Translator: Rhonda JacobsReviewer: Peter van de Ven When I was growing up as a child, I was teased very oftenfor being so distracted, teased for not being able to concentrate, and you know, had I not been born a few decades ago, I probably would have been givenone of those colorful acronyms like ADD or ADHD, branded and probably druggedfor not being able to concentrate, right? It wasn't until I was in my early 20swhen I graduated from university - I grew up in Australia -and I left and went to Hawaii where I joined my guru's monastery, it was a cloistered,traditional Hindu monastery, where he taught me how to concentrate. And that's what I want youto keep in mind, this concept of being taughthow to concentrate. It's in my humble opinionthat most people can't concentrate today, for two reasons. One is, we're never taughthow to concentrate; and second is, we don'tpractice concentration. So, how can you do somethingif you're never taught how to do it? And how can you be good at somethingif you don't practice it? Let's take a little survey here. How many of you here in the audience,growing up in school, were
formally taught how to concentrate? Can we have a show of hands? Like, formal training in concentration, in school, like classes every week. Okay, one person...two people in this entire audience. Right. So, here's a question for you: How many of you in this room here,growing up, were told to concentrate? (Laughter) Isn't that amazing? People tell us to concentrate,but they don't tell us how to. And I got toldto concentrate all the time. "Dandapani, concentrateon eating your food." "Dandapani, concentrateon doing your homework." Anybody want to show me how to do it? How many of you here have children? Okay, how many of youtell your children to concentrate? (Laughter) Do you show them how to? No, right? And then you wonderwhy they can't concentrate. You can't expect somebody to do somethingif you don't teach them how to do it. And then if they want to be good at it,they have to practice it, right? So, if I wanted to playfor the Chicago Bulls or dance withthe San Francisco Ballet company - you know, I ask people this questionall the time in my talks, I ask them: How many hours a day should I practice? General answer's usuallyabout eight hours a day, six days a week. And then I ask them, so after six months,can I play for the Bulls? The answer's usually no. After a year? No. But I'd be better at basketball, right? I'd be a better ballet dancer. So, imagine if you practice distractioneight hours a day, six days a week, what would you be good atafter six months? Distraction. After a year? You'd be really good at distraction. After a year and a half? You'd be an expert at distraction, you'd write the New York Timesbestseller on distraction. TEDx would invite you to comeand give a keynote on distraction. You'd get on stage,you'd be so distracted, you'd forget what youwere supposed to talk about. That's how good you are. Alright. But the truth is, we don't practice distractioneight hours a day, six days a week. The truth is, we probably practice it more like 16 hours a day,seven days a week. The average person sleepsabout seven to eight hours, just say, roughly, so we're awakefor about 16 hours of the day. Let's just say on the average,we're practicing it 13 hours a day, seven days a week, distraction. And then you wonderwhy you're so good at it. That's the law of practice. The law of practice is that we become goodat whatever it is we practice. Whether it's positiveor negative, it doesn't matter. If you practice somethingover and over and over again, you become really good at it. And that's why peopleare so good at distraction, because it's what they practice. Why aren't people good at concentration? Because they're never taught it,and they never practice it. They don't need to be drugged. They just need to be taught how to do it. Children don't need to be drugged. They just need to be taughthow to concentrate. Then they need to practice it,just like anything else, to become a good tennis player,to become a good dancer, a performer, anything. Practice, practice, practice. And then people say things like technology are great distractors, right? Smartphones. "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. Why? Let me tell you a story. When I left Australia after universityand went to Hawaii to be a monk, it was a very traditional monastery so when you join the monasterylike the one I did, you literally have to give everything up: your family, your friends,everyone you know, everything you owned. And when you got to the monastery,you're given a set of robes, a set of beads, and a MacBook Pro laptop. (Laughter) Yes, I did say a Mac. So, every monk got a Mac, and when iPhones came out,we had an iPhone as well. And it's really interesting- it's always fascinating to meto see people's reactions when I tell them about monks with Macs. You know, and I remember this lady once,that came to visit the monastery, and she asked me a question,and I said to her, "Why don't you send me an e-mail, and I could e-mail you back a responsemy teacher wrote up, and it will give you some nice insights." She looked at me kind of strangelyand finally asked, "Is it okay for monks to use e-mail?" I said, "Of course it's okayfor monks to use e-mail, as long as there are no attachments." (Laughter) Some people are just getting it now. So, technology in itselfis 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 beepsor makes a sound and you turn to it, and you go, "Yes, master.How can I serve you today?" then you livein that world of distraction. It's training you to be distracted. But if you actually use technology,then technology is not a bad thing. When I said yes, earlier,that technology can be distracting, there are some aspects of technologythat can be distracting. For example on the Macyou have notifications that drop down, but that's as easyas clicking on it and turning it off, turning off those notificationsand not responding but choosing what you want to engage with. So, technology in itselfis not a bad thing. The question is, do we chooseto engage in it or not? So, how do we becomegood at concentrating? We start by understanding the mind. Right? All of us have a mind. It's the most powerful tool in the world. It built a smartphone, it's put machinesthat drive itself on Mars. Yet there's no manual for the mind, right? When was the last timeyou saw a manual for the mind? Yet you buy a point-and-shoot camerawhose only purpose and duty is to point and shoot;it comes with a 100-page manual. Yet we have the most complextool in the world, our mind, and there's no manual. So, the first thing I learntwhen I went to the monastery was to learn how the mind works. Because once you knowhow the mind works, you can control it, and once you can control it,you can focus it. You can't focus or concentrate somethingyou don't understand. So, how does the mind work? From the monk's perspective,from the monk's experience of the mind, there are two thingsthat you need to understand. One is there's awareness; and one is the mind. I'll take a few momentsto explain this to you and share what they are. Imagine awarenessas 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 manydifferent sections within it. One area of the mind is anger,jealousy, food, sex, happiness, joy, science, art. And this glowing ball of lightcalled awareness can travel within the mind, and it can go to anyarea of the mind it wants to go to. And when it goesto a particular area of the mind, it lights up that area. When it lights up that area of the mind,you become conscious of it. So, give you an example. Your friend invites youto go see a movie, for example: "Hey Doug, do you want to go seeMission Impossible 16?" "Sure, let's go." Okay, so you go to the theater,you sit down, the lights are all on, you're chatting with your friend,the lights dim, the movie starts. And if it's a really greatdirector or producer, he or she can take your awareness to any area of the mindthey want you to go to, right? They can take youto a sad area of the mind, to a happy area of the mind, the movie can get really exciting,thrilling, suspenseful, scary. And 90 minutes later,you see two words on the screen, and it says, "The End." And you turn to your friend and you go,like, "Wow, that was an amazing movie." But you paid $13 or $14 or $15,or whatever it is, to allow the directorto take your awareness to different areas of the mind. And this happens on a daily basis - each day we allow someoneor something throughout the day to take our awarenessfrom one area of the mind to another. When we allow a personor something to do that, we're being distracted. The art of concentrationis the art of keeping awareness, that ball of light, on one thingfor an extended period of time. Every time that ball of lightdrifts away, we bring it back. It drifts away again, we bring it back. Right? So, that's the theory, you have awareness,and you have the mind. You are not the mind - when people say,'My mind wanders all the time,' technically, that's a false statement. What wanders is your awareness;your awareness is moving within your mind. So, that's the theory of it. So, let's do a simple,little practical exercise to see if this actually worksor it's just some monk Voodoo talk, okay? For that, I need audience participation. I need all of you to sit up straightin your chair, okay? If you have anything in your lap or hand,just place it down on the ground. Sit up straight in your chairwith your spine straight. If you're leaning back,just sit forward a little bit. I want you to close your eyes, take a slow, deep breath in, and I want youto become aware of the room, become aware of the chairthat you're sitting on, become aware of any soundsthat you might hear, the sound of my voice, the humming of the projectoror air conditioning. Now I want you to become aware of the mostrecent wedding that you attended. Do you remember whose wedding it was? Who was getting married? Did you approve of the marriage? Try and think everything you canabout the wedding. Did you go by yourself? Did you go with your family? Was it a large wedding,hundreds of people, or was it small and intimatewith maybe 20-30 people? How was the food? Was it good? Was there alcohol? Did you drink a lot? Do you even remember how much you drank? Do you rememberwhat the bride was wearing? Did she make a good choice? Now I want you to rememberthe most recent holiday that you went on, the most recent vacation that you went on. Do you remember where it was? And what kind of vacation was it anyway? Was it a yoga retreat?Was it a wellness trip? Was it educational? Was it adventure? How long did you go for? What was the weather like over there? Try and think everything you canabout this vacation. Did you spend a lot of money? How was the food? Spicy? Bland? Bad? Did you get sick eating the food? Now your eyes are still closed, I want you to become awareof the room again. Become aware of the chairthat you're sitting on, the sound of my voice, humming of the airconditioner or projector. Now slowly open your eyesand settle back in your seats again. Okay, that was a very simple exerciseto prove two things to you. One is, there's a clear separationbetween awareness and the mind; and second is, you can actuallytake your awareness and move it to any area of the mindthat you want it to go to, because you just allowed me to do that. I took your awareness from this room, becoming aware of this chairthat you're sitting on, the sound of my voice, the airconditioning, the projector, and you went to the weddingarea of the mind, and the longer you stayed there,the more you thought about the wedding. How do I know you were thinking about it? Because I had my eyes openand when I asked you a question like "Did the bride make a bad choice?" some of you went, like, mm-yeah, (Laughter) with a dress, yes! So, I knew you were thinkingabout the wedding, right? And then you wentfrom the wedding area of the mind, and you traveled all the wayto the vacation area, and you stayed there, and while in the vacation area,you weren't thinking about the wedding or about the room. And then you went from the vacationarea of the mind back to the room again, and I made you thinkabout the chair, the room, and you weren't thinkingabout the wedding or the vacation then. And this is what happens all day. We allow people and things around usto take our awareness from one area of the mindto another, all day long. From the time we wake up,and therefore we become distracted. To be concentratedis to be able to keep your awareness on one thing for an extendedperiod of time. How do we practice this? We practice this by doingone thing at a time throughout the day. What's the best wayto develop concentration? The best way to develop concentration is to bring the practiceinto our everyday life. Look at opportunities throughout your day. In your average day, ask yourself, what's a great opportunityto practice concentration? How many of you have a spouseor partner that you live with? Quite a few of you. Every time you speakwith 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 betterat concentration. Give her or him your undivided attention. So, if you speak to your spousefor two hours a day, what a great opportunityto practice concentration. Every time you speak with your child,practice concentration. Parents come up to meall the time and say, "Dandapani, how can I teachmy children to concentrate?" Very easy: you learn to concentrate first. You know, there's an old saying that goes:Monkey sees, monkey do? You know? And if you can't concentrate, you can't expect your childto concentrate. And if you don't teach your childrenhow to concentrate, how can they possiblylearn how to concentrate? They can't. The benefits of concentrationare endless, right? When you're able to concentrate, you're able to focus all your energyinto a single given point. Life is a manifestationof where your energy's flowing. And if you can't concentrate your energy, the things you want to manifestin your life becomes very challenging. So, learn to concentrateby doing one thing at a time. Bring this practice into everythingthat you do throughout the day. Make it a part of your life. Practice, practice, practice. Keep bringing awareness back, and keep it focusedon one thing at a time. Share this knowledge with your children. Be an example for themso they can grow up. Let's stop drugging our children, and solve the simple problemby teaching them how to concentrate and helping themto practice concentration. Be unwavering in your focus. Proceed with confidence because life is meantto be lived joyously. And it all begins by learninghow to concentrate, and staying focused. Thank you very much everyone.