The Five Aggregates Are Without Self: Without What?

"I" means the one who is sovereign, the one in control, permanent and unchanging, and real. The five aggregates (pañcaskandha) do not have such characteristics and properties; therefore the five aggregates are not the self, and the five aggregates cannot be the self. They cannot be controlled, have no sovereignty, are not self-governing, are not permanent and unchanging, and are not real. The five aggregates signify destructibility, signify decay and damage, and signify the emptiness of 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 nothing to do with it. It is enough for śrāvakas to know that there is an eighth consciousness that neither arises nor ceases and is that upon which the five aggregates depend; they can completely eliminate self-view (ātma-dṛṣṭi) on that basis. When those non-Buddhists (tīrthikas) encountered the Buddha and listened to the Buddha's teaching for just a few minutes, they 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 the relationship between the five aggregates and the eighth consciousness. It was impossible for them to contemplate and deduce that the five aggregates are without the eighth consciousness and that 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 ahead of Him.

In the Sutra on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, the Buddha taught his disciples to contemplate and realize the fruits. From beginning to end, the entire sutra never mentions the eighth consciousness, which the five aggregates depend upon. Throughout the entire process of contemplative practice, the disciples did not touch upon the eighth consciousness at all; they never contemplated the eighth consciousness, nor did they contemplate the five aggregates in connection with the eighth consciousness. In the end, many disciples realized that the five aggregates are suffering, empty, impermanent, and without self, and attained the pure Dharma eye from the first fruit to the fourth fruit. Therefore, the conclusion they reached was "no self," without any implication that the five aggregates are without the eighth consciousness.