What Is the "No" in the No-Self of the Five Aggregates?

"I" means the one who dominates, the one in control, the meaning of permanence and changelessness, the meaning of reality. The five aggregates (pañca-skandha) do not have such characteristics and properties; therefore the five aggregates are not the self, the five aggregates cannot be controlled, have no dominion, are not self-governing, are not permanent and unchanging, and are not real. The five aggregates signify destructibility, signify susceptibility to damage, signify the emptiness (śūnyatā) of decay and perishing. Through contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā), when one realizes these principles, one realizes that the five aggregates are without a self and are not the self. 

Here the eighth consciousness, the tathāgatagarbha, has no role to play. It is enough for the śrāvakas to know that there is an eighth consciousness which neither arises nor ceases and is that upon which the five aggregates depend; they can completely eradicate the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi). Those non-Buddhist practitioners who encountered the Buddha and listened to the Buddha's teaching for just a few minutes realized the fourth fruit of the great arhat; they had no time to understand the eighth consciousness at all, did not know what the eighth consciousness meant, and even less had time to contemplate and practice observing the relationship between the five aggregates and the eighth consciousness. It was impossible for them to contemplate and practice their way to the conclusion that the five aggregates are without the eighth consciousness and the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness; they could not arrive at such a conclusion, yet they did indeed realize the fruit of arhatship, and before the Buddha they entered nirvāṇa even ahead of the Buddha.

In the Sūtra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Buddha taught his disciples to practice contemplation and realize the fruits. From beginning to end, the entire sūtra never once mentioned the eighth consciousness as that upon which the five aggregates depend. Throughout the entire process of contemplative practice, the disciples did not touch upon the eighth consciousness at all, did not contemplate the eighth consciousness, and did not link the five aggregates with the eighth consciousness in their contemplation. In the end, many disciples realized that the five aggregates are suffering, empty, impermanent, and without self, and attained the purity of the dharma eye from the first fruit to the fourth fruit. Therefore, they reached the conclusion of non-self, without any implication that the five aggregates are without the eighth consciousness.