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modular view of the mind

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there is no chief executive in your brain

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but many modules that take turns exerting dominant influence on your thought and behavior

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this corresponds with the Buddhist idea of the self

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that there is no self at the core that persists coherently through time

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Buddhist mediation

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can the module view of the mind help in meditation and help explain what is going on in people's minds when they meditate

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jealous state of mind

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a modular mechanism that coordinates various thoughts and perceptions to a specific end

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mechanisms bubbling up and down in different levels of activation

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"default mode network"

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gets activated when the mind isn't engaged in anything in particular

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gets quiet during meditation

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often doesn't get quiet easily

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can be seen as a collection of modules trying to get your attention

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e.g. affiliative module: "I wonder if I offended that person yesterday"

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responsible for maintaining friendships and navigating the social landscape

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e.g. mate-attraction module: "that person was quite attractive, I wonder if they would go out to eat with me, what clever things could I say?"

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these examples don't always suggest that information in the immediate environment triggered the module

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quieting of the default mode network

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concentration meditation

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particularly effective in quieting the default mode network

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once you establish the concentration and equilibrium, you head up in a different path from the concentration mediator

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mindfulness meditation

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looking at things in your mind with

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more objectivity

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less attachment

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then carrying this view into everyday life

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your feelings

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you view them in a new way

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they don't get the same kind of traction they used to have

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feelings are what trigger modules

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show a scary movie, it activates a different module than seeing a romantic movie

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jealous triggers a certain set of modular operations

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there are always feelings associated with modules

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modules bid for your attention with feelings

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e.g. "did I offend that person"

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you make it go away by finding a solution

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e.g. I will send an e-mail to that person

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the modular has done its work

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feelings are things that give modules power over you

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you can read feelings as signs which modules are vying for your attention

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is this a useful way of talking about modules which are introduced by feelings over and above simply talking about the feelings themselves

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e.g. hatred

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a feeling that defines enemies

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you can be angry as someone who is a friend, but if you hate them, they are an enemy

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natural select has seemed to given the human being particular ways to deal with enemies and particular ways to deal with friends

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when our friends do something good, we attribute it to their inner essence

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if they do something bad, we attribute it to some external factor, some circumstance

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similar to our own behavior

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with our enemies it is the opposite

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when they do something bad, we explain it as their nature

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when they do something good, it is a result of some external circumstance

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it's in our interest to undermine our enemies, the people who can do us harm

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this is a kind of propaganda tool, but to spread the propaganda more effectively, we actually believe this

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the not-self doctrine

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the Buddhist theme on the not-self is open to differing interpretations

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one less ambitious interpretation

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there is no part of your mind that has to be a part of yourself

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there is no feeling you have to own, no thought you have to own

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you can choose which things to let go of

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to translate this into module terms

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there is no module you have to be

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each module is trying to become the self for awhile

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this is why they are referred to as sub-selves

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there are people who have had meditative experiences who claim to have seen the absence of a self in themselves, I guess I should put that last selves in quotes perhaps, but they have experientially come to know the doctrine of the not-self.

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how does the modular view of the mind help us to understand these experiences