It doesn't appear in the flux of appearances

Consciousness, the 5th of the five ‘bad boy Mara’ aggregates produces a magical spell on those so stupid as to imagine that sensory consciousness can recognize the true self or, for that matter, the absolute or Buddha-nature.  Trying to become conscious of one’s self is impossible.  Even Kant realized that a long time ago who said:

“Consciousness of oneself according to the determinations of our state in inner perception is merely empirical, and always changing. No fixed and abiding self can present itself in this flux of inner appearances. Such consciousness is usually named inner sense, or empirical apperception.” (CPR, A106-7). (Emphasis mine.)

Certainly, the Five Aggregates are synonymous with appearances for they are, as the Buddha teaches, impermanent and suffering.  How then is it possible in such a flux or flow of appearances to present the self which transcends all appearances?

Facing this problem, the most stupid reaction to being unable to recognize what is outside of appearances, namely, our true self, is to boldly declare there is no self.  Essentially, what has been boldly declared is, I can’t climb out of the box of appearances—upon them I am dependent.  They are my measure.

The self that I apperceive is not my real self, but a self of ever changing appearances.  I have gone from a toddler to an old man.  Not any of these physical forms was ever my self or Buddha-nature.  They have always been the false self or anâtman.  They are the Five Aggregates.  And what does the Buddha say about these aggregates or skandhas?

“There is no safety in the skandhas, but torment and great fear.  There is no freedom in them: they are worthless"(Mahavastu).

For the Buddha, the self doesn't have to be established.  It is most primordial even though we don't recognize it in our ignorance.  The problem as the Buddha sees it is our attachment to what is not the self in the belief that it is our self.  The most thorough abandonment of what is not the self or anâtman, reveals the self. 

"He beholds the self purified (visuddhamattânam) of all these evil unskilled states, he beholds the self liberated (vimuttamattânam)” (M. i. 283).