There is a consciousness in you, and you have a mind and a body. This consciousness shines in the mind and through the mind into the body and all its organs. The teacher describes consciousness in five aspects that build on each other, and together they form one of the clearest explanations of what consciousness actually is.
First aspect
Consciousness is not a part of your body or your mind, and it is not something the brain produces. Modern science says that consciousness is a product of the body, but the teaching says it exists entirely apart from them.
The light and the hand
There is light in a room, and your hand is in that light. The light reflecting off your hand is not a part of the hand and was never produced by the hand because the light has its own independent existence.
Second aspect
Even though consciousness is apart from the body and mind, it pervades and illumines both of them and enables them to function. The mind is able to think because consciousness lights it up, and the body is able to act because consciousness shines through the mind into it.
The light and the hand
The light pervades the hand and illumines it so that you can see the hand only because the light is shining on it and reflecting through it.
Third aspect
Consciousness is not limited by the mind and body, and it is not something that is trapped inside this particular brain or confined to this particular body. It exists beyond them as well, unbounded and infinite.
The light and the hand
The light is not limited to the hand because if you look around the room, the light is everywhere and the hand does not contain it or confine it in any way.
Fourth aspect
Consciousness is known and experienced through the functioning of the mind and body, because it is only by the operations of the mind that we are able to recognise consciousness at all.
The light and the hand
You understand the light by seeing it reflected in your hand, because when you put your hand in the beam the reflection is what makes the light visible and knowable to you.
Fifth aspect
Without the mind and body, consciousness is still there and it does not cease to exist, but it cannot be known or experienced. The deepest point of the teaching is that pure consciousness is infinite and ever present, yet it requires a reflecting medium for anyone to recognise it.
The light and the hand
If you remove the hand from the light, the light is still there but nobody experiences it. The light was there before the hand and it remains after the hand is taken away, because the light never needed the hand, but for you to see it the hand was needed.