This Is Not I: The Knife of Self-Observation

In all self-observation, if it is to becomes full self-observation, you must observe IT. That is, you must see all your reactions to life and circumstances as IT in you and not as 'I'. If you say 'I', then nothing can happen. The saying of 'I', the feeling of 'I', makes it impossible to change. If to every negative state you say 'I', then you cannot escape it.

The instrument of self-observation is like a knife that cuts us away from what is not us. If you begin to see what it means to say: "This is not I", then you begin to use this instrument. When you can really say: "What is IT doing?" instead of "What am I doing?" you begin to understand the Work.

Maurice Nicoll, "Self-Observation" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 1, p. 216-17)