The following is a commentary, which refers to the idea of different I’s in us. As you know, in this system of teaching, we are not regarded as a unity. The lack of unity in us is the source of all our difficulties and troubles. Our body is a unity and works as an organized whole unless it is sick. But our inner life is not a unity and has not organization and does not work harmoniously as a whole. In regard to our inner state, we are a multiplicity, and from one angle in this teaching, this inner multiplicity is spoken of in terms of ‘I’s or egos in us.
We have no one permanent ‘I’ but a host of different ‘I’s in us that at each moment take charge of us and speak out of us as if in our voice: and from this point of view we are compared with a house in disorder in which there is no master but a crowd of servants who speak in the name of the absent master. As you have probably all heard, it is the greatest mistake that can be made either to suppose that oneself or others have one permanent unchanging ‘I’ —or ego—in them. We are never the same for long. We are continually changing.
Maurice Nicoll, “On Additional Means of Self-Observation” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 19-20).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Observe the changing ‘I’s that speak as yourself.
What to Notice:
A different ‘I’ taking charge suddenly.
Contradictory aims in the same day.
Speaking from one state, then reversing it later.
Imagining yourself always the same person.
Work Effort for Today:
Catch one change of ‘I’ consciously.
Do not fully identify with the speaking ‘I’.
Remember there is no permanent master present.
Observe the state without calling it “myself.”
Remember: A different ‘I’ speaks each moment while you imagine one self.
