Random Ramblings

It's the weekend, so back to Robert Wright's Why Buddhism is true. This chapter is about the mental modules that rule your life. In the previous chapter he had been talking about how what we think of the self is not according to modern psychology a unified whole, but we have different sorts of mental modules. In this chapter he gives some examples of that, talking about psychological studies where people make different choices if they've just watched a romantic movie versus a scary movie, etc. He suggests that different emotions can trigger what he calls “sub selves”- different modules that orient us to make different sorts of decisions. For example, he cites a study of jealousy, which activates all sorts of different physiological processes to prepare for violence; mental processes that involve scrutinizing memory and the behavior of partners; shame programs; searching for new mate programs; etc.

So the basic idea is that our emotions don't just shape the way we perceive things, but may actually trigger a whole set of new behavioral and other aspects of the mind, a different module or sub self; some of these are connected to evolutionary psychology. So he connects this to an example of a psychological experiment asking whether people are willing to defer receiving $100 now so they can receive $150.00 in the future. Men who had just seen pictures of an attractive woman were less likely to take that trade. He hypothesizes that “during evolution meant with access to resources such as food and with high social status were better able to attract mates. So if there is indeed a mate acquisition module, you'd expect it to feature the following algorithm: men who see signs of a near term courtship opportunity take advantage of any near term resource acquisition opportunities, even if that means forgoing more distant opportunities. They want their resources- which in modern environment means cash- now.”

He says we shouldn't get too hung up on the subselves model because there's a lot of movement between the different missions, but I do think the sub selves he quotes- and the authors are Kenrick and Griskevicius--Are pretty interesting. The missions are quote self protection, made attraction, mate retention, affiliation (making and keeping friends) kin care, social status, and disease avoidance.
One point P repeats a number of times is that we're not aware of these modules, and that means we are often unaware of things that trigger ourselves to make different decisions. The psychological studies indicate that, just as when you've split the two hemispheres of the brain and one side is not aware of a trigger on the other side, the mind makes up a narrative to explain choices it may not understand. So we're pretty unaware of how our motives are being shaped by these things. So this is one of the reasons why he says of the five hour aggregates, consciousness really can't be seen as the CEO in charge of everything. Because the decisions are often being made at a level beyond your conscious state of awareness.

I also read the chapter called how thoughts think themselves. I love that he opens this with the difference between the pasana mindfulness meditation Tibetan visual imagery meditation and Zen koan meditation, by saying quote Zen is for poets, Tibetan is for artists, and vipassana is for psychologists.” This is why he says mindfulness is good for studying the human mind, or at least your own mind.

He suggests that mindfulness meditation might help us notice the modular mind. He's pretty funny. He says here's an experiment just follow these four easy steps: one period sit down on a cushion 2. Try to focus on your breath 3. (This step is the easiest) Fail to focus on your breathing very long period 4. Notice what kind of thoughts are making you fail. Then he has a whole list of things your mind is wandering to think about: imagining dates with attractive people, imagining encounters you've had an analyzing them, indulging in revenge fantasies, imagining the beer you're going to have when you get home, thinking about the great shot you hit on the golf course, worrying about a relative, etc.

In addition to all of these thoughts being about you or your relationship to other people, about the past and the future, they are also examples of modules- attracting mates, keeping them, enhancing status, caring for kin, social affiliations, etcetera. Perhaps the wandering mind is different modules competing for your attention. He also suggests that if you're able to go on a prolonged meditation retreat, “it will seem more and more like your mind isn't wandering within its own terrain so much as being hijacked by intruders."

So while he quotes meditation teachers as saying thoughts think themselves, what he actually believes is that modules think thoughts. Or rather, “modules generate thoughts, and then if those thoughts prove in something stronger than the creations of competing modules, they become thought thoughts --that is they enter consciousness.”

It's the weekend, so I'm returning to Robert Wright, Why Buddhism is true. This morning I read the chapters on feelings and on different types of meditation. Both were pretty interesting. The feelings chapter talks about the evolutionary reasons for our feelings of aversion and attraction, pointing out that on the deepest level they are all about propagating our genes, not producing our happiness. We're programmed to like sweet things because fruit was nutritious; now we live in a world where sweet things are often harmful. We're programmed to easily startle at snake-like things in the wilderness because it could have saved our lives; this is one of the responses that even at its origin was probably wrong more often than not, but it had a gene-saving effect so it continues. We're programmed for anger at unfairness because that was helpful in small-scale societies but is no longer true today.

I continue to think that this is an actually helpful use of evolutionary psychology, which I generally hate. He points out that although of course feelings can't be "true" or "false," and that Buddhism is training people to observe them dispassionately and let them flow through, it is helpful to think of why they might be maladaptive in the modern world as a spur to turning to meditation.

The second chapter, on concentration and mindfulness meditation, talks about the benefits of each type and his experiences with them, pointing out that concentration meditation can lead to specific bliss states but chasing that is generally counterproductive. He really thinks mindfulness meditation is where it's at, though he points out that "being in the present moment" was not really talked about in the earliest Buddhist texts.