I think being aware of the way that the concept of self is created is helpful in understanding this doctrine. A good example of this being explained in the suttas is in SN 5.10BuddhaSoup wrote:The self we create to navigate the samsaric world is empty and impermanent.
In the case of a chariot, there isn't really a particular thing that is the chariot. Conventionally, we could swap out any part of the chariot for another part and it would tend to be called the "same" chariot, even though it isn't really the same. The chariot could also be used as a storage shed if someone wished. The label "chariot" means that there is a conglomeration of parts which we intend to use for transportation. The intention to move between locations quickly combined with this set of parts combined in a particular way creates a situation where the label "chariot" has utility.SN 5.10: Vajira Sutta wrote: This is purely a pile of fabrications.
Here no living being
can be pinned down.
Just as when, with an assemblage of parts,
there's the word,
chariot,
even so when aggregates are present,
there's the convention of
living being.
In a similar way there is consciousness of perceptions, intentions, feelings, and form, but there is no "self" to be found as an existing thing. It's simply a conventional name applied to aspects of experience as a tool for functioning in the world. Not only is there no particular thing that is the self, but the individual parts that we label as "self" are each individually arising and ceasing from moment to moment. Further, the function and utility of that tool is dependent upon the intentions with which we want to use that tool. There is no point for the label "self" without an intention to do something based on that label. These intentions then tend to be based on the three unwholesome roots in that they are usually things like greed for luxuries for this self, aversion to pain for this self, or the delusion that this self exists in a way that makes it worthy of forming intentions around.