How did George Berkeley distinguish minds from sensible ideas?

George Berkeley distinguished between two entirely distinct and heterogeneous categories of existence: active minds (or spirits) and passive sensible ideas.1

He defined these categories based on their fundamental functions:

• Active Mind or Spirit: Berkeley described the mind as a "one simple, undivided, active being". Its essence is defined by its capacity to perceive, think, and will. In this framework, "to be" for a subject means to perceive. The activity of the spirit involves understanding (perceiving ideas) and willing (producing ideas).21
• Passive Sensible Ideas: These are the objects of the mind, also referred to as sense-data. Unlike the active spirit, these ideas are passive; they are what we perceive through our senses. For any nonthinking being, Berkeley famously asserted esse est percipi—"to be is to be perceived".12

Berkeley emphasized that sensible qualities, such as color, extension, and motion, are not attributes or modes of the mind itself; rather, they are the direct objects that the mind perceives. Because these ideas cannot exist outside of a mind, physical objects like tables and chairs are understood simply as collections of these sensible ideas.12