Why Are the Five Aggregates Without Self and What Belongs to Self?

The "ability" that can feel is the conscious mind. There are eight consciousnesses. If the conscious mind were the self, then when the conscious mind ceases, where would the self have gone? What constantly arises and ceases is an illusory false appearance, lacking any self-mastery of its own, and therefore is not the self. For example, a pile of wood, earth, and water mixed together according to a certain principle forms a house. This house is an illusory false appearance that arises and ceases, without autonomy—it falls apart the moment it is said to fall apart. It cannot be regarded as a self-governing, truly existent dharma and then be grasped as a "house." 

Likewise, the so-called self of the five aggregates is also composed of the combined seeds of the seven great elements; it is also a dharma that constantly arises and ceases, an unreal dharma, without autonomy, without self-mastery. It cannot be regarded as the self, nor as what belongs to the self. Therefore, the five aggregates are not the self or what belongs to the self; there is no self and nothing belonging to the self, so there is no need to crave and cling, to grasp. Do not take a dharma assembled from various parts and treat it as a self that can be relied upon and depended on. Then, after no longer relying on or depending on dharmas that are formed by combination, what happens? One no longer grasps at the five aggregates and the eighteen realms—what else is there then? If such a thought remains in the mind, thinking "what else is there," then the "self" has not been fully eradicated; there is still grasping, still seeking, and thus there is still birth-and-death, and still suffering. 

If one does not clearly understand the "self" in the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa), one cannot truly eradicate the view of self. If one arrives at a conclusion such as "the five aggregates are not the eighth consciousness, are not the eighth consciousness, yet are not different from the eighth consciousness," then that is merely imagination and inference—not even emotional thinking and intellectual understanding—so of course the view of self has not been eradicated, nor has there been any contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the five aggregates and eighteen realms in accordance with reality and principle. The mind still holds the existence of a self of the five aggregates and eighteen realms; the self of the five aggregates and eighteen realms has not been abolished—it is only that the mind consciousness believes the five aggregates and eighteen realms are not the eighth consciousness. "Emptiness"—this meaning is extremely important. When contemplative practice reaches its end, one will know that the five aggregates and eighteen realms are empty. What is emptiness? Traced to its root, emptiness means no-self; if there were something not empty, there would be a self. Who could take an empty dharma as the self? Only someone who has not contemplated through to the emptiness of the five aggregates could do so.