Starving the ‘I’s That Hate the Work

Every one of you has many 'I's which are useless and worse than useless. Everyone has 'I's that hate this Work because they know they will have to starve and even die, so they fight for their own lives and try to persuade you that they are you. If you say 'I' to them, what can you expect?

On the other hand, if you can see them as 'I's in you that you do not care for and deliberately decide by experience not to consent to or believe in what they say, then you begin to enter the way of this Work, even if they overpower you often for the time being.

Maurice Nicoll, “Self-Observation" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 2, p. 440)