درسنامه واژگان

Vipassana – Vocabulary Lesson

Hello effortless English members. I am happy to say we now have about 50 members we’ve reached our limit for now. I am not, not accepting more members.

We’re going to focus now finally on getting more lessons, more articles, more text guides on to the website. So, I’ve been working on a lot of stuff lately but now I have more time to focus on that.

So, let’s get started. Today’s vocabulary lesson is for the Vipassana article. It’s pronounced Vipassana. Let’s start with the word kidneys in the first paragraph.

I felt two hot knives stabbing me in my kidneys. Kidneys are in the low back part of your back, right? The lower part of your back. And they’re the organs, the body parts that clean your blood. They clean your blood. Those are called kidneys. They’re like two little round organs.

All right, then we have the word in the next paragraph, sear. I said it felt like something was searing through my flesh.

To sear (S E A R) means to burn. So, it felt like something was burning my flesh and of course flesh means skin. It can sometimes mean, you know, in general it can mean muscle and skin together. So, it felt like something was burning, searing my flesh, burning my skin.

All right, in that same paragraph we see the word numb (N U M B). My feet were numb with a dull ache. Numb means has no feeling, without feeling.

So, if your feet are numb, it means they can’t feel pain or anything else. So, if you pinch your foot, you will not feel it, that’s numb.

Ache, is a kind of pain. Ache is kind of a very general pain. If you are stabbed with a knife that is not an ache. We call that a sharp pain, but if you run or exercise very hard, two days later your muscles will ache. You feel a kind of pain over a large area. We call that an ache.

All right, you see the phrase, in the next paragraph, butterflies in my stomach. Butterflies in my stomach or butterflies in your stomach means you’re nervous. It’s a little slang phrase. We say it when we’re nervous. We say “oh, I have butterflies in my stomach”. It means I am nervous.

Okay, in the next sentence you see the word gulp. I gulped and refocus my mind. To gulp means to swallow, to swallow. That action of swallowing, a big amount, we call that gulping.

Sometimes, if you drink, if you take a really big drink, you have a Coke, you drink a lot of it one short time, we say you are gulping the Coke, you gulped it.

All right, you see the word advisers in that same paragraph. Advisers means someone who gives you advice. Someone who tells you what to do, someone who teaches you. So, it can sometimes have the meaning of teacher.

All right, in that same paragraph, the end, you see the word dispassionately, the adjective of course is dispassionate. Dispassionate means no feeling.

Now, in this case, I’m not talking about physical feeling. I’m talking about emotion. So, dispassionate means without emotion, no emotion, very calm. You don’t get angry, you don’t get worried, you don’t get upset. You’re very, very calm, you are dispassionate.

If you do something with that kind of feeling, without much emotion, you do it dispassionately, adverb.

All right, the next paragraph, you see the phrase, the verb phrase, delved into. I delved into the pain. To delve into something means to go into it deeply.

Sometimes, it has the idea of dig (D I G), to dig into something. But it means to go into something. If you delve into English, it means you study English very deeply, you study it a lot. You delve into it.

All right, and then you see the phrase drained away in that same paragraph. Drained away just means go away. We’ve had that word before I believe.

In the next sentence we see the verb to heave. My body heaved suddenly. To heave means to move suddenly. You’re suddenly moving. So, my body suddenly was shaking or it moved a lot in a very quick time. That’s heave.

Heave sometimes also means to throw, usually to throw something very heavy. We call that heaving also. It is also slang for vomiting or throwing up.

All right, exhale means to breathe out, that next sentence, I exhaled. Breathe in is inhale and breathe out is exhale. I just exhaled.

All right, moving on to the next paragraph. You see the word crept. A natural unforced smile crept on to my face. Crept is the past tense of creep, to creep (C R E E P), which can also be a noun. But anyway, using it as a verb, to creep means to move very quietly and secretly.

So, if you are creeping around the house, you’re, maybe you’re walking around the house very quietly trying to be secret. You don’t want anyone to hear you.

So, if a smile creeps on your face, it means the smile comes on to your face very slowly and almost like a secret. Like, you don’t want to smile but you do smile. That’s creep. While the past tense is crept.

All right, we see the phrase broke through, which is the past tense of break through, the next paragraph. I broke through on the eighth day. To have a breakthrough, to break through means to make a big improvement. Suddenly, you make a big improvement.

You want to have or you want to make a breakthrough in your English. You can also use it as a verb, a verb phrase, I want to break through with my English.

All right, meditation in that same sentence. Meditation is the practice of focusing your mind. You sit down and you focus your mind. Some different… there are different ways to do it.

Sometime you focus your mind on your breathing. You pay attention to your breathing, or sometimes you concentrate on a sound. Sometimes, you concentrate on your body. Different ways to do it, but they’re all design to help your brain and your mind get focus and more calm, more clear.

All right, we see the word variance in that same paragraph. Vipassana has many variants, meditation has many variants.

A variant is a variation or a kind. There are many kinds of Vipassana. There are many variants of Vipassana. There are many variants of meditation. There are many kinds of mediation.

All right, in the next paragraph, on the next page of the text guide, you see the word transformations. Singular: transformation. A transformation is a very big change.

It often has the idea of being a deep change, a long-term change, something that’s gonna stay with you a long time.

So, when Goenka learned Vipassana mediation, his life changed very deeply and it changed for a long time, very seriously.

All right, we see the word participants. A participant is someone who participates. And to participate, the verb, means to join, to do with others.

So, a participant is a member of a group. Someone who joins a group and works with the group doing something, in this case doing meditation.

All right, let’s see, in the next paragraph, we see the phrase unique aspect. Another unique aspect of the course is that it’s free. Unique aspect means a special feature or a special part. Unique means special, it’s an adjective. And aspect means part or feature, that’s a noun.

All right, we see the word voluntary at the end of that same paragraph and also the word coercion. You can give a donation when you finish the course, but it’s voluntary and there’s no coercion.

Voluntary, an adjective, means by choice. You choose to do it. No one will make you do it. You have to decide. You have to choose yourself. That’s voluntary.

And coercion is a noun. There is no coercion. It can also be a verb, to coerce. If you coerce somebody, you force them. You use force to make them do something. Maybe they don’t want to do it, but you try hard to persuade them or you force them. We say you are coercing them. So the noun is coercion and it means force. Coercion means force.

All right, next paragraph, we see the word centered, using this as an emotion. I felt centered, I feel centered, I am centered.

To be centered means to be very calm and means your emotions are not changing quickly, right? Your emotions are very calm, you’re balanced. You feel balanced. You feel calm. You say, “I feel very centered right now”.

Okay, you see the phrase in the next paragraph, to get out of practice. Slowly I got out of the practice of mediation. To get out of practice or get out of the practice of doing something, just means you stop practicing.

You used to be, you used to practice a lot. So you might say I’m out of the practice of English. I got out of the practice of English. I got out of practice or I’m out of practice right now.

It means in the past, you studied English and you used English, but now recently you haven’t been talking to anyone. You haven’t been listening to English. You haven’t been using it. You’re out of the practice right now.

All right, in the next paragraph, we have the words volatile and unstable, which are similar words. Volatile we’ve had before. It means to be very chaotic or to change very quickly and suddenly and all the time.

If something’s volatile, it can very quickly change. And especially it has the idea that it can very quickly explode. Gasoline, right? Petrol in the British English. Petrol or gasoline is volatile. It’s very easy to change. It means if you have a match, a lighter or a fire, it will explode, very easily. So, gasoline is volatile.

And unstable means… Well, stable, let’s get the positive first, stable means something that doesn’t change easily. If something is stable, it’s kind of calm and it’s not going to fall down. It’s not going to change easily.

So, unstable is the negative, so it means not stable. So, it means it can change quite easily it can fall down quite easily.

Okay, that is all for today’s vocabulary lesson. See you next time.