castle starting when she was 16 until recently. Since

she was 16 Inka has wanted to build a big, wonderful, beautiful castle. She has

dreamed of living in the castle like a princess by herself.

Who has dreamed of living in a castle by herself like a princess?

Inka, Inka has dreamed of living in a castle by herself like a princess.

What has she dreamed?

Well, since she was 16 she has dreamed of living in a castle like a princess by herself.

She has dreamed about this every day. Since she was 16 she has dreamed about

being in a beautiful castle. She has dreamed about living like a princess. Every

day she has dreamed about this. When she was 17 she dreamed about it. When

she was 18, 19, 20, 21, continuing...starting when she was 16 and continuing.

She has dreamed and dreamed and dreamed. Well one day she decided to

advance towards her dream. She decided to take action. And so she did, she

advanced towards her dream.

In fact she endeavored to build a castle out of diamonds. She tried to build the

diamond castle but it was too difficult. Diamonds are very expensive and big

diamonds are very heavy. And so she stopped. Next, she asked her friends for

help. She established a team of builders to help her build the castle. Every day

they worked on the castle. But they didn't build a diamond castle. They built a

huge castle out of gum. But that's not all. The foundation of the castle was made

of spaghetti. They built a gum castle with a spaghetti foundation. Eventually

they finished the castle. And they all lived together in the castle, Inka and her

friends. In fact, they lived happily ever after.

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Walden Mini-Story Text

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the mini-story for "Walden." Take a deep breath. Shoulders

back. Chest up. Big smile. Are you ready? Let's get started.

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Inka wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

What did Inka want to build?

Well, Inka wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

What kind of house did Inka want to build?

A huge beautiful house, she wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

Who wanted to build a huge beautiful house?

Inka, Inka wanted to build a huge beautiful house.

Did she want to build a huge beautiful car?

Not a car, no she didn't. She didn't want to build a huge beautiful car. She wanted to

build a huge beautiful house.

In fact, her dream was to live in a castle like a princess all by herself.

What did she want to live like?

Like a princess, she wanted to live like a princess.

Where did she want to live?

In a castle, she wanted to live in a castle.

How did she want to live?

Like a princess, she wanted to live like a princess in a castle.

Where?

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Walden Main Text

Hi, this is AJ again. Welcome to the next lesson. This week's lesson is called "Walden."

And we're going to talk about a book with the same name, Walden, by a writer named

Henry David Thoreau. Now Thoreau is probably my favorite American writer, I guess

maybe my favorite writer in general. He wrote back during the American Civil War, prior

to the American Civil War, and his book Walden is his most famous book. Now it's quite

difficult. There's a lot of big vocabulary in this book. And also the writing style is kind of

old, very, very, very formal English and a little bit of an old style of English. So l'm going

to read one paragraph from the book and then l'll talk about it more. And that paragraph

may be quite difficult for you, but don't worry. I'll explain it after.

Now, Walden, the book, is about an experiment, an experience that Henry David

Thoreau had. He decided to go and live in the woods. Go away from the town where

he was into the woods, into the forest, and then build a very small little simple house

and live in it by himself. And just think and relax and live a very simple life. And then he

wrote a book about this experience. Now, of course, this is something that people have

done for centuries and centuries, holy people, religious people, spiritual people,

philosophers.

In many different periods of history, in many different locations in the world, they've

gone off by themselves to some small remote place away from other people to think, to

live simply. And of course we have a lot of great intellectual breakthroughs from these

people. So it's a long tradition to do this and Henry David Thoreau was following the

same tradition. And it's not a usual thing for Americans, I would say. He was maybe

one of the first Americans to do this and write about it. I'm sure many did it but he wrote

about his experience. And this book is a book about his experience, his experiment, but

more so it's a book about his philosophy, a philosophy of life that he developed while

living in the woods alone.

And the main part of this philosophy is to live simply. That in fact we don't need so

much in terms of things, buying things, getting lots of things. So even at that time in the

United States people were always trying to get more, more, more...bigger, bigger,

bigger house...more, more, more money...more, more, more nice furniture. Just

always buying things and of course today we have more, more, more computers and

iPods and phones and bigger cars and nicer stuff. All the time people want more, more,

more. And he was saying this is a source of unhappiness if you're always trying to get

more and more and more you will never be happy. And so his idea was actually to be

happy with what you need and then focus on doing other things. Instead of always

trying to get more, more, more, live more simply and you will have a lot of time for

yourself. You'll work much less. You'll enjoy your life. So that is the basic philosophy of