So the first thing I learnt when I went to the monastery was to learn how the mind works
Because once you know how the mind works you can control it and once you can control it
You can focus it you can't focus and concentrate something you don't understand
When people say to me "life is too busy I can't simplify"
No, it's you don't want to. You have the choice
Nobody's holding a gun to your head saying you have to associate with these people and you have to do these things
No, you choose to do them
People say this to me all the time, you know, I hang around with entrepreneurs and other people like you and I have met
They've come up with snapchat. You need to be on snapchat and like I don't need to be on snapchat. I don't care
What comes up tomorrow, I'm not gonna do it
Because I can't sustain it. Right? That's gonna take a little bit more on my energy today
And I only have this much energy and I need to divide it between all the people and things that I love
The law of thermodynamic states, you cannot create or destroy energy
But you can transfer it from one thing to another or transform it from one thing to another
So I can't create more energy, I only have this much because at 11 o'clock tonight. I'll be exhausted and ready to sleep
So I got this much hundred-percent. I need to know where I'm dividing
I always tell entrepreneurs to look at energy the same way they look at money
It's a finite resource that needs to be wisely managed wisely reallocated and wisely invested
The average person sleeps about 7 to 8 hours to say roughly so we're awake for about 16 hours of the day
Let's just say on average we're practicing it 13 hours a day seven days a week distraction
And then you wonder why you're so good at it
That's the law of practice the law of practice is that we become good
At whatever it is we practice, whether it's positive or negative
It doesn't matter. If you practice something over and over and over again
You become really good at it. And that's why people are so good at distraction because it's what they practice
and then people say things like
Technology are great distractors, right? Smart phones. Oh I have this thing
so distracting, my smartphone. The Internet
Are they distractors? I'd like to say no
first and
Then yes, but mostly no. Technology in itself is not a bad thing
It's actually a beautiful thing as long as we're in charge of it. But if every time your iPhone beeps
Or makes a sound and you turn to it and you go "Yes, master. How can I serve you today?"
Then you live in that world of distraction
You... it's training you to be distracted. But if you actually use technology
Then technology is not a bad thing
So, how do we become good at concentrating?
We start by understanding the mind
Right, all of us have a mind. It's the most powerful tool in the world both the smartphone
It's put machines that drive itself on Mars
So the first thing I learned when I went to the monastery was to learn how the mind works
Because once you know how the mind works you can control it and once you can control it
You can focus it. You can't focus or concentrate something you don't understand
So how does the mind work? From the monks perspective, from the monks experience of the mind?
There's two things that you need to understand: one is the awareness and one is the mind
So I'll take a few moments to explain this to you and share what they are
So you imagine awareness is a glowing ball of light like an orb that can float around. Okay, so that's awareness now
Imagine your mind as a vast space, a vast area with many different sections within it. One area of the mind is anger, jealousy
food, sex, happiness, joy, science, art
And this glowing ball of light call awareness can travel within the mind and it can go to any area of the mind it wants to
go to
And when it goes to a particular air of the mind it lights up that area
When it lights up that area of the mind you become conscious of it and this is what happens all day
We allow people and things around us to take our awareness from one area of the mind to another all day long
From the time we wake up and therefore we become distracted
To be concentrated is to be able to keep your awareness on one thing for an extended period of time
How do we practice this? We practice this by doing one thing at a time throughout the day
What's the best way to develop concentration? The best way to develop concentration is to bring that practice into our everyday life
Look at opportunities throughout your day in your average day. Ask yourself. What's a great opportunity to practice concentration?
How many of you have a spouse a partner that you live with?
Quite a few of you. Every time you speak with your spouse or your partner
Keep that ball of light that awareness on that person. It drifts away. Bring it back it drifts away
Bring it back the more you practice this the more you become
better at
concentration. Give her or him your undivided attention
So if you speak to your spouse for two hours a day
What a great opportunity to practice concentration. Every time you speak with your child,
practice concentration
Parents come up to me all the time and say: " Dandapani, how can I teach my children to concentrate?"
Very easy! You learn to concentrate first!
Now there's an old saying that goes "Monkey sees, monkey do", you know?
And if you can't concentrate, you can't expect your child to concentrate and if you don't teach your children how to concentrate
How can they possibly learn how to concentrate? They can't! The benefits of concentration are endless, right?
When you're able to concentrate you're able to focus all your energy
into a single given point. Life is a manifestation of where your energy is flowing
And if you can't concentrate your energy the things that you want to manifest in your life becomes very very challenging
So learn to concentrate by doing one thing at a time
Bring this practice into everything that you do throughout the day
Make it a part of your life practice practice practice
Keep bringing awareness back and keep it focused on one thing at a time