The Work teaches that we have Real I in us, which is far from most of us, and yet the Work says we all have a trace of it. How many of you have had the ever-recurring experience of losing what you call your temper with someone that you care for and then feeling that you ought to seek forgiveness ? This kind of forgiveness is not much good. What you have to do is to see that certain ‘I’s emerged and you gave way to them on the stage of your limited consciousness. You put the feeling of I into these ‘I’s which are always bitter and negative, waiting in the wings to emerge on the stage.
The idea that we are not one but many ‘I’s can begin to transform your relationships to one another. Instead of becoming pointed, so to speak, you become broad. Instead of being bound up in an artificial packet you will distribute your feeling of yourself over a wider area and therefore you will become gentler—first to yourself and then to other people. Be gentle to yourself consciously first of all. So this transforming idea which is only one among many that could be mentioned as psycho-transforming is very important. It dissolves away some of your wrong self-valuation. It softens you, it relaxes you.
Maurice Nicoll, “Psycho-Transformism” in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1377).
Working Note: For Today’s Inner Effort
Orientation: Observe the feeling of I as it shifts between different ‘I’s.
What to Notice:
A negative reaction beginning toward someone close to you.
Inner justification after speaking or acting mechanically.
The wish to defend, correct, or make a point.
A sense of being one fixed person in the moment.
Work Effort for Today:
Pause when a negative ‘I’ appears.
Do not put the feeling of I into it.
Separate from it for a moment.
Recall that another ‘I’ can appear.
Remember: This is not all of me; do not identify.
