The Power of Focus by Swami Sarvapriyananda (Vedanta Society of New York)

oh [Music] tomorrow [Music] lead us from the unreal to the real leaders from Darkness unto light lead us from death to immortality om peace peace peace thanks for organizing this and having me at the special session especially meant for young people and that's why you see all the grown-ups parents uncles aunties pushed to the back so it's it's for you I'm going to primarily speak to you but what I'm going to say is useful for everybody all of us here including myself it's something that's very important in not just spiritual life I know I talk I talk about spirituality philosophy and stuff like that but what I'm going to say is useful throughout life everywhere whatever you want to do you want to um you know earn a lot of money you want to get good grades at school you want to land this job which you really want you want to enjoy a movie you want to enjoy a book all of these whatever you want to do in life the power of focus is like your superpower it's like a superpower so this is what I'm going to talk about and it and why am I talking about it I'm a monk I am interested in spiritual life meditation philosophy and all that and they're also the power of focus is essential absolutely important without that there can be no no progress once I remember reading SRI ramakrishna who was Swami vivekananda's Guru so there's some talk about very high talk about advaita philosophy going on SRI ramakrishna listened carefully and he didn't say anything at the end he said that all these talk this talk is good but you need to assimilate these ideas you need Focus you must focus on these ideas so the power of focus is the topic for today Swami Vivekananda himself he came to Singapore by the way many many years ago on his way to the United States some of you know that he went to the world parliament of religions the first person to take Hinduism outside to the west and present it on a world stage does anybody know which year that was anybody 1893 yeah that's right 1893 and which city Chicago a lot of a lot of people know that it was in Chicago on the way he went from here he landed in Singapore and you have the beautiful botanical gardens here so actually he went walked through that and he has written about it that he liked it a lot he had an extraordinary powers of uh of focus there are a number of stories about him about his powers of focus there's one interesting story about in India in his room he's sitting there one of his disciples comes into the room sharat Chandra and he finds Swami Vivekananda reading the Encyclopedia Britannica an Encyclopedia Britannica was on the shelves at that time not like it's there now it's you can get it on the internet but actual books if you see those actual books they are big fat books and volumes and volumes of that so Charlotte Chandra said to Swami Vivekananda that you know I think it's impossible for one man to read all this stuff in one lifetime and vivekantha said what are you what are you saying I have read nine of these volumes already and I want the tenth one ask me anything from these nine and shirt actually did that he later he writes that I picked out these volumes at random I opened the the volumes at random and asked questions and not only did Vivekananda answer my questions but often using the same language down to the comma and the full stop and he said I was stunned how is this possible and vivekantha said it's possible with purity of purity of mind and focus concentration of mind it's possible now it's not just Vivekananda you know have you heard of Elon Musk some of you have heard of Elon Musk yeah so he's a big hero in America but in his uh when he was a student he actually read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica so it's not something that only somebody can do and we cannot do and of course I'm not saying the goal of life is to read the Encyclopedia Britannica that's not the point the point is the amount of focus it takes to hold on to something and focus on it and absorb it and retain it once there's a city called mirat in India and Swami Vivekananda with another Swami he was traveling there and he sent his this other monk Swami akandananda to the local public library those days before internet so all the information if you wanted something you had to go to a good library and those were rare also and he asked him to get some books for him himself from the local library got these books they were big volumes on science I'm sure it's all outdated now but in those days and vivekantha would read those volumes and tell him to go and return it and get the next value so the librarian said you're not reading these books You're just showing off you're just taking a book and returning it next day you're taking another book and Swami akandan they said it's not for me I'm taking it for my brother monk Swami Vivekananda so he said whoever it is he's not reading the book You're just showing off then he went and told Vivekananda Vivekananda said let's go and talk to the librarian and he went in the same story all over again that the librarian bought out those books asked questions where they can't answer the questions from all the books that he had borrowed so it's like a superpower um there's this new book which what I'm going to say is taken from different sources mostly positive psychology uh yoga and all of these sources so one book which has recently been written about the power of focus is called Deep work it's by a professor at MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston Carol Newport his name is Carol Newport have you heard of Harry Potter many more how many of you read some of Harry Potter some books quite a few I remember when the books were first coming out and the kids in a school where I was teaching the kids were all reading it they would read it in the dorm dormitories they would read it while walking down to school they would read it into school sitting at the back hiding it under the text you know covering it with a textbook and reading it they're so fascinated and the teachers were happy actually because we are all worried that children are losing the habit of reading and now at least they're reading and they're big fat books that each book is bigger and bigger than the last one some of you have seen the movies also the Harry Potter movies yeah now this is a story about the uh Harry Potter books you know who wrote the books tell me JK Rowling yeah and it's interesting when she wrote the first one no one was willing to publish the books it's very interesting story it turns out that nobody is going to it is not interesting nobody's going to buy these books finally they published and it was a huge sensation across the world so she wrote A series how many books are there seven seven so the last book when she was writing it nowadays if you are if you are a successful author the publisher will give you money in advance so just see when she wrote the first book nobody wanted to publish it she went from publisher to publisher by the time she wrote the last book all Publishers were rushing towards please give that book to us and so she had already taken money to finish the book but she couldn't finish it so this is the story I got from Cal newport's book deep work she couldn't finish it because she was being disturbed so much at home the kids were crying and shouting and fighting and playing she needed concentration Focus to finish the book one day for some reason she was at a hotel alone in a hotel room and she found she could write then you know what she did she she went back to that hotel again and again and again she would hire a room in the hotel not for anything else for writing and Cal Newport in his book says see you need to take out these chunks of time whenever you want to do something serious whether you want to write Harry Potter or you want to read Harry Potter you need these chunks of time two hours three hours where you're not doing other things see nowadays what we do is we read or we listen also little phone let me see again I'm listening again little bit phone let me see or little bits this is called intermittent attention so I am listening it's not that I'm not listening or I'm I am reading it's not that I am not reading but I'm interrupting it continuously I'm doing something then something else and Back Again if you interrupt it focus is lost somewhere is reading a psychologist who studies attention has said that if you are focusing and you interrupt that Focus even to look at the phone once and then try to go back it will take you five to ten minutes to get back into the deep focus how much wastage just for a few seconds if I divert myself to come back to full Focus five ten minutes have gone there and of course we don't say go for once five seconds we go from this thing to one another thing to another thing then 15 minutes later oh I was supposed to study and come back again this is what happens a couple of things which might be of interest to you Cal Newport says why you need to focus especially in today's world in today's world in order to to produce deep work it is valuable and rare why it is valuable and why it is rare he says any kind of good work in today's world valuable why he says just think of the internet Youtube and other things and this is an example he gives so there's music available on YouTube for example many of you listen to music on YouTube and if you noticed some songs will get a thousand views or ten thousand views and another song will get a million views 10 million views 100 million I saw some songs have a billion views two billion three billion views so 1 billion and one thousand views what's the difference million times one billion is a thousand million now the question is is it at all possible that one song is a million times better than another song not at all not at all but why is it that one song gets only a thousand views another song gets one million times more views than the than the other song so Cal Newport has said he analyzed it and he said years ago not your generation when we were your age and the grown-ups here were your age we didn't have the internet so if you wanted to get a song I remember if I wanted to listen to musics music and music songs and you know I I had to go to the local cassette shop and they used to have these cassettes so all the grown-ups are smiling there's cassettes made of tape and you have to go and put it in like I said player and listen to it now what cassette can I get only the ones which are available in the shop in my town in my neighborhood that's it no Amazon no internet if you want you to read a book what book can you get no Amazon so you have to go to the local Bookshop and whatever is available there that's it which means all the writers and singers they got some kind of audience depending on where their cassettes and books were available nobody got everything somebody got something everybody got something nobody got everything everybody got something but now in the internet with Amazon and YouTube what has happened if there is a song which a lot of people like can you hear it yes if there is a book Which is popular can you buy it yes you get to know about it and you can order it and you can buy it if there's a song that a lot of your friends like you can immediately go and listen to it now what happens is if any product is slightly better than all other products everybody goes there why because you have limited time you have limited money you want to hear the best song you want to read the best book which is mostly what is popular among others then what happens he says it's a very interesting insight then one song which is a little better than others little more popular than others everybody wants to see that it gets a billion views and the others which may not be so bad maybe little less not as good they hardly get any views maybe thousand views so the difference becomes million times the point he wants to make you get this idea of what I just said yeah so the point he wants to make is in today's economy which is powered by the internet and connectivity and availability you have to be little better than others not much but your work has to be a little better than others because everybody will want that now so this is point one what he make what he says is I found it very interesting and it's a fact so somebody told me Swami you are giving talks and spirituality philosophy why millions of views how is it possible others are getting 100 views you're getting million views is your talk like thousand times better ten thousand times better than others no not at all but it may be a little more just a little more attractive than others so everybody wants to see that and so that's what happens but so this is what the first point I want to make this is again from Cal Newport that if you have to make your work a little better than others and you will your success is disproportionate you'll get huge amounts of success second point he makes is this little better work this deep work which produces this little better work is now not only valuable but also rare it has become more difficult now why it has become more difficult is because of this the same internet which makes good work very valuable the same internet the same connectivity same social media same digital technology also makes it more difficult because people are very distracted people's minds are very scattered you are doing too many things too fast one after another one reason is this technology there was a documentary I don't know if you've seen it the social dilemma have you seen how many of you have seen it the social dilemma you've seen it quite a few of you've seen it did you like it very interesting right it made a big splash when I I saw it I think one or two years back when it was released and especially among college students in New York in Boston many American college students they were really scared by what they saw and many of them stopped using social media I think only for a short while again they started but what did what they said was this one Google engineer said see in Silicon Valley we and we by B he means most of them are Indians we are spending a lot of time in making these devices addictive why why addictive addictive means you must see it if you don't see it you feel uneasy like drug addict like that why because money how is it connected to money how is making people addicted to phone connected to money they said that see now on internet everything is available freely you can get all content everything you can get it freely across the internet now how will you attract people to your website to your news channel to your social media platform how will you attract you might say why do you want to attract you want to attract because that then they get money by the advertisers you know so advertisers give money to them if more people see their website how to attract people they said make people addicted how to make them addicted give make them give me get a habit of looking at their phone once in a while if you look how will you make them look at the phone once in a while have you noticed what the phone does little ah big pip and then tongue little vibration it'll go what is going on One update has come one promotion has come one this message has come one so some social media update has come is it important not at all did you ask for it no you can look at it later also but they will keep sending you updates now you take a little look at it and there's they say that neuroscientists have said that there is a neurochemistry of it in the brain it releases a little bit of some some neurochemicals serotonin dopamine there's a lot of discussion I don't understand all of it it makes you feel better it makes you feel better just a little bit and then you get addicted to it even drugs work in that way the drugs are are illegal especially in Singapore death penalty is there when you come to Singapore it will be written on the Visa death penalty if you have drugs so it is illegal in in most countries but this is not illegal and it is working in the same principle only this thing is not as fast working or as addictive or as harmful as as drugs so it will work in a small way but it will work on the same psychology it's like gambling you know why gambling is so bad in USA this whole city called Las Vegas for gambling so what they do there is so these machines are there and people put money in there and try to do some gambling and they may win may not win and the psychology is that sometimes you will win sometimes you will not win and what is the psychology of most people if I win a little bit of I put in one dollar and I get what five dollars and then next time I lose next time I lose third time I win then two three times I lose fourth maybe another time I've been then what will be my psychology let me try once more let me try once more you can that let me try once more maybe this time this is a deep psychology in human beings and they train us to do that that's why many people so don't try it it's dangerous because why it's dangerous if it catches you and then after some time you cannot let go any kind of addiction is dangerous if it catches you then you want to let go it will not let go of you there's a nice story which SRI ramakrishna is to tell how many of you understand Hindi so there was one man in a village and there was a river flowing fast and many things were being Swept Away in the river and he saw there was this rug expensive looking rug being swept away he saw he thought why should it be wasted he jumped in that River and he swam mightily and he caught hold of it when he caught hold of it so it's not a rug it's a bear Balu if you catch hold of a bear what will the bear do it will catch hold of you so it caught hold of the man and the man was being Swept Away another his friends on the shore shouted let go of it in Hindi children let go of that of the drug the man shouted from there I have Let It Go but bear is not letting me go addiction is like that if anybody gets addicted and then they want to whether it's drugs alcohol internet social media mobile it will not let you go how do you know that you're addicted that social network that social dilemma that film it it shows it tells us also that same thing do you feel uncomfortable now for one hour two hours you have to have been told to switch off the phone do you feel uncomfortable yes I want to see they are not allowing me to see nothing to see but I want to see that feeling if it's there I want to see then the Silicon Valley those Engineers they've succeeded they have succeeded you are under their control now if they if they have given you that feeling can you switch up the mobile two three four hours so Cal Newport says there is no way you can do deep work if you are getting distracted continuously especially useless distraction no point at all just distraction and this is designed to create distraction if you do continuous focused work so one formula which He suggests and now it has become quite popular I suggested to a youth group and they knew the idea of formula already if you want to do focused work for example studies so what you do is 25 minutes 25 minute block of time study intensely cut off everything have you seen how little gate studies not many of the grown-ups but little kids sometimes when they study they focus they do like this what are they doing they're doing something very interesting they're cutting out the world so deep focus is not only concentration it's also saying no to everything else so switch off the phone laptop iPad whatever whatever you're focusing on that much only and not continuously just say to your mind next 25 minutes nothing else many of you do it I mean you're a bright student so you do it in some way you've got your own strategy for studying I know so that's a good strategy uh Cal Newport and others have said that Focus continuously for 25 minutes and then it's important to let go but take a break you can look at the phone you can go out and stretch and you know talk to somebody or whatever break relax five minutes come back again again 25 minutes again take it for five minute break so the psychologists have said that this is a very useful way of doing deep work so deep work means cutting aside complete chunks of time I will focus for 10 minutes and then I will relax for 20 minutes no that will not work two three four hours you want to do work and in that also little bit of break you can take so he says that that works and those who are interested in Neuroscience he quotes a paper where he says actually it rewires the brain and it says that continuous deep work those who have done biology of the brain you know the neurons have you heard of the myelin sheath those who have done biology so he says the myelin sheet gets enhanced by doing deep work and that leads to faster more efficient transmission between neurons which is an amazing thing I mean I would not have thought of it 10 20 years back to 20 25 years back neuroscientists were saying all brain connections are made by the time you are 5-10 years old nothing more can be done now there is a term they call neuroplasticity which now they accept when we were studying that was not accepted at all now they accept if you use your brain in a particular way it will change the brain structure also okay that's that's great news can we improve focus how does it work can we improve focus so I'm going to use the work of another psychologist his name is mihai chix and me I don't try to write down the name it's a very complicated long name you need a lot of focus to write down the name but that the book is very nice those who can you can read the book it's called flow f-l-o-w flow it's written many years ago it's a classic book come sit there are chairs here come sit he says the most important thing in life the best experiences in life are when there is focus when are you most happy when you are focused when you're continuously devoting attention to something then you are most happy when are you not happy where you try to listen to something then look at something else then think of something else come back to the first thing again you're continuously distract it at the end of a period of distraction you don't feel good at the end of a period of focus you feel good so he calls it flow the main takeaway from that I will just tell you two points and then we will go further what is the finding of this person the take away from that book if you don't want to read the book he has given TED Talks also so if you want to look at the Ted Talk 15 16 minutes that much one can focus so you can you can get the basic idea so two points first point our capacity to process information is limited and he uses the language of Information Technology he says consciously deliberately we can process information process information means pay attention and understand what's going on he says that it can we can do up to 120 bits per second like in computer science we have a bit size and unit of information so human beings consciously if you are alert you're trying to pay attention you can take in information consciously process 120 bits per second now that seems like a lot but it isn't it's very little actually and he says it takes about um 60 bits per second to um listen to my voice for example if you're listening to a person and trying to understand what he or she is saying in that case you are using up about half of your capacity that's why two people that's why if two people listen talk to you if two people talk to you at the same time you find it very difficult you get you know like it's it's a tense situation if you try to understand two people talking to you very difficult because it's exceeding Your Capacity if three people start talking to you it's impossible you can't hear you can't understand anything at all why it goes Beyond Your Capacity to understand why because if it takes 60 bits per second for one person to process the information from one person imagine two persons 120 bits three persons you don't have the capacity and it's not that out of 120 bits per second we can give the entire 100 to a subject to something you want to focus on because a little bit of it is always there for your own bodily awareness that I am here I am breathing I am a person some kind of background awareness is always there it's a little bit is taken away what is focus according to Meiji send me hi out of that 120 bits per second how much can you pour into your object of focus suppose I'm reading a book or working on a math problem out of that 120 bits per second how much can I focus on how much can I devote to that 80 90 bits per second maybe 100 bits per second and hold it there for a few seconds anybody can focus but to hold the focus for a for a time being then that is really concentration or Focus is that idea clear huh suppose I don't give most of my cognitive capacity to that that object of focus what will happen is suppose I'm giving maybe only 40 bits per second to that object then what is the remaining over 80 bits per second or something is remaining over excess capacity Surplus extra that will keep on distracting you little bit of attention and paying my mind is mostly free what will happen is thoughts and feel thoughts will come in my mind desires will come in my mind something from outside phone or something will come in my attention and the whole mind will go away elsewhere so in order to focus we must use as much of the Mind as possible for one task one thing at a time how to do that there also this is made of in that book flow he has said I have studied all the literature of the world ancient and modern on concentration power of focus and he says one of the best books I have come across in that book he says is the Indian patanjali yoga sutras the the ancient Indian Manual of meditation how to meditate but then he gives his his finding how do you focus then and he says this Focus which he calls flow continuous Focus you know he says many of us know this how many of you play a musical instrument Tabla or guitar or something or some any musical instrument few of you how many of you sing a trained singer yeah okay good dance classical dance and yes some of you a few of you he says how many of you play like tennis badminton Cricket or something many of you play so those who play either sports or you play a musical instrument or you sing or you perform some you're trained in dance that means a train dancer not just dancing like like that all of you will know if you're trained to do any one of these things you all have experience sometimes flow when you are playing Tabla or guitar and you know it's going very well you feel it not always sometimes it's not as good as you wanted to you're trying but making small mistakes only maybe you can see others cannot cannot notice but when it goes well you know some of you nodding this you know you have seen that feeling you feel that it's going really well even if for one or two minutes only it's going really well and that happens in Singing in playing musical instruments that happens in games in sports um that happens in so this uh chicks in me I saw that this happens also in every occupation it happens in study especially it happens in research sometimes but it also happens he says a nurse in a hospital um you know any kind of occupation you may get flow how so how to attain this concentration here is the secret he said that this flow Focus has these two aspects one is the your ability your skill and other one is the challenge skill and challenge how many of you have learned x axis Y axis mathematics how many in mathematics like the Cartesian coordinates yeah so think of it in the x axis is your skill your ability Your Capacity and y axis challenge difficulty now if difficulty and capacity are not matched something is very difficult and your capacity is not up to it what will happen is you will feel tension you will feel anxiety fear for example you want to learn gives the example of tennis you want to learn how to play tennis and you don't know so the first time when you go to learn what will be it'll be very difficult for you to even return a sir somebody serves it you have to work really hard running around you'll keep missing so returning a serve itself is a challenge so your Your Capacity is low your skill is low challenge is high as you keep on trying then returning a serve becomes easy now Your Capacity has increased and the challenge it has matched when capacity and challenges ability and challenge are matched you get flow every serve you are able to return but you know you have to be very alert you have to work hard after some time what will happen your ability increases your skill increases if the challenge Remains the Same only you have to return a serve what will you feel what will you feel bored yes absolutely he says that bird you will feel bored I know this then next you must increase the challenge now I want to play a game I want to play a game I want an opponent another player so that player will play with me now my challenge is increased it is equal to my capacity again I will get flow then you have become a good player ordinary opponent will not do for you you need like a you know like a champion like a award winner or Prize winner really good player then your challenge will be higher and your skill will match the challenge you will get flow so it is here summing up summing up your ability and the challenge if ability is low challenge is high you will get anxiety fear uneasiness those who play a music instrument or you sing you have learned now suppose you put in a stage come here and perform all you know parents are there uncles and aunties are there all your friends are looking at you you feel uneasy you feel tension why first time on the stage I have not performed earlier what will happen if I make a mistake everybody will laugh at me you feel tension uneasiness why the ability is not up to the challenge but as you perform on the stage once twice Thrice then what happens you're relaxed you know you can do it you get the flow when your abilities increase further you get bored you need more challenge 10 people okay 10 000 audience now the challenge is higher so to this is the this is the key idea he gives for you to have Focus make sure whatever you are doing The Challenge and your ability are equal so I'm studying a book I don't understand challenge is too high my ability is too low then what what should you do break down that challenge into smaller easier pieces I don't understand okay what you don't understand the whole page everything no here so what are the things you understand then isolate the one you don't understand and work on that then your challenge and skill will be equal after some time you find you're studying this you're boring you're finding it boring boring means what your ability is higher than the challenge then make it more challenging how do you make it more challenging suppose I'm reading a book there's something called active reading active reading active reading means not just look open the book and read what will happen is I'm looking at the book half an hour I'm looking at the book my mind has gone everywhere except the book many people say that so active reading is when you read you underline you write notes on the side you review it there's a many strategies there's something called sq3r sq3 some of you know know about it this is one strategy for studying sq3r which is active studying actually active reading what is sq3r s means survey survey Q means question question 3r R means read recite review read recite review read it first read it underline actively reading it not looking at it thinking something else then then recite recite means not memorize just in my own words how much do I remember of Allah lost one page I read what we do is we go on reading reading and then stop finished but that that's not a good way of studying you read a little bit and you stop and then you recall at least say to yourself even mentally what what are the main points of what I read and when we do that we'll see that something will be there something will have dropped out so you review that and positive psychologists have said those have studied attention and memory they have said this trying to recall and reviewing the material is a powerful way of remembering just reading it even with Focus that's not enough read it with focus and try to recall it they said the different parts of the brain are activated when you try to recall and different parts of the brain are activated when you go over material which you have already gone over so three things survey before you start reading you know when you go to a new city Singapore what do you do Google Maps what is where you see like that before you go into a chapter on the book quickly go through the chapter one minute good I can finish in one minute no it's just the beginning in one minute look through the chapter my head there's heading subheadings diagrams main points nowadays textbooks are so nice nice and colorful I wish we had such glossy colorful textbooks when we we were kids anyway we in India at that time we had the most boring looking textbooks recycled paper blurred pin printing but now it's very nice the textbooks so go through that quickly one minute then questions what do I want to learn here some questions in my mind see often what we do is we read the book or we read the chapter and then try to answer questions but that's no good try to have a question and then read the material then what happens is your search engine is engaged I am looking through this material to find I am curious to know the answer to these questions the next three four pages will it give me the answer to my question or questions curiosity is one of the most powerful urges in human beings curiosity that's why research is so enjoyable those who do research in in education you know if you are studying or teaching and if you're engaged in research you'll love it I mean it's because you are searching it's the same thing that a little child has curiosity even a baby has it have you noticed even if a baby is crying suddenly what what will the grown-ups father or mother do they'll put a little try in front like this the crying baby shouting screaming look at it for a while again go back to crying but for 10 seconds what is that curiosity we all have that and unfortunately what education does it kills curiosity how it kills curiosity even before a child has asked the question you're supplying it with information even before I am hungry you're feeding me continuously I'll never be hungry that way now what to do you can't drop out of this education system what to do is generate your own curiosity how will you generate your own curiosity how will you engage that part of your brain you ask questions so when I go into this of the chapter I want to know the answers to these questions then you will see your you will be engaged so active reading that's one way of um of increasing the challenge remember challenge skill should be equal what was Swami vivekan's recommendation for increasing concentration power of focus he said do whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention now fullest possible attention now you have got a lot of information what is fullest possible attention 120 bits per second do whatever you're doing with the fullest possible attention how do you do it with the fullest possible attention increase Channel challenge increase skill till they are equal skill is more increase challenge challenge is more break it down till your skill level so that they are equal always then you will automatically get Focus when you play a game of tennis or badminton you have to focus otherwise the other guy will simply beat you easily you know you can play a good game if you play really hard but if you play less than hard you're going to lose if you play really hard what will happen is all your attention energy will be focused in that activity so challenge increase the challenge till it matches the level of your focus so Vivekananda says do whatever you're doing with the fullest possible attention normally what we do is we don't do that um but it's a habit I remember there was this Management Consultant who came to one of our schools long ago this was this was 20 um how many years ago 1996-95 so that's 10 20 25 27 years ago and I asked him to speak to the students about your age more or less he had no time at all so he spoke for five minutes but what he said I still remember till now and I'll show you now and you will remember all your lives some of you have seen it maybe this he said to the students there and you do it with me you can do it now you sit straight very simple he said raise your hands raise your hands and raise them a little more okay you raise them a little more put your hands down this shows us a very big fact about human psychology see notice when I said raise your hands we all raised our hands when I said raise your hands a little more we all raised it little more which means the first time we did not raise it to our maximum capacity there's a fact about human psychology is whatever we are doing we do it less than what we can do we don't do it as well as we can do sometimes of course little kids and I saw the little kids here if you tell them to raise their hands they do it to the maximum but as we get older when you are 11 12 13 14 years old and from that time onwards little less not like this whatever we are doing whether we are studying thinking talking to others working we are always performing below our capacity now raising hands there's a limit to it you can raise little further a little further no more you cannot you can't raise but in our thinking in our Behavior with others and in our work there is no limit to that Improvement the Asian economies especially Japan in management studies people all know the word one word transform those economies especially Japan and the word is Kaizen yes those of you know how many of you know the word so the grown-up people know and some of the young people know those who have studied maybe business management or economics so there's no little bit but it's something that we can apply to our lives what's the secret it is a big fancy word for it incremental Improvement incremental Improvement incremental means little bit improve your life change your life little bit just a little bit how much this much This Much from here to here this much and then he said that Management Consultant he told the students there every day these three things head Heart and Hand improve your you know head Heart and Hand your thinking studying your feelings for others and behavior with others and the work that you're doing and including the play that you're doing improve them a little bit daily how to improve where to improve you know better because you are the one who's not performing at Peak capacity you know where I can do a little better it seems in Japanese companies and all they would have these Kaizen meetings little circles they would sit around quality circles they would say and how to improve our wherever we are it is office it is Factory it is showroom how to improve classroom playground how to improve what little change you you can everybody has to suggest little bit of change so like this in our own life do Kaizen in our own life do incremental Improvement concentration Focus improve a little bit in Focus also improve a little bit more concentrated more focused so I'm Vivekananda says do whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention why I will say that I will study with full attention but I want to relax I want to watch a movie I want to talk with my friends or text them why do I need full attention again Vivekananda answers remember because it's the same mind you have only one mind you have only one mind one of our senior swamis he told a group of students you know your dad shapes they said yep if you take the razor with which he shaves and you you sharpen your pencil with it will you be able to shave with that razor nope why not because it's become blunt exactly like that we have only one mind if I make it blunt not able to concentrate throughout the day I do whatever the mind wants let me see the little bit browse here all right let me text my friend all right let me see my update on social media all right like this whole day is going in the evening now I have to do my assign assignment for school what will the Mind say I don't want to do it why it's boring whole day I did whatever I liked now you're telling me to do this boring physics or you know whatever it is English grammar or whatever no I won't do it and if you force the mind what will the Mind do fall asleep either Restless or falling asleep now how to change the situation Vivekananda says do whatever you are doing with the fullest possible attention he will texting text with fullest possible attention talking with a friend talk with fullest possible attention playing a video game play with the fullest possible you say that Swami no problem I pay we play with the fullest possible that's attention yeah sometimes when we there are things which we like and it engages us notice why we become very attentive when it's a video game now can you apply Challenge and skill s idea are you intensely absorbed by all video games no same video game at you know have you noticed they have different levels of difficulty level one two three four and level 50. so why is the different levels of difficulty because at different levels people will get absorbed at one level will become very boring for you don't want to play that level another level impossible for you you can't play that level but as you build up your skill set at every level if you are enjoying it if you are enjoying it the secret is you have got Focus there flow there that's why you're enjoying it if you want that enjoyment in everything in life yeah match your level of difficulty with your capacity whatever you're doing studying working presenting in a classroom playing a musical instrument match level of difficulty with your skill set keep on pushing up your skill set pushing up the level of difficulty you will be focused you'll enjoy it you will enjoy it you'll have fun you'll do great stuff deep work like Cal Newport says and you'll have fun it's important to have fun and important to enjoy it why it's only the things that you have fun in only the things that you enjoy that you will continue for the rest of your life it is something that you don't enjoy I can tell you parents can tell you teachers can tell you do it this way you might even do it but if you don't enjoy it you'll stop at some point there was this um talbenchar he was a professor of psychology at Harvard University his classes were most popular you see most popular classes classes in positive psychology happiness the science of Happiness used to teach and when he would teach his classes would be full you know Auditorium it is reported in different magazines most popular teacher in a professor at Harvard University of course there's also another side to it which only students know I asked one of the students why is so popular because he's so interesting fascinating the student said no no actually we know why it's popular because it's easy to get a in his greater class so there is another side to it but anyway he wrote a book on happiness I forget the name talbenchar anyway he compared it to four kinds of food four kinds of food so there's food which is healthy really good for you but tasteless there's food which is unhealthy but very tasty there's food which is neither healthy not tasty and there's food like stale food for example and there's food which is healthy and tasty and he says what you should aim for would be the food that is healthy and tasty healthy food but tasteless what will happen is it's very difficult to continue doing that until you develop a taste for it and unhealthy food tasty you can easily continue doing that but it will slowly damage your system so healthy food and unhealthy food and tasteless food nobody wants to eat that and the healthy food and tasty food that one how to make things which are not tasty not pleasant not fascinating how to make it fascinating you use that technique your skill ability as they match as you get flow then it will become tasty for you who's the president of our order the senior most Monk and he's the so I he used to teach us when we were young monks I still remember what he said not only the goal but the means also should be happiness I will should be which should be Bliss you have become monks you are trying to get Moksha Nirvana whatever it is I think you will get this highest Bliss happiness good but now also you should be happy what you are doing it's not that I am doing lot of difficult Southern I will have a scowl on my face what are you doing sadhana I'm trying to reach God at the end there will be a smiley face you cannot continue like this the smiley face must be now I am happy now I'm enjoying it now one way major way to be happy super power is power of focus concentrate focus on that you will enjoy it I'll give you one example and stop then we'll take questions um I went to this college it's a very well-known College in India it's called an is IIT Indian Institute of Technology so um I noticed one thing did the students stay in the library I loved Library so I would go and study there and notice students studying there in the morning when I went there to study I saw students sitting there and studying I was not a student there many people think I've given talks at IIT can't put so I was a student of IIT can't put no no no I was invited to give talks but I would sit in the library and watch them and stay in their guest house so same group of students they're sitting there one hour two hour then I get up and go I want to take a bath and have lunch and come back same group of students still sitting there and studying seven hours eight hours nine hours I was very impressed I told some of the graduate students there I really see the undergrad students here working so hard and he said this is nothing Swami you come during exam times you will see the students early morning he or she goes to the library sits down studies all day maybe misses lunch all evening all night maybe Mrs dinner doesn't sleep next morning gets up goes to the washroom and then goes from there to the exam Hall 24 hours at a cycle now is it boring is it difficult no it's enjoyable once you are in the flow and everything else has been cut out you are absorbed in it it's enjoyable I said it sounds boring I must have fun I'll have a little bit of study I will do it's not that I don't study then I will play a game then I'll go out with my friends that is more difficult because then you when you come back to the study it's not as nice as that so it's not I'm not saying that you should study 24 hours a day not at all it's much better to have a much more balanced kind of life like Cal Newport says separate hours for Deep work and then you must switch off also relax or step back from it um what else do I need to say good let's stop here and we can take some questions you better have questions otherwise I'll go on I'll give another speech then we'll have some of the younger people ask a question first how do they ask questions okay somebody be brave raise a hand all right there's a hand there can you pass the mic there it's best it's best to customize because here you have to get up and come actually if you ask the question there I can hear it but you're recording right so you need the microphone yeah you can ask a question and and yeah all both of you get to us don't worry and I I think you can get the mic to one of the younger volunteers right hello Swami grown-up people don't want to let go of the mic yes because tell us your name and ask the question my name is and what are you doing are you studying working I'm working as a teacher yeah actually I have something to ask because at home when we have when we talked to someone be it our mother brother our siblings and then we does something they always put us down inside us so how do we focus on a task because they're like giving us into depression and how yeah right that's another subject self-confidence or esteem uh you know confidence in yourself um it's a another big subject you you know SRI ramakrishna is to say he would play on the word manush in Bengali manush means human being and he would say manush human being means [Music] so man means dignity means awareness you know in Hindi is there so to be aware of your own dignity as a human being not let anybody put you down I am as good as everybody else in the world not one bit less everybody I am your own dignity nobody has any right to put you down assert the dignity you have a right to say no you have a right to say I don't like this this is something that you want you have a right to ask for it also they may say no but you have a right to ask Vivekananda said that the old religion said he who does not believe in God is an atheist nothing new religion says he or she who does not believe in himself or herself that's an atheist first believe in yourself other people have done these you know whatever thing you want to do studies work they have done this they have done it well if others have done it I can also do it don't don't take any negative talk from anybody else don't fight with them just cut it out how to cut it out don't pay attention don't pay attention focus on the positive sides there is a saying when is your Shadow the shortest when is it We Don't See Your Shadow it's only when you're facing the Sun so the shadow is behind you then otherwise you're facing away from the Sun you are looking at your shadow Sun positive part of your life others have done many good things so can I I'm a human being they are human beings I can do and I've also done I've achieved so much you're already a teacher I would say that's a great thing you've already done something in your life look at that never listen to people who speak negative things so I love this about Swami Vivekananda he could Rouse the greatness in other people um Josephine McLeod an American who is a close follower of Vivekananda she said that she had met the tsar of Russia once not put in long ago and she said when I met this out of Russia I felt how great he is and how small I am how insignificant I am but when I met Vivekananda I felt how great he is and how great I am now that's a man who arouses the greatness in everybody if I mean some people are there who will put you down some are there who often parents do that sort of Molly cordial you know you know like I'll do everything for you you are sweet and helpless I am there to help you that's also no good the really good thing is to help others to become as good as they can you know to reach their potential to become better yeah thank you you're not convinced yes yeah tell us your name and tell us what you do um yeah good morning swamiji my name is Vignesh I have seen a lot of your YouTube videos and I'm just thrilled to be in your presence today so I have three questions these are related I know others might have questions so can I ask all three ask all three I might not answer all three okay so the first question I'll just go in sequence the first question is is The Quiet Mind the reason for happiness in the Flow State that's the first question Quiet Mind is the reason for happiness oh that's a good way of putting it quiet mind in this case is an Engaged mind so instead of saying Quiet Mind the Sleepy mind is also Quiet Mind so it is actually just the opposite of a sleepy mind it's really engaged it's intensely active it's very satwik that way luminous and Gita it said in mind and all the senses as if it's radiating light you're so aware and Hyper alert and focused it's like your mind is light as it as it were at that time luminous that gives happiness there's a link to that in the Gita again you find in sankhya satwaguna is connected to sukha happiness if you make your mind light and luminous and focused happiness is bound to come and that was the Insight of bihai chicken in the book flow you know what he was searching for when are people most happy happy Means not just smiley face not like that then you're watching a cartoon Tom and Jerry also you're happy not like that most fulfilled most enriched that you feel right life is really good and I am getting better I'm getting the best of life when is it and he found that it's when we have got flow those are the best moments of Our Lives it's a deeper insight into one great psychologist was there Maslow Abraham Maslow he's here this concept of peak experiences in life what what is that Peak experience at least one major component is flow so yes instead of quiet mind I would say focused mind is connected to happiness thank you the next question also related uh how can meditation further help and what type of meditation in particular would you suggest to make the mind more focused you know when you when Vivekananda gets uh suggestion for focused mind he says do whatever you're doing with the fullest possible attention which means meditation also you will do it the fullest possible attention otherwise the problem is meditation itself is difficult my mind is restless neither advice is meditate I can't I can't meditate it'll be restless more Restless why is it more difficult to meditate and then what we are doing now more difficult than this is to vegetate why here you can use um you know his analysis to explain it here 120 bits per second we are getting continuous um capacity to pay attention we are engaging in so many things you can see you can hear and I am it's easier for me to speak than for you to listen because listening requires you'll be paying attention but I'm speaking so already a part of my cognitive abilities is engaged there it's easier to listen and speak and sit and relax the mind is engaged in various ways but suppose you cut it all out sit still close your eyes breathe evenly not think of the body not think of the world Focus inside and use some object of focus maybe oh more light or like Buddhist mindfulness the breath breathing in breathing out now what are you doing to the Mind mind has got 120 bits per second you are telling the mind all of that should be focused on the breath it should not go anywhere else how difficult is that it's actually easier to do it in action when you are playing studying then it's easier to focus now which meditation is good for focus actually all the meditation techniques are basically they have one thing in common they are they are about training the attention we had a Meditation Retreat in Garrison New York a couple of years back I spoke with the with very famous Professor of Indian philosophy or in them chakravarti I told him this is the plan what are you going to do this is the plan we're going to study and practice there is a Buddhist mindfulness meditation the kashmiri shaiva soham meditation and then a dualistic deity visualization meditation then the non-dualistic advaithic meditation and he said that's very good after doing all of that at the end just consider sit back and consider for a while what is common to all of these very different meditations what is the one common thing and we did that and we found the one common thing across various religions various meditation techniques throughout the world one common thing is it's training of the attention so any meditation technique will help simplest meditation technique just focusing on the breath because one advantage is breathing is always there effortlessly you don't have to introduce anything even if you don't pay attention breathing is going on Americans are very good at making everything short shorter and shorter and shorter so they have got this 10 second meditation technique 10 or 30 second meditation technique what is it called stop s-top stop only Americans can invite invent such meditation technique s-top stop what does it stand for s s means stop whatever you're doing stop it now t means take a breath do it now take a breath o means observe what observe body breath mind what is going on in the world I mean the desk studying this I'm giving a talk you are listening to me observe P next is proceed go on doing what you're doing but it works kind of but it will break the flow of distraction this way or that way mind is going what's the third question um so the third question is about likes and dislikes so whatever we like we are drawn towards so for example when we are playing badminton the act of Play We enjoy that and so we can you know push our mind to concentrate fully uh but things like say for example you mentioned physics or grammar obviously some might like them some may not right so how to go beyond this like and dislike to be able to fully apply our concentration because they still seem like limitations they are they are so concentration should not be a slave in the hands of likes and dislikes otherwise likes and dislikes everybody can concentrate everybody can concentrate I've seen a little kid watching in India cricket is very popular little kid watching cricket match on TV so much concentration forgotten to eat not interested in anything else this and if you tell the kid come eat five more minutes five more minutes and watch same kid now cricket match is over time to do homework so boring mosquito is there it is so hot I am hungry I am sleepy all those problems were not there for six seven hours cricket match what happened you know is the kid lying no no no all the problems were there mosquito was there it was hot he was hungry but 120 bits per second most of it is focused on the cricket match not much is left over for noticing anything else now textbook homework very boring out of 120 bits maybe 20 bits are focused there 80 bits are left over now what does he notice mosquito I'm hungry I don't like this it's so hot now the mind is beginning to notice all that so likes and dislikes you cannot leave concentration to the hands of likes and dislikes concentration focus should become a habit that's why again vivekantha says make a habit of doing whatever you're doing with the fullest possible attention even in a subject you like a subject but even in the subject which you like there will be a part of it which you don't like even in a job which you love there will be a part of it which you don't love so in that case focus should be a matter of habit not a matter of likes and dislikes it should be like your superpower which you can use whenever you want what's the secret use it all the time why use it all the time because you have a steady supply of 120 bits per second every second every second you have this capacity only it goes you know like this is something called a default mode it's just going as it is whatever demands are coming from the world see me hear me taste me touch this think this feel that my mind is going like this but if I take that on 120 bits it is mine it is the most important thing in my life my 120 bits per second how do I use it remember what teachers used to scold us at in school what would they say pay attention yeah it's flickering so what would our teachers say pay attention look at the word pay payment is money but attention is like money you have got 120 like we have got 120 dollars per second suppose that would be nice no per second if you get 120 more valuable than 120 dollars per second is 120 bits of you know cognitive capacity processor information processing capacity per second how are we using it I've seen some of the most successful people have this tremendous capacity to focus and they have this ability to focus all the time they somehow developed it I know the most brilliant person I've met in my life he's a monk a friend of mine it's not so impressive here in Singapore but in India it's very impressive you say how many of you have heard of grown-up people IIT Jee The Joint entrance examination yeah so all the grown-up people have heard about it he was all India's second which is huge in India it's an incredible thing and that people next thing question people will say oh he became a mug and he was one of the Toppers in his patch second at IIT kanpur which is the top level IIT there and in computer science and he was saying in our batch the The Joint entrance first rank holder second rank hold that was him third went to some other IIT fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth they were all in the same classroom so imagine that kind of brain power in one classroom so this person one thing I noticed about him the incredible power of focus natural not that he was doing Mei chicken mihai flow this technique that technique he somehow he has got that power of focus natural maybe or he has developed in childhood enormous power of focus I noticed once in our training as monks he was sitting and reading a book I've told this to many people at different times I I can I still remember that I was walking past his room and and I saw him reading and asked him what are you reading in Hindi asked him what are you studying he didn't reply he can't see me he's reading the book and I came to him and repeated the question he can't hear me his foot was stretched out so I caught hold of his big big toe and I shook it what are you reading what's the book he cannot feel that I'm touching his body see 120 bits per second 99 of that has gone into the book or whatever has gone into the book there's very little leftovers for bodily awareness it's and I am also fully keen on disturbing him so I went and took the book so what is the book he got a shock now what's going on there another thing I noticed about him that explains that that power one day he was cleaning his room usually doesn't clean his room but very much IIT student engineering college student but one day I was cleaning his room and I was amazed cleaning your room is a boring task how many of you would agree I agree cleaning most of the kids they're scared Mom and Dad will see are are you have it good I don't know if it's boring or not my mom does it so I have no no idea whether it's public he was cleaning his room for two hours and if you put put your finger on the grill in the window there the window frame you won't find a speck of dust anywhere if you put your finger in touch there's floors the windows nowhere for two hours doing what we think is the most boring job he's doing not as a discipline it is his habit to focus on whatever he's doing fullest possible attention automatically even now this time also I went to India I met him he has a huge responsibility big university he's running and all that I went in um there's something which came up it was there was a movie called um Interstellar or something Have you seen it so some space station is there and so that video for some reason I showed him that video then he gave me nearly half an hour talk on the physics of the International Space Station it is you know that I didn't know this we think it's going on a orbit like this he says no it's going up and down like this it continuously loses orbit and the boosters that thrusters have to be fired to correct the orbit on a regular basis he gave me the mathematics of it now what's what's that it's that the ability to focus and go deep and hold on to a topic another one of my friends he's a monk also and he is one of the leading mathematicians of India a topologist so once he gave a talk on vedanta I heard him give a talk and it's one of the I give talks on vedanta but it was a remarkable performance from beginning to end 45 minutes one argument I said how do you do that he said he's a pure mathematician topologist he said mathematics you have to do that we don't have Laboratories and you know experiments it's all in the mind so you have to hold on to one thing and think about it why 45 minutes hour after hour day after day week after week month after month you have to hold on to one idea and think about it continuously I saw once some mathematician came to collaborate with this monk so once mathematician has come from Australia to collaborate with this monk in India so when I went past his room these two mathematicians are sitting what are they doing working but what work they're sitting like this hour after hour then after one or two days that mathematician went back so I said what happened none work is over but you didn't show him you know tell him to go to India different places in India visit places and see no no he just came they sat quietly like this for a while and then he went away to go back to Australia I'm just exaggerating a little bit but that requires Focus concentration okay thank you so it's not that he hogged up all the time with three questions but it's that these questions and the answers are useful for all of us there's one hand here you who's next yeah and then next you can get the mic here okay so you talked about how tell us your name and tell us what you're doing I'm Priyanka shinoy and I'm in the first year of University what are you studying business business administration so apologies so you talked about how we process information at a certain Pace to do work and how a certain amount of it is always backlocked to do something like our body bodily functions and things like that yeah but how exactly do I divert my attention from doing uh to do my work when something significant has happened in my life and that is what is on the backlog of my mind yeah so if something significant has happened in the mind I mean in your life it is going to impact especially if it is emotional if it is upset you then uh when something upsets us our cognitive this capacity most of it gets sucked in there and then what happens is we end up continuously feeling anxious unhappy depressed bothered by it all the time and the only way to do to deal with that is actually to divert your mind most of the time when the mind is thinking about something which has happened in my life and it is you I can't do anything about it at this moment if it's something that I have to do let me do it or let me take a decision but the trick of them the trick the Mind plays is after you take a decision to deal with the problem in your life you should stop thinking about it but the mind will not stop thinking about it the mind will keep going back there it's a habit of the mind it's a bad habit of the Mind somebody is ill I have already made an appointment with the doctor and I made arrangement with the cab which will pick up the person take him to the doctor or I will go back and take that person to the doctor finished but the mind will think what happened what will Dr Bill be like or is it is that person going to be okay that mind will keep on going on and on or is it going to be really bad when the pathology report comes will be something serious so that is the trick of the mind and the only way out because you have 120 bits per second try to engage as much of that possible in something else now tell me you see your question is but how how so how do I engage in mihai think in terms of Challenge and uh skill what do I have to do what do I have to do if I want to get flow the challenge has to match the scale yeah and you have got some scale your attention is there's so much so much of your mind cognitive processing ability is free and keeping on fretting and being anxious about something what do you do then you increase the challenge to such a level that you have to pay attention to this now the moment you start paying attention because our cognitive bandwidth is limited you will find that problem disappears that problem disappears so throw yourself into work suppose alone you can't do it then schedule a meeting go to a class teach or listen to a class or start doing an assignment or go into a group work with other friends where your attention has to be is pulled out you have no more Choice there then you will find you have been diverted from it diverted is not escapism I know the problem I have made a decision this is how I'm going to deal with it that's it I will not allow my mind to continuously cause me anxiety and worry keeping on dwelling on that one thing a trick up the mind I'll tell you a very stunning and sad but extraordinary example of this one of the Disciples of Sri ramakrishna was we call him M Master mahasha he wrote the what is called the dialogues of Sri ramakrishna so this m he maintained a diary in English it has been translated as the gospel of Sri ramakrishna he was a he was a school teacher and a devotee of srinama Krishna many many years later after SRI ramakrishna had passed away this m was in Banaras in one of the ashrams and he used to teach the bhagavatam which is you know an important uh religious text devotional text she used to teach the bhagavatam monks and other devotees would come and sit and listen to his classes so one evening in the ashram in Banaras is M was going with the book towards the class and one of the monks ran and gave him a telegram in those days no phone no Internet no email now you're so Advanced you're thinking email Swami you're weird dinosaur or what you're completely outdated no WhatsApp so uh Telegram that monk handed him the telegram M was walking to the class he looked at the telegram read it put it in his pocket and continued to the class and he started teaching the class and that monk who was sitting there in the class other people were there he whispered to a person nearby do you know what was in the Telegram which I just handed him the other person said no what was it it was news from Calcutta that his daughter has just died he read it does he not love his daughter of course he does is he not shocked devastated of course he is but there's nothing more to do there's this class he's teaching his mind is entirely on spiritual matters so he goes his mind focuses there maybe when he goes back to his room he will cry that imagine the control and focus I'm not saying you have to go to that level but it's possible it's possible people like you know Mahatma Gandhi for example so they have a nice story I'll tell you again this is not very well known about Mahatma Gandhi and others so in our main Monastery ramakrishna order is in belur near ganga in near Calcutta this was pre-independence the British were ruling at that time and Mahatma Gandhi was conducting his independent struggle against the British now Swami shivananda was the president of our ramakrishna mission at that time in belur near Ganga um one gentleman came and was sitting Bengali gentleman sitting near Swami shivanand and then talking to him and one young boy came to become a monk um oh sorry before that so the gentleman was talking to Swami shivananda and saying you know now Mahatma Gandhi has started this strike against the British call for um a non-cooperation movement and all the young boys and you know they're all leaving their college and school and joining their freedom struggle they are spoiling their career they are not completing their studies what all nonsense is going on in the name of this politics Freedom struggle what is all this kept quiet he did not say anything then two days later again the gentleman had come on sitting near Swami shivananda one young boy came young man came to become a monk he bowed down Swami shivananda blessed him he went for the into the monastery then this gentleman he could not stop he said see at this time when Mahatma Gandhi is fighting for Independence of the country this young boy wants to become a monk is it right you tell me then Swami shivananda said look Mahatma Gandhi is continuously engaged in a freedom fighting and social reform education eradication of untouchability so many things he is engaged in day and night struggle and he is happy this boy has given up the world and is focused on meditation study devotion and Seva and he will realize God he is happy only person I see not happy you so but this is a great lesson if you again think in terms of 120 bits per second where is my mind going where have I put my mind so this is a beautiful formula let me tell you magic in May I says this the quality of our life the quality of our life depends on the quality of your life depends on what you put your mind to what you think of and how much of your mind you put there so what are we thinking about and how much of my mind is going there that will determine the quality of my life you say no quality of my life depends on many other things Singapore you stay here high quality of life so why were your mind only no ultimately it is what is going on in the mind that determines your feeling your quality of life you can stay here and still be unhappy you can stay in a small rural Village or a small town in India in difficult circumstance totally focus on something you will be happier through your internal quality of life depends on what we have on what we are thinking of and how much of the mind we are putting on that thank you this is uh you you go there yeah because let him ask first let the kid ask first and then then you can ask hi swamiji my name is seven years old I'm going to be in standard 2 next year my question is that I do not like studying I like artwork more my mother teaches me but I'm not able to focus and repeat mistakes how can I improve okay so what did you what did you say you like you like artwork artwork focus on the artwork and the other stuff that your mother teaches you the school teachers teach you try try a little bit there um keep some time for that but Focus deeply on the artwork right spend as as much time as you have on the artwork don't give up on the other things because as long as you're in school you know um then school is a little bit of something a little bit of something a little bit of everything yeah this is the formulas little bit of everything in school um something of everything that's the formula when you go to a higher level College University it'll be everything of something so in school something of everything it's not just artwork but your English your math a little bit don't worry it will become all right huh um thousands and thousands of kids have done it are doing it you can easily do it I can see that you're a bright kid and you have a bright future ahead of you vihan vihan did you notice what he said what he said the beginning I am seven years old and I'm going to second grade he said second grade standard standard I'm going to standard two this is something interesting which we learn from younger kids whenever you talk to a young kid he or she will tell you how old are you I'm almost six which class are you in which standard are you in I'm in standard one I'm going to standard two which means you're using standard one now this looking forward and it's going to be better I'm six years but I'm going to be seven that's so great standard one doesn't matter I'm going to be in standard two that's so great but ask a 16 year old how old are you 16. none of them will say I'm going to be 17. ask a college going kid which year are you in what are you studying first year none of them will say I'm going to be in second year soon now that would sound a little silly but why is it silly it's that around the age of 12 or 13 we lose that Forward Motion in life we sort of relax back into where we are and that glow in life goes away and but we can maintain that you don't have to say that I I if you are 30 years old and someone asks you how old are you I'm going to be 31 if you don't say that but I have seen people who are 90 years old they don't say I'm going to be 91 next year but but they are youthful they are happy so that forward momentum that positive looking forward to life and that one should have one great spiritual teacher you know I love this in India they asked him so how do you live your life what is your philosophy of life he says oh philosophy of life every day in the morning when I wake up I jump out of bed and land on my my Chapel my slippers and then I'd let them take me wherever they are going they go many places I go on that they take me for a ride and so it's very nice now see the openness to life it's like you wake up in the morning and chapels are ready to go now quickly jump on it hop on the Chapels and they will take you around life throughout the day thank you vihan thank you you yeah tell us your name and what are you doing my name is amulya and a grade 11 and I'm going to 12. yes going but no imperfect action is better than a perfect in action and I think that's something that applies to me well so I wanted to understand how that sort of connects with the idea of focus you know if you work perfection never aim for perfection always aim to be a little better than what you are this you know vedant science everything will tell you that life there is nothing ever perfect in life it's better to get used to it but things can be better things can be better I can be better the world can be better my life can be better that's something to look forward to and you can work towards it why if you say my goal is perfection what is perfection in this world of time space and causation in this world of Maya and vedant what is perfection so better always focus on better and then you engage your cognitive capacity and that 120 bits per second how much of that I can put in here in different areas of my life I don't know if that's what you're asking yeah one danger I've seen I've seen people even a monk told me that my goal was to be perfect in life but I found he has become bitter in his old age one reason is I aim at Perfection but there's no Perfection available in the world as such I can be better more meditative more spiritual more loving more you know giving Seva to others but if I aim at Perfection clearly I will see that I am not perfect and I will see all others around me are not perfect at the age of 60 70 80 90 years bitterness will come that's not a good way of living thank you so much for your talk I'm Ishani so I'm in my last year of high school so I'm in 12th grade I guess my question was sometimes it can be hard to focus when you feel like you lack a sense of direction and so my question was sort of how do we find that greater sense of purpose or Direction and how can you're absolutely right this is one thing which I should have mentioned it's good that it has come up in the discussions one should have a goal in life a purpose in life what should be the purpose in life we'll see later but one should have it vivekantha said always follow your own highest idea very interesting way he phrased it always you should have a goal in life and follow it take action on it and then what is it it's your own read everything listen to people look around the world and then see what appeals to you you can see I want many things appeal to me among all the things that appeal to you what's the highest most noble your own heart will tell you this is really good follow that one once we make up our mind see unless you have a Direction you're right Focus will never come I might try to make a habit of focus but overall does my life have Focus or is I'm just floating yeah that story I love it you know man is Galloping on a horse through a village and then people ask him sir where are you going he's going on the horse Galloping through the village sir where are you going and the man looks back and says I don't know ask the horse he has got on the horse horses taking him somewhere but we are like that we have got on the hearts of life it's taking us somewhere but we don't know where you go out here you want to go from one place to another take a cab you will tell him I want to go there take me there you might even tell him take me by this road you will never get on a cab and says sir ma'am where to I don't know go keep going he'll call the police crazy guy but we are doing that in our life so always have a sense of purpose now what will be my purpose remember it can change you don't have to have one purpose for all of your life it you could if you have it great I um always tell students in the ashrams look these monks and brahmacharis this over there one unique thing they have they are Ordinary People most ordinary people just like everybody else maybe less qualified less Rich less well educated and sometimes very educated sometimes very qualified but they have one extraordinary power which transforms an ordinary life into an extraordinary life and that extraordinary power is we have a very high goal in life if you ask the monks Junior most one who has come to become a sannyasi today from to the senior most sir what is your goal in life they can tell you immediately otherwise of course why would you become a monk unless you have a clear goal and our goal is Atman for your own Liberation and for the welfare of the world and we really believe in it that's why we have thrown our life into it that one belief that one direction that one overarching goal has transformed ordinary lives into extraordinary lives so one must have that now how do you decide often you will say that all this is good but I still can't decide another technique I will tell you there's this young man who does a great amount of work he looks after more than five thousand kids orphans they're not all orphans but they may have one parent but they have some problems in the family so there nobody to look after them and he looks after five thousand such kids and I asked him how do you do that he's a brilliant man he um in India you know it's sort of Ideal among young people they all want to go to IIT and IIM you know get an engineering degree and get an MBA so he did that he went to IIT and IIM and then he's doing this he's looking after so so in one um Gathering of Youth like this somebody asked this young man sir how did you decide this High goal of purpose in life and he said I did not I did not what I did was I started thinking after getting my MB I started thinking what will I do with my life will I you know and he said I could not think what I will do with my life I I could not clearly I didn't have any kind of pull so now see technique he said let me now think what I will not do with my life what is it that I don't like do I want to be like my friends working for an MNC multinational corporation you know go to Singapore or somewhere else he said no that's not pulling me I'm not motivated do I want to be like my professors you know Academia research no that's great but it's not pulling me then he said I looked at these Street children outside on the streets outside the campus and he said these are people these are kids children who need my help right now and I said I have to do something for them and said that pulled him not that you have to do that but something will pull you something you feel energized by something that engages you and if you cannot decide then at least try to decide what you don't like that also you can take a look and once he had that goal somebody asked him he's doing a great amount of work throughout India this young man somebody asked him how did you get this idea and he said immediately it didn't start with an idea it started with a Feeling so it should start with the heart not with the brain brain will give come later idea will come later but first do I want it really so he wanted to do this and he is doing it one more thing once you have some kind of a goal right now it could be do really well in my high school and get into a really good University I don't know the exact system here but in the United States this is a crucial time because they have to keep on applying for lots of universities and then try to do the best they can so that could be a goal once you have the goal draw these four circles then it becomes easier if you have a clear goal you really want it then draw these four circles four circles the first circle is my year this whole year what is my goal what am I going to do towards my goal then my month this month what am I going to do then my week this next six seven days and one day I can let off Sunday but six days what am I going to do for my goal so there'll be a lot of other things you have to do but for my goal what am I going to do and then my day My Day My Week my month my year these are things that you've learned in you know your HR manager will teach you in your company so then you actualize your ideal ideal should not only remain as a dream or as something I want no I will do something for that this year this month this week today and every day every week every month till the end of the year I hope that helps who is there hand the young man here tell us your name and what are you doing come on master and I'm in 10th Grade 10th grade you mentioned that if you want to get to a flow State then our challenge should match our skill yeah right so what we do if there's a fixed challenge so we match our skill to that but we still have like bits left over from the 120 bits how do we occupy the rest of our mind right then you increase the challenge even if it's fixed I remember see I remember once we were in a class which was a little bit of a boring class as monks we also have classes and I was sitting and every everybody I was a little bored also and my mind was a little daydreaming here and there other people were there other young monks now this other monk I told you about the most brilliant person I've met what was he doing he was he was furiously busy doing what whatever the teacher is teaching not too well boring he is taking down the most perfect notes and his handwriting is amazing I mean that's something that we were used to Value as kids he's taking down the most perfect notes of it he's working really hard he's the only one who's not bored teacher is Bored we are also bored but he's the only one who's not bored and that showed me how a fixed challenge he can intensify now not that he is applying all these things but he naturally does it so he sort of he functions at a more intense level than most of us another time I saw a monk if I didn't vaguely remember teacher is teaching in English he's taking down notes in Sanskrit it's just a challenge translating and taking it down that's one way intensify it or that same challenge if it's boring can you try to finish it faster speed it up or I don't know what the particular challenges is it academic is it Sports whatever it is or you know extracurricular activities you can enrich the challenge you can increase the speed of your activity finish it faster in any case make the whole thing a little more difficult there's nothing wrong in being bored but it's wrong in being habitually bored that's that's not healthy yes can you give the microphone tell us your name pranam Maharaj my name is and which grade are you and I know but everybody else should know us I'm in six see studying no matter what subject it is after one hour I can't focus anymore I feel tired even if it's my favorite subject so what I do I take a five minutes break then after the break I find that I still can't focus I feel tired I lose interest in my studies then in that case what should I do exactly depends Suppose there is a kind of assignment or homework which you have to finish then even if you're tired you have to finish it even if it's not focused you're not feeling alert still have to finish it is what's called good work ethics suppose you don't have any kind of pressure at that time then do something else whatever you like relax whatever you do for relaxation see I remember this very instructive seminar we went to this was several years back about five years back in the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in the United States this one speaker I still remember his name is kentaro Toyama he's a Japanese American guy brilliant two phds from ivy league universities he's written this book called The Geek heresy the geek heresy and he works on education and Technology and he said that his main point was all this technology which we are giving for education in school level is not necessary he says this is what has made me hated in Silicon Valley and he talked about it if you see Google him you will find find it the geek heresy but then I uh then then I asked him that then what is it that makes for success in education it's not a lot of Technology what have you found then he gave examples um one example he gave was before he you know became so successful and all that he was hired as a tutor for an elite High School in United States and he said I started because of my phds from Yale and one more University that's why they have hired me then I found no what they expect me to do is that the kids are doing their homework I have to walk back and forth and make sure that they do their homework that they keep at it and he said what I've found is that and school level he's talking about school level the only key to success sustained success is a good work ethic concentration flow interest passion goal of Life all of those if you have it great you may not have it also but at the the bottom line is if I have a good work ethic something has been given to me I will make a good job of it no matter whether if I like it it is my goal or not is it my passion or not Americans are very big on passion that it has to be you're passionate about it suppose I'm not passionate suppose I'm bored still if it's your job if you if you own it that I am in this great great six and this is my homework otherwise don't be in great I mean don't drop out so if I own it then I will do a good job of it this feeling this feeling he says this is the key to success I have found at least in school at the University and surely in jobs afterwards then I asked him the last question that then how do you instill this work ethic in kids and he says I have two kids I wish I knew the answer I meant that uh dad in the sense that see uh after one hour I already get tired but after the break I totally can't focus at all so in that case how can I get myself to focus back as I said maybe you cannot focus it's quite possible so there are many things you can do if it's a it's like a homework that you have to do suppose that evening itself then even without Focus also sit down and try to do it we or if that pressure is not there then do a change your activity we go from studying a book to doing some artwork or change of activities sometimes can bring it back the focus or give one more break and then come back yeah thank you I read about this kid interaction between a kid and her mom mom is shouting what's this that you're doing iPad is on phone is on music playing loudly big you know plasma screen TV is on it's doing homework it's a switch of this take away this take that away and then the kid is shouting mom I can't study if you take all those things away I can't focus see the language there's something very very interesting to note there you just use this what we learned just now from and see what the kid is doing the kid is unable to give more than 30 40 bits per second to that thing and in order to focus that kid needs her uh extra cognitive capacity processing capacity to be hooked and engaged into two three other things otherwise the kid she's not lying she can't focus unless she is held down little social media little texting little movie browsing and study so is it good not at all not at all it's a terrible idea terrible idea multitasking sometimes you have to do multitasking minimize it because multitasking ruins our ability to concentrate if we multitask what happens is then the brain gets used to having three four different places where to put that cognitive ability and then you to focus it in one place it finds it difficult and boring but you can't do we cannot do deep work unless we focus good question yeah my point to her was there might be a time you cannot focus it might be a time you don't have a goal there might be a time when you have no passion for it No Liking for it it still has to be done in that case just work ethic some of one monk said if it cannot be avoided it should be done well if it cannot be avoided it should be done better yes like a microphone I have one last question last question 12 30. and I'm in 11th grade and my question is surrounding when you feel like your focus or hard work that you put into something whether it be studying or anything else if it doesn't pay off and you get discouraging comments from your parents or teachers or whoever and then you feel guilty for taking breaks when studying so is there any way to combat that because I find myself in that position sometimes and I don't feel like there's any progress in terms of like yeah sometimes I just feel like guilt if taking too many breaks so I overwork myself so is there anything on that I'm hearing two different things too many breaks overwork myself which is it it can't be both for me it's more of um there aren't many breaks so for me I feel like I'm not putting my best foot forward no matter what so I feel like I have to keep yeah don't do that because even Cal Newport his book is entirely about deep work and yet there he says as important as setting aside chunks of time for deep work are chunks of time when you switch off otherwise it's no use exhausting yourself if you exhaust yourself very quickly our cognitive abilities decline when you are sleep deprived or when you are like chronically bored or you're unhappy little bit of pressure is okay so in the United States we have just the opposite where the kids are continuously um encouraged whatever you're doing it's awesome just awesome I failed in the class awesome that's great failure is stepping stone to success that often doesn't work and what we have learned it builds up supposed to build up self-esteem of kids and all that but over time the last 10 20 years the literature shows that it you're harming the resilience of the kids this kind of continuous positive reinforcement reinforcement you can do it in grade school teachers can do it but moment the kid goes to the university the moment get the kids goes to the workspace the you know the work environment that continuous positive reinforcement is nobody to give that and if I'm used to it I'll just feel that everybody is harassing me torturing me is negative about me so little bit of pressure is fine but don't take too much of it too hard like we can always already see that you are already working hard so that's good enough that's good enough just keep at it yeah thank you you've been a wonderful audience and so many good questions [Applause]

Channel: Hindu Endowments Board

Views: 32,425

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Id: rC7i_uB0Z2I

Length: 115min 44sec (6944 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 31 2023