The Consciousness of the Mind

The self is the subject of conscious mental states like believing and perceiving. Gautama avoids this by insisting that mind as such is not conscious. So it is dependent on the agent that uses it, the self, and cannot act independently. Yet another argument for the same conclusion invokes the doctrine of karma. Nothing I do can make you better or worse off in karmic fruits. But if we suppose that the self and the mind were too independent subjects of consciousness, exactly this would happen. The mind's actions could have moral consequences for the self.