Over the years, you build an awareness of self: who you are, what you like and dislike, how you feel about things. This is the mind of da'at—a place of consciousness, of knowing and feeling "I exist." It is the most visceral of minds, closely linked to the emotions.
Consciousness is not evil. The problem is the way a human enters into his consciousness and identifies with it. What is actually only an awareness of self becomes your actual self. This is the act of self-imprisonment, as you become trapped in a tight cell of self-definition.
The path of inner Torah leads you to reach beyond this conscious state to an essential self that is one with the Infinite. This is the act of liberation from a personal Egypt, which Torah makes possible on a daily basis.
Based on letters and talks of the Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson 
