What Does the "I" in "No Self of the Five Aggregates" Refer To?

"The five aggregates are self" and "the five aggregates are not self"—what does this "self" refer to? Ordinary beings consider the five aggregates to be self, while sages consider the five aggregates not to be self. What exactly does this "self" refer to?

Some say this self refers to the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. Is this claim correct? If it were correct, then ordinary beings, because they have a self, would consider the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. Do ordinary beings have such cognition, such an idea or concept? Certainly not. If they had such an idea, then every one of them would no longer be an ordinary being; they would directly leap over the three stages of the ten faiths, ten abodes, and ten dedications and become noble-stage bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis. For only bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis are capable of observing that all aspects of the five aggregates and the eighteen realms are entirely the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, that in essence they are all the tathāgatagarbha. Having realized one portion, or many portions, of the nature of the one true dharma realm, and realizing that the dharma realm in its entirety is the one true dharma realm—that would be a Buddha.

Therefore, it is impossible for ordinary beings to have the wise cognition that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. In fact, ordinary sentient beings do not have such an idea or cognition at all. Even among ordinary beings who study Buddhism, the majority do not know of the existence of the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha; and among those who do know, many do not acknowledge the reality and non-illusoriness of the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. Naturally, they have not realized it either, and so they would not take the five aggregates to be the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. Especially the beings of the three evil destinies—even less can they connect the five aggregates with the eighth consciousness. Yet the beings of the three evil destinies all have the self-view, all treating their own aggregate-body of the five aggregates as self and what belongs to self, and protecting it accordingly. Most especially animals—utterly deluded, with no concepts whatsoever in their minds—they simply know that the aggregate-body of the five aggregates is self; they do not even have the concept of "self." Yet this does not hinder animals from protecting their own selves, because the manas, without language, words, or deliberation, knows the self that is the aggregate-body of the five aggregates, while knowing nothing else at all.

Given this, ordinary sentient beings have no need whatsoever to study the Four Noble Truths and engage in contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the five aggregates in order to negate the absolute truth that the five aggregates are the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, and thereby arrive at the erroneous conclusion that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha. This conclusion directly negates the profound great wisdom of consciousness-only (yogācāra) of the bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis; it contradicts the correct principle of consciousness-only, and it also contradicts the correct principle of the one true dharma realm taught in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Therefore, to attain realization of the fruits and draw the conclusion that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, means that one has not attained the fruits at all, nor has one performed authentic contemplative practice; there has been no genuine process of cultivation. One who has genuinely practiced could never arrive at such a conclusion. This is a wrong path in the contemplative practice of eliminating the self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi); it cannot yield the true fruit of eliminating the self-view, cannot attain purity of the dharma eye, and cannot attain liberation.