Many Minds in Mine

“Buddhist thought and modern psychology converge on this point: in human life as it is ordinarily lived, there is no one self, no conscious CEO, that runs the show; rather there seem to be a series of selves that takes turns running the show — and, in a sense, seizing control of the show. In the way they seize controls is through feelings, it stands to reason that one way to change the show is to change the role that feelings play in everyday life. I’m not aware of a better way to do that than mindfulness meditation.”

“…to see that your mind is wandering is to see part of what the Buddha meant when he challenged conventional conceptions of the self; if a CEO-self existed, then presumably the mind would obey its commands and focus on the breath when told to. Now we’re in a position to go further and see that observing your mind in this unruly stage — trying to watch it as the default mode network rages on — can do more than suggest that the conscious ‘you’ isn’t running the show; it can shed light on what is running the show, revealing a picture of the mind strikingly consistent with the modular model.”

— Robert Wright, Why Buddhism Is True