What is Rinpoche’s idea of ‘self’?

Dear Jack,

Since much of the conversation/dialogue in this forum centres on the word ‘self,’ please tell me what Rinpoche means by ‘self.’ To me, wherever I pick the thread of his thinking, he’s seems to be talking about a mental process or a group of mental process – in other words, a subset of the person or individual. I’m not sure we have agreement on what this ‘self’ is. Is it that process that some refer to when they say ‘ego’?

For me,  the word ‘self’ doesn’t have such negative or limited connotations, as it has in Rinpoche’s TSK writings. I practice some kind of non-problematic, functional use of ‘self,’ which use really means: ‘person,’ or perhaps, ‘individual.’

Not to say that the word doesn’t get poisoned by my attachment to my ‘self,’ my person, my individuality, and to components of the person I am. I’m sure it does, regularly. But this, it seems to me,  is the outcome of my lack of mindfulness and my lack of openness to unknowing, which ignorance imagines an ultimately-existing  ‘physical-space-time object’ which is the referent for the word. On the conventional level, the word ‘self’ is as neutral to me as ‘table.’ It’s as valid a designation, in respect of its referent, as table is for a certain other kind of experience or set of experiences.

So, help me out, here – what does ‘self’ mean, to Rinpoche?