How our mind works
The teachings in this video (the key takeaways are from 3:18 to 4:07, 4:21 to 5:21, and 5:53 until the end) are the main pillars of what I want to share through content curation. In order to learn and develop oneself, it helps a lot to understand how our mind works (and thus, how to best control it to get the best results out of it). That’s what the ex-hindu monk Dandapani teaches in this eye-opening video, as he learned it in the monastery.
It’s a simple concept, but it opens up many possibilities, and it’s hard to figure out alone for the average person.
It’s also something that is relevant and important to know because we only have a limited quantity of energy and time each day. Thus, to get the best out of our time and energy, and get more of what we want of in our life, understanding how our mind works can change everything.
Our mind is made of two main components :
1. The mind in its entirety, which is all the data in our brain.
2. Our awareness, which is what we are thinking about in the present moment.
Dandapani explains them this way: he says that the awareness is like a glowing ball of light which travels within the mind and lights up one thing at a time in our mind, and that the mind is like a vast space, with many different sections in it for everything it contains, for example, food, anger, photography, jealousy, art, etc.
As for myself, I compare the two elements with a warehouse and a spotlight. The warehouse contains sections for all the things we have in our brain: our knowledge, memories, fears, dreams, etc. and the spotlight is like an eye that lights up and looks at one thing at a time (it can be something within our mind, our outside of it like focusing on what someone else is telling us, or observing an external event).
Another important takeaway in this video is that we always have control over what we focus on. There are many outside influences and distractions on our focus and our awareness can drift away, but we can always bring it back with our will power. Every time it drifts away, we can bring it back where we want to keep it and each time we do that, we strengthen our will power and our focus capacities.
To be able to focus, is to be able to keep our awareness on one thing for an extended period of time. And the way to practice this, is to do one thing at a time throughout the day. The best way to develop concentration is to bring this practice into our everyday life, through every opportunity to do it. For example, when we speak with the people who are part of our everyday life, it’s to keep our ball of light (or spotlight) on the person and the conversation.
When we are able to concentrate, we are able to focus all of our energy on a single given point. Our life is the result of where our energy is directed. Recap: doing one thing at a time (and keeping our awareness on that thing) throughout the day, and implementing this practice in everything we do during the day.
A personal note from the curator:
This teaching by Dandapani is for me a huge upgrade and game changer for my everyday mental sharpness and efficiency.
When I was a kid going to school, I had difficulty with concentration, sharpness of mind and speed of execution. But school never taught me how my mind works and how to concentrate. Now that I have learned this, I can concentrate more efficiently, focus on my rhythm, on one thing at a time, etc.
–Francis LaBadie