What does the "I" refer to in "the five aggregates are me" and "the five aggregates are not self"?

The contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) for eliminating self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) is extremely important, and it is of utmost importance to clearly understand the "I" that takes the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) as self. If one cannot even clearly understand the "I" of the self-view that exists within the five aggregates, how can one eliminate self-view? Those who have self-view are the mind consciousness and the manas; the eighth consciousness absolutely has no self-view. Therefore, eliminating self-view means eliminating the self-view of the mind consciousness and the manas, so that the mind consciousness and manas confirm that the five aggregates are neither self nor belonging to self. The "I" in "not my self" of course also refers to the mind consciousness and the manas, not to the eighth consciousness. The "I" of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses is subject to destruction and ruin; it arises, ceases, changes, and mutates. Therefore, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are not self; they are selfless. The eighth consciousness is not subject to destruction, is not subject to ruin, and is permanently abiding and imperishable; it is expediently spoken of as "self," but it has no nature of self, none of that self-nature of the seventh consciousness that acts as the master. Therefore, the eighth consciousness is also selfless. Thus, contemplating the selflessness of the five aggregates means contemplating the destructive, ruinous, arising-ceasing, and mutating nature of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses; once this is confirmed, the self-view and the view of what belongs to self of the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are eliminated. If one takes the "I" of "selflessness" to be the eighth consciousness, that is a sleight of hand—substituting one concept for another—and the result is that self-view cannot be eliminated. Since beginningless kalpas, the manas has constantly taken the five aggregates to be a real self and clung to them; the mind consciousness, incited and influenced by the manas, likewise takes the five aggregates to be a real self and what belongs to self. Why does this "I" refer to the mind consciousness and the manas, and not to the eighth consciousness? Because since beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have not known of the eighth consciousness as this principle-substance, and it is impossible for them to treat the five aggregates as the eighth consciousness; there is no such self-view that "the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness." Therefore, eliminating self-view does not mean contemplating that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness. If sentient beings could take the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness, the five aggregates would thereby be emptied, they would not cling to the five aggregates, there would be no self-view and no self-grasping, and there would be no transmigration through the six realms of rebirth—this is what all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would delight to see.

If it were so, the Buddhas would not need to come to the Sahā world to teach the Dharma and rescue those lost at the crossroads. Therefore, the result of contemplating the selflessness of the five aggregates is not the realization that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, or that the sixth and seventh consciousnesses are not the eighth consciousness; rather, it is the realization that the five aggregates in their entirety are subject to decay, that all are subject to arising, ceasing, change, and mutation, and that there is no so-called thing called "self" existing. In this way, one will no longer cling to the five aggregates, and self-grasping will gradually melt away.