4.1.4.8 What is the real nature of mind in its active form, the individual sense of ‘I’? Mind in its gross form, the complex of thoughts and emotions comprising the individual sense of ‘I’, is a densely structured system of conditioned responses to stimuli. When awareness operates in that context, the ultimately non-existent ‘I’-consciousness is intimately and irrevocably bound up in the karmically reactive system which results in rebirth after rebirth.

The sense of ‘I’, or ‘I’-consciousness, all the attributes of mind and personality which comprise each unique individual, is a specific and limited structure of mental activity located at a particular point in space and time. Each individual consciousness is a unique viewpoint, a special window on conditioned existence. There are infinitely many ways to experience this.

Consider this image: you can only see clearly what is on the other side of a window if the window itself is clear. The heat of activity generated by the reaction between the individual sense of ‘I’ and the endless stimuli of this creates an obscuring condensation on each individual window on this. Consciousness working within the limitations of mind in its active and individual form, in other words the ordinary unenlightened person, cannot under any circumstances perceive this clearly, as it is.

As  you have learned from your advanced meditative practices, consciousness can move from a focus of awareness located in mind In Its active form, to a focus of experience located in mind in its still and natural shape. As the mind becomes indifferent to the endless stimuli of conditioned existence, the heat generated by mental activity gradually reduces. As the condensation on the window of perception gradually clears, the true  nature of reality becomes apparent.