Is the tathāgatagarbha the self?

The tathāgatagarbha is both self and not-self; this principle is profound and profoundly profound. The five aggregates (pañcaskandha) are without self, and all dharmas produced by the tathāgatagarbha are without self, because they are all subject to arising and ceasing, empty, impermanent, suffering, and cannot be grasped—they cannot be grasped hold of, and cannot be kept.

Yet the tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings is not suffering, empty, impermanent, or subject to change; within His mind there is also no self—He does not regard a self as existing, and does not possess the self-nature of being the master. However, the mind-substance still contains defiled karmic seeds that arise and cease and undergo change. It is not until the stage of Buddhahood, when the Buddha's tathāgatagarbha—the undefiled consciousness (amala-vijñāna)—has eliminated the defiled karmic seeds, and the seeds no longer arise, cease, or undergo change, that there is a true self-nature, and that it is the true self.