Four major segments of the mind and how they function

The Four Major Segments of the Mind

There are four major segments of the mind. If you understand them, and if you understand how they function, then you will begin to notice them in your direct experience. You will not only think about them as ideas or concepts, but you will start experiencing them as living processes within yourself. That understanding can be very helpful, because it shows how the mind works from moment to moment, how reactions are created, and how suffering continues.

These four major segments are not something abstract. They are active all the time. Every moment, through every contact with the world, these four are operating. When you see, hear, smell, taste, touch, or think, the process begins. Something happens outside, and immediately something happens inside. If you become observant, patient, and honest with yourself, you can start seeing this chain.

The four segments are:

• Viññāṇa (Pāli) or Vijñāna (Sanskrit)
• Sañña
• Vedanā
• Saṅkhāra (Pāli) or Saṃskāra (Sanskrit)

Each has its own function. Each appears in sequence. Together they shape your experience of life.

1. Viññāṇa (Pāli) or Vijñāna (Sanskrit)

Viññāṇa is translated as “consciousness,” “life force,” “mind,” or “discernment.”

Its job is to cognize.

This first segment simply knows that something has happened. It does not yet identify, judge, approve, condemn, like, dislike, or react. It only registers contact. It is the bare knowing that an event has occurred at one of the six sense doors.

We have six senses: the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the body, and the mind. Each has its corresponding consciousness. So there are six separate viññāṇas:

• eye consciousness
• ear consciousness
• nose consciousness
• tongue consciousness
• body consciousness
• mind consciousness

For example, when sound comes in contact with the ear, ear consciousness arises. When a shape, a form, a color, or a light comes in contact with the eye, eye consciousness arises. When taste comes in contact with the tongue, tongue consciousness arises. When smell comes in contact with the nose, nose consciousness arises. When something tangible comes in contact with the body, body consciousness arises. Similarly, when a thought or an emotion comes in contact with the mind, mind consciousness arises.

These are the six types of consciousness, and their job is only to cognize: something has happened.

This point is very important. Viññāṇa does not say what has happened in any detailed way. It does not yet say whether what has happened is good or bad, pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable. It only announces contact. It is as if the first segment of the mind is saying, “Something has touched this sense door.” That is all.

So if a sound is heard, this first part of the mind knows only that there is hearing. If a color is seen, it knows only that there is seeing. If a thought arises, it knows only that something has appeared in the field of the mind.

This first stage is simple, but it is the beginning of the whole process. Without this first cognizing, the next steps would not unfold. Immediately after this, another part of the mind raises its head.

2. Sañña

Sañña is translated as “perception.”

Its job is to recognize.

Once viññāṇa has registered that something has happened, sañña tries to identify what it is. It compares the present experience with all the experiences of the past. It uses conditioning, memory, habit, and accumulated impressions to recognize the object.

For example, when a sound comes in contact with the ear, the first part, viññāṇa, only says, “Something has happened at the ear sense.” That is all. Then the second part of the mind, sañña, begins working. It asks: what is this? What kind of sound is it? Is it music? Is it noise? Is it a voice? Is it a word? Is it a familiar word?

If these are words, then it asks: what words? Are these words of abuse, or words of praise?

It recognizes using all the experience of the past, all the conditioning of the past, and all the memory of the past. It does not work in isolation. It is not fresh and empty. It is loaded with old material. It depends on what you have lived, what you have learned, what you have feared, what you have desired, and what has become your habit.

Not only does it recognize, it also gives an evaluation.

This is another very important point. Sañña does not merely label. It values. It colors the experience. It says, “This is good,” or “This is bad.” It says, “This is pleasant,” or “This is unpleasant.” It says, “This is favorable,” or “This is threatening.”

If it hears words of abuse, then it recognizes: “Oh, very bad.” If it hears words of praise, then it recognizes: “Ah, wonderful.”

So perception is not neutral in ordinary life. It is mixed with past conditioning. It takes the incoming experience and interprets it through the lens of habit. Because of that, two different people may hear the same words and experience them differently. The recognition and evaluation depend on past conditioning and memory.

As soon as this second segment, sañña, has done its job, the third segment of the mind starts working.

3. Vedanā

Vedanā is translated either as “feeling” or “sensation.”

This part of the mind experiences the sensations of the body.

As soon as the evaluation is given by sañña, sensation starts flowing in the body. If the evaluation is that these are words of praise, then you will notice a flow of very subtle and pleasant vibrations throughout the body. There will be a flow of pleasant vibrations because the evaluation is that these are very good words.

If the evaluation is that the words are words of abuse, then you will find that there is a flow of very unpleasant vibrations throughout the body.

So the third part of the mind experiences sensations on the body: pleasant or unpleasant.

This means that nothing remains only at the level of thought. Whatever happens outside creates something inside. Whatever is known and evaluated is then felt in the body. An external event becomes an internal bodily experience. The bridge between outer event and inner reaction is sensation.

This is why vedanā is so central. Very often, people think they are reacting directly to outside events, to people, to words, to situations, or to memories. But in this process it becomes clear that what they are actually reacting to is the pleasant or unpleasant sensation generated inside the body.

Something happens outside. Viññāṇa knows it. Sañña recognizes and evaluates it. Then vedanā appears as bodily sensation.

A pleasant evaluation leads to pleasant sensation. An unpleasant evaluation leads to unpleasant sensation.

This happens very quickly, so quickly that ordinarily one does not notice the sequence. One only notices the final emotional impact or outward reaction. But if one becomes very observant, one can begin to see that the body is involved immediately. Waves, vibrations, heaviness, tightness, agitation, softness, ease, discomfort, expansion, contraction—something is being felt.

Immediately after this, the fourth part of the mind raises its head.

4. Saṅkhāra (Pāli) or Saṃskāra (Sanskrit)

Its job is to react.

This fourth segment is very important. It is actually the motivation of the mind, the reaction of the mind, and in fact it is a heap of action. Here the process becomes karmically active. Here there is doing. Here there is the creation of consequence.

The first part of the mind, cognizing, is not the action. It will not give any fruit. The second part of the mind, recognizing, is not the action. It will not give any fruit. The third part of the mind, feeling, is not the action. It will not give any fruit.

The fourth part of the mind, saṅkhāra, the reaction, this is an action. This gives fruit.

This is the point where craving and aversion begin repeating themselves.

If, for example, there are words of praise and therefore pleasant sensations, this part of the mind keeps repeating the reaction: I want it. I want more. Craving, clinging, craving, clinging, continuously craving and clinging.

If these are words of abuse, or other unpleasant sensations, this part of the mind reacts: I do not like it. I want to get rid of it. Aversion, aversion, aversion, continuously, continuously, continuously.

So saṅkhāra is the evolving reaction of the mind which results in mental action, and this gives fruit.

The kind of fruit it will give depends on many things: how deep your saṅkhāra is, how strong the seed is, and what its quality is.

This is not a small matter. It means that every repeated reaction is conditioning the mind further. Every time craving is repeated, craving is strengthened. Every time aversion is repeated, aversion is strengthened. Every time anger, hatred, fear, anxiety, worry, passion, or depression is repeated, the groove becomes deeper.

There are three types of saṅkhāras:

• The first is like a line drawn on water. As you draw it, it disappears.
• The second is like a line drawn on beach sand. In the morning you draw a line, by evening water will eliminate it.
• The third is like a line drawn on rock. A deep line. It takes years to get it eradicated.

This third kind is very dangerous, and this is the kind many people keep repeating.

If you keep repeating anger, hatred, passion, fear, worry, anxiety, depression, and all these defilements, if you keep repeating, repeating, repeating, then it goes deeper, deeper, deeper, and it gives deeper results. And it will give much more misery to you.

That is the danger of unconscious living. Not just that you react once, but that you repeat the reaction again and again until it becomes deeply embedded. Then it does not remain a passing disturbance. It becomes your habit pattern. It becomes your inner structure. It becomes the way the mind automatically moves.

Whole day you have been generating saṅkhāra after saṅkhāra.

Every time something is happening deep inside, some sensation, you react. Every moment you are doing that.

Before going to sleep, if you try to remember how many saṅkhāras you generated during the day, you cannot remember. Countless saṅkhāras. You will remember just one or two which had a very deep impression on you.

By the end of the month, if you try to remember these deep saṅkhāras and how many saṅkhāras you generated, again you will remember only one or two which were very deep for the whole month.

At the end of the year also, you will remember only one or two which were very deep for the whole year.

This shows how much of life passes in unconscious reaction. So much is happening inside, but only the deepest impressions are remembered. The rest still leave their effect, even if they are forgotten by the surface mind.

Similarly, at the end of life, whether you like it or not, some saṅkhāra which is very deep will come to the surface.

At the time of death, that mind-moment is carrying that type of saṅkhāra. The next mind is a child of this mind. The first mind of the next life is a child of the last mind of this life. Like father, like son, it will carry all the qualities, good or bad, with it.

If this last mind is full of pebbles and stones, then the next mind, the first mind of the next life, is full of pebbles and stones. Misery, nothing but misery.

On the other hand, if this last mind of this life is full of light, then the next mind is automatically full of light. It is a part of the last mind.

So the last mind is very important. That means one has to learn how to die. To die smilingly.

And this is what Vipassana teaches: to die consciously and smilingly.

The art of dying.

And the art of dying will be perfect only when you learn the art of living.

If you keep on crying for your whole life, then at the time of death you wonder why you cannot smile. Of course, this is impossible. So you have to learn how to smile through the whole of life. The art of living will turn into the art of dying.

This is not merely a poetic statement. It is the practical conclusion of the entire process. The last moment is not separate from the rest of life. It is shaped by habit. It is shaped by the tendencies cultivated moment after moment. If throughout life the mind has been trained in reaction, agitation, craving, and aversion, then one cannot expect peace suddenly at the final moment. But if throughout life the mind has been trained in awareness, balance, and non-reaction, then that quality also will be there.

How the Process Unfolds

Everything that happens outside creates sensation inside.

This is one of the most important truths to understand from direct experience.

The first part knows something is happening. The second part starts giving evaluation. And this evaluation turns into sensation, pleasant or unpleasant.

Then the reaction begins.

Usually, this whole chain runs automatically. Because it runs automatically, one believes that “I am reacting to the outside world.” But in fact the mind is reacting to the sensations generated inside the body after recognition and evaluation. This is why training becomes possible at the level of sensation.

If you train your mind not to get affected by these sensations, pleasant or unpleasant, not to react to these sensations, pleasant or unpleasant, then you are changing the habit pattern of your mind at the deepest level.

This is not suppression. It is not indifference in a dull sense. It is not becoming cold or lifeless. It is learning to observe without immediately creating craving for the pleasant or aversion for the unpleasant. It is learning to remain balanced while sensation arises and passes.

Even if you react, the saṅkhāra will not be that deep, because you will not be repeating it again and again.

You will come to your senses.

This is an important practical point. The change may not be total at once. Reactions may still arise. Old habits may still show themselves. But if awareness grows, the reaction will not continue blindly for so long. You will notice it sooner. You will stop feeding it sooner. Therefore it will not go so deep. The line will not always be cut into rock. It may remain only in sand, or even disappear like a line on water.

Why This Understanding Matters

So the work is to understand the process and to observe it within oneself.

First, something is cognized. Then it is recognized and evaluated. Then it becomes pleasant or unpleasant sensation. Then the mind reacts.

From this repeated reaction, saṅkhāras accumulate. From accumulated saṅkhāras comes future fruit. From these fruits comes more experience, more reaction, more conditioning, and more misery.

But where there is understanding, there can also be freedom.

If you begin noticing this process, especially the link between sensation and reaction, then a new possibility opens. Instead of automatically saying, “I want more” when the sensation is pleasant, or “I want to get rid of it” when the sensation is unpleasant, you begin to observe. That observation weakens the old pattern. The mind begins to learn another way.

That is why understanding these four segments of the mind is so helpful. It is not only theory. It is a map of what is happening in every moment of life. It explains why praise lifts you, why blame disturbs you, why memory agitates you, why fear tightens the body, why desire pulls the mind, and why repeated reaction creates misery.

It also explains why real change must happen deep inside, not only at the surface level of ideas, beliefs, or words. If the old reactions continue at the level of sensation, then the old saṅkhāras continue forming. But if awareness comes exactly there, at the point where pleasant and unpleasant sensations arise, then the habit pattern can slowly change.

This is the beginning of wisdom in practice: to see clearly, to understand directly, and not to keep feeding every sensation with craving or aversion.

Then life changes. Then the depth of saṅkhāra changes. Then the quality of mind changes. Then the way one lives changes. And because the art of dying depends on the art of living, that changes too.

So the teaching is very practical:

• Understand the four segments of the mind.
• See how they function.
• Notice how outside events become inner sensations.
• Notice how sensations lead to reaction.
• Notice how reaction becomes saṅkhāra.
• Notice how repeated saṅkhāra creates deeper suffering.
• Train the mind not to react blindly.

Pleasant sensation comes: observe. Unpleasant sensation comes: observe. Do not keep repeating craving. Do not keep repeating aversion. Come back to awareness. Come back to balance.

Then gradually, deeply, naturally, you will come to your senses.