Why Are the Five Aggregates Not the Self?

Because the five aggregates and eighteen elements arise and cease, being illusory false appearances, they lack inherent autonomy and thus are not the self. For example, wood, earth, and water mixed together according to certain principles form a house. This house is an illusory, arising-and-ceasing false appearance without autonomy; it will collapse when conditions for its disintegration arise and cannot be regarded as an independently existing, substantial entity to be grasped as a house. Similarly, the so-called self composed of the five aggregates is also formed by the combination of the seven primary elements. It is likewise an arising-and-ceasing, unreal phenomenon without autonomy or self-mastery. It cannot be regarded as the self, nor as something belonging to the self. Therefore, the five aggregates are neither the self nor what belongs to the self. Since there is no self or what belongs to the self, there is no need to cling to or grasp at them. Do not regard phenomena assembled from various components as a self that can be relied upon or depended on. Then, after ceasing to rely on or depend upon phenomena formed by combination, what would happen? If one no longer clings to the five aggregates and eighteen elements, what remains? If there is still such a thought in the mind, wondering what remains, then one has not yet completely severed [attachment]; there is still clinging, still seeking, and thus there remains birth and death, and suffering. 

If one fails to properly understand the "self" within the context of severing the view of self, one cannot genuinely sever the view of self. If one arrives at a conclusion stating that the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, are different from the eighth consciousness, yet also not different from the eighth consciousness, then one has not achieved the aim of severing the view of self. Moreover, one has not engaged in the proper and reasoned contemplation of the five aggregates and eighteen elements. The notion of a self composed of the five aggregates and eighteen elements still exists in the mind; one has not abolished the self of the five aggregates and eighteen elements. One has merely intellectually acknowledged that the five aggregates and eighteen elements are not the eighth consciousness.