The Modular Mind: Insight, Integration and the Many Parts of Us

The Modular Mind (often called the massive modularity hypothesis) is a theory proposed by evolutionary psychologists. Its central premise is that our Mind is made up of many smaller modules that together create what looks and feels unified from the outside. In rober

Vipassana Meditation practice is about developing insight into the nature of the Body-Mind experiences that arise from all these modules - sub-parts of ourselves - and progressively integrating them into a whole that can act with wisdom, kindness and presence in our lives.

Each module evolved to solve specific problems along our evolutionary journey.

Modules are organised around functions. We might have one module for recognising faces and another module for making sure we have enough food to eat. Another keeps track of our narrative and what memories and labels we call our social identity. Modules work in parallel - they work independently and process their own information without necessarily sharing that information with other modules. This is also the starting point of Robert Wright's bestseller Why Buddhism Is True*: that natural selection built a mind designed to mislead us, generating impulsive reactions from these competing modules that we mistake for deliberate choices, and that mindfulness creates the distance needed to notice this happening rather than being run by it.

Later, cognitive neuroscientists propose that these modules are layered and interact in a complex, multi-layered network. We have low level modules such as recognising the orientation of lines in our visual field and recognising pitches and tones in what we hear and then we have higher level modules that integrate information from lower levels and recognise our friend talking to us and what they are talking about.

A meditator's perspective on the modular mind theory.

When we sit quietly, we can start to observe all the inner workings of our own mind and notice processes which are usually below the surface of conscious awareness.

Experientially, the modular mind theory makes sense. When we sit to meditate, the thoughts and feelings we experience seem to come from many different parts of us that want different things. For instance, "we" decided "I want to meditate now on my breath for 30 minutes" but a few seconds later, a thought and feeling comes in which tries to get us to start thinking about the project we were working on a few minutes ago or what we have to get done today. These different thoughts and their feelings seem to come from different sub-minds or modules that seemingly are organised around different intentions, whether it is checking to see if what we are doing is productive, looking for a way to feel stimulated or satisfied or avoiding situations that are not good for us. These inner conflicts can seem very mild and light and at other times are very heavy and more like inner battles.

The layered aspect of modules also feels right experientially. The more higher level modules seem to use more abstract thinking, memories about the past and imagination about the future. Other, lower level modules seem more connected to sensory experience, something we start to notice as we go deeper into our meditation. For example, we can notice the lower level module that our visual field is constantly being checked, noticed and recognised for different shapes, lines, colours and patterns - when we sit in choiceless awareness with our eyes open.

Culadasa calls these modules "sub-minds" that have conflicting intentions. A lot of the scattered or fragmented nature, our "monkey mind", comes from this mind that is constantly pushed and pulled into different directions, never settling into something more peaceful or calm. He proposes the main purpose of meditation is the unification of the energy of all these sub-minds, calming them down and developing Samatha "calm abiding".

An IFS perspective on the modular mind theory

Internal Family Systems has another view on the modular mind. Family therapist, Richard Schwartz noticed while working with clients that they seemed to have many different "parts" of themselves. Whole personalities that seemingly want very different things. He might have a really great therapy session which seemed to get great results and collaboration with a client and the next day the client would seemingly shift and act self-destructively - seemingly a different part had "taken over the steering wheel" and even judged the previous day's therapy as bad for the whole system.

We all know this experience of being of two or more minds and being convinced of one particular view, opinion and action one day, only to change our minds, sometimes drastically, the next. Whether it is making a decision to buy something, deciding what work to do, what to eat for dinner or whether to meditate this morning.

The different parts formed at different times in our life, whether we were small children seeking love and safety from our parent or an older teenager rebelling against authority. Some of these parts are very young and vulnerable and others are older, more protective parts. They have different views, goals and strategies.

This IFS framework seems very congruent with the modular mind theory, especially the higher level modules that have whole personalities, ways of viewing ourselves and the world and create thoughts and somatic feeling-sensations. IFS cites experiences from this life-time (with their causes sometimes many generations back) as the conditions that form our parts rather than evolutionary psychologist's view of our ancient human and non-human ancestors. Both seem plausible, and seem to interact with each other - general module functions are evolutionary while the specific shape they take seems to come from experiences in this lifetime.

The Body in the modular mind theory Interestingly, when we start to notice these parts more often in our meditation practice or through IFS therapy, we notice that these different parts each have their own flavour of thought, feelings and perceptions of the world. A part that is young and scared might feel like a contraction in the chest, like becoming very small and it might come with a lot of anxious thoughts - projections, memories or interpretations that confirm its worldview and action tendency.

Another part that is protective of the young part might arise with feelings of anger in the body - heat, tension and a forward and confrontative energy. It often also comes with thoughts of what angered the part and imagines different actions it can take to establish justice.

The modules are not only mental but also physical processes. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say 'Body-Mind Modules', since each of these parts seems to carry both a mental and a physical signature that match its intention and view.

Why does this matter for meditation practice?

Vipassana Meditation works by cultivating the skill of present moment awareness of our body, feelings, mind and eventually our whole experience. Its purpose is to first help us calm down our mind enough so we can start to observe its workings, help us to observe - make conscious - the experiences that usually happen inside us without us noticing them. The purpose of this is to help us allow these experiences to move more freely, with less taking them as permanent, stable things (noticing impermanence and flow), help us disidentify and recognise the self-arising, conditioned and not-I nature of them (noticing non-self), and support us to find more ease, flow and natural restfulness and trust in their arising (noticing and releasing tightening, contraction or dissatisfaction). They appear lighter and less and less solid and more and more open, spacious and awake.

What might be the impact of this practice viewed from modules or parts?

I propose that there are two different effects of the practice when we apply it both on the cushion and in our lives. The first is seeing through them (insight) and the second is integration. Robert Wright's account of the modular mind stays mostly with the first: he shows how mindfulness lets us see these competing modules for what they are, rather than being unconsciously run by them. What I want to add here is the second effect, integration, which I think is just as central to what actually happens as practice matures.

Insight happens more and more as we clearly observe the experiential content of these modules arising and fading in conscious experience. The thoughts, feelings and sensations that they conjure up are left alone to flow freely and with less panic tension or anxiety around them. There is more openness and trust towards them which helps them move more freely. I think this has the effect that the sub-minds or parts feel less threatened, less like they have to push to get their opinion through and more trusting of the whole system, more able to let go of tight control to get what they want. The more we see them as they are, it seems they trust that they will be seen and heard. Experiencing them with the intention of releasing tightening, fighting or interference may help to reduce the internal conflicts that these different modules have.

This leads to the second effect. which is an integration of these sub-minds. They seem less and less like a bunch of disconnected, fighting individuals, all arguing or pushing to get through their own way and more like a team of individuals, with different skills, different views and different tendencies that can work together to find the best integrated action. Subjectively, I think this also feels like deep equanimity without the detachment or coldness but with a warm openness as the natural modules for compassion and good-will are included. On the cushion and in our lives, more and more of us is online, listening and opening so that the right action can emerge spontaneously, seemingly as a natural consequence of wisdom or wakefulness. I also think that the degree of presence or consciousness we have depends on these sub-minds being more in a listening openness rather than an obsessed action orientation.

It's a bit like a room full of people arguing and fighting: they can't notice what's happening outside, can't notice the birds at the window, and it's hard to find the right person for the job when one's needed. When the room goes quiet and present, the right person, or team, is ready the moment they're needed, with everyone else supporting.

Maturing practice means integrating and facing all of us

With this view, it becomes clear that meditation practice is not just about what happens on the cushion and not just about getting to special states or having no thoughts.

We want to meditate so that we can be aware of and allow the contents of all the Body-Minds within us to arise, be seen clearly and fade away. Sometimes there will be more busyness in there, sometimes less.

And when we get up from the cushion and meet our lives we want to be more and more fully present, with all of us there. Noticing the parts that arise in different situations that might be relational, work-related, complex or simple.

It is clear that practice is both insight and integration of insight into all our lives and all that life brings us.