Consciousness (viññana) in the Buddhist sense of the word is a discriminative mode of awareness which takes form as an object. It discriminates into six bodily and mental sense-fields, scanning them with perception and feeling and reacting with mental activities. When these five khandha connect, the notion is ‘I am doing this,’ ‘I must do this,’ ‘I shouldn’t feel this,’ ‘I’d like more of that.’ This ‘I’ arises with reference to form, perception and feeling as the agent (or passive subject), rather than the result of those experiences. ‘I’ arises slightly backdated, as the agent of something that has just occurred – but because it’s so quick it doesn't seem like that. Form, feeling, perception, mental activation and discriminative awareness: these five khandha trick us with their sleight of hand.