We're asked to concentrate in this world without ever really being taught how to.

Instead, we are experts at distraction. It's not just our technology; our mind is frantic with thoughts. And most of the time, we're not even aware of how distracted we are. That's the idea. If we don't practice observing those thoughts, we're just living through a spontaneous slideshow of colors and sounds and sensations dragging us along.

As the Hindu priest and entrepreneur Dandapani explains in this TEDx talk, we allow other people to direct our awareness all the time. We pay money to watch movies where the director and producer and actors and everyone else guide your awareness through a story (assuming you don't check your phone several times in the theater).

But if we don't sit with ourselves, observing our own spastic mind, we can never develop concentration.