Consider a dark room full of smoke. A few sources of thin light rays are now turned on. The light rays hit the smoke particles and are reflected*. One can see the path of light due to this phenomenon. Had there been no particles at all (vacuum), the path of light would not be visible. This reflection will still be there if in place of thin light rays, the whole room is flooded with light. The light is analogues to consciousness, the smoke particles are analogues to sentient beings. The bounced light is analogues to reflected consciousness.

Taking the discussion a step further, if in place of smoke particles suppose there is just air (nitrogen+oxygen etc.), the path of light is not visible even when light is present. This is analogues to the situation where there is consciousness and there are dead/insentient objects like stones for example. The insentient objects are not able to bounce consciousness in a way sentient objects do and hence appear to be inert. In reality every object is inert as everything is made up of atoms, it is just that sentient objects appear animated as they bounce consciousness in a certain way and the insentient objects appear inanimate as they do not bounce consciousness in similar manner. It is due to the embodied soul that consciousness is bounced in a special way in case of a sentient being. Embodied soul implies mind in ordinary language.

*Reflected word is used for the sake of simplicity. More technically correct word is scattered. This phenomenon of scattering is called Tyndall Effect.