Heart Sutra and Emptiness

The Heart Sutra, in part, states the following:
            All things are empty:
                  Nothing is born, nothing dies,
                  nothing is pure, nothing is stained,
                  nothing increases, nothing decreases.
            So, in emptiness, there is no body,
                  no feeling, no thought,
                  no will, no consciousness.
How are we to understand this? It seems to be eliminating the possibility of the “I” or ego to which we cling so fiercely. No consciousness? If this be so, how do I interpret what seems to be the ultimate negation of all that is felt to be me?
      First we need to realize that the “I” or ego is not a real thing in and of itself. It is an abstract term we use colloquially to represent me juxtaposed to you and points to what we generally assume to be a unique entity among all others in this world. However, it is empty of a single, essential core, or substance by which it may be defined. Instead, the nature of “I” - as well as consciousness - is the activity, movement, or change that arises out of the conditions of it's arising. This activity, recorded and processed by the mind, appears to us as the substance of the material world. At it's core, consciousness is an activity or process, not a unique quantifiable entity. Subjectively this movement is “I,” and objectively it is our material world.
      The sense of “I” requires this activity, an alternating between contingent polar opposites, in order to exist. This activity is manifested by our grasping after, or the pushing away of things, ideas, and feelings. The mind is constantly judging, and in our psychological/emotional life, vascillating between desire and aversion. We love, we hate, we desire, we repel. These are our two basic orientations to the world. The greater our desire and aversion, the more we feel vibrant and alive - and the more real and concrete the “I” seems. Ego and desire/aversion; one cannot exist without the other…..and together they are me.
      The degree to which we feel sure of ourselves - powerful, efficacious, and safe in the world - is in direct proportion to the intensity of our desires and aversions. There is a familiar process afoot. If we look closely we will see how quickly we judge all things new to us, as either friend or foe. From there we align ourselves with those of like judgment, and in turn, we feel a security in numbers. This feeling of security allows us to strengthen the sense of a concrete self; the “I” who feels these things.
      The strength of a desire or aversion is mirrored in the strength of my belief that this “I,” separate from others, is a unique entity. After some exploration it became clear to me why the mind becomes confused when it tries to understand an idea like dependent-arising, or to imagine how we are all interconnected as one. It is because in the process, the ego begins to die. And it must rebel; most likely with confusion, fear, and aversion.
      Now we could just stop here and determine that any further attempt at understanding Emptiness is foolish. Or perhaps we could convince ourselves that recognizing the illusion of “I,” is just too difficult, or frightening - and that we should just be satisfied with what seems so obvious.
      However, if we are able to stop seeing the world in terms of what we like and what we dislike, the ego will begin to die. And if the ego were to die altogether we would be free of fear, free of want, free of the grasping which the Buddha offered as the root of all our suffering. Wow! That seems like a tough choice.
      For me however, it seems I am left with a revelation that urges me onward. The suffering I refer to as mine, is truly universal and not mine alone. And that it is inextricably bound to the process of the mind……and like “I” - it’s empty.