What can I do to be more attentive? || Acharya Prashant, on youth (2013)

Speaker: The question is, ‘What should we do to be more attentive?’

First of all, I understand that why Aman is asking this question in this language; because all our lives we have seen that we get something only by doing.

So, Aman thinks that attention is to do something. That it can be obtained by doing something. But Aman, only an external entity can be obtained by doing something. The ways of entering attention are totally opposite.

To enter into attention, you have to stop doing what are you doing right now, not do anything extra.

What are you doing right now?

I will tell you what you are doing right now. You are fidgeting, you are vibrating, your mind is doing a lot of thinking, your eyes are doing a lot of wandering. That is what needs to be stopped. This entire game of doing is what is needed to be stopped.

Attention is there, you don’t have to fetch it from somewhere, attention is there. You don’t have to do anything extra to get attention. You only stop doing what you are obsessed with doing.