Summary

There is a saying linking the three schools of meditation— Zen, Tibetan, and Vipassana— to three types of people— poets, artists, and psychologists— respectively. The last, Vipassana meditation, is a type of mindfulness meditation that can be used to study one’s mind. It does not, however, use experimentation or provide anyone with empirical data.

Focusing on the mind wandering and where it goes is one way to theorize about the human mind in meditation. Wright notices that generally, the thoughts that arise during meditation follow four common themes. Firstly, they will involve the past or the future, rather than the present. Secondly, the thoughts will be self-referential. Thirdly, the thoughts will also reference other people. Fourthly, the thoughts fit neatly into evolutionary modules.

Based on these points, evolutionary psychologists argue that the mind is not choosing to wander to these...