No Real I: See This, and Begin

The new way of thinking is a definite discipline leading to a goal which is contact with Higher Centers which think quite differently from our lower centers. For example, to realize that one is asleep and has no Real I gives rise to entirely new associations about oneself and about life. Try to think for yourselves of new associations that the Work teaches us and see for yourselves what Psycho-transformism means in the Work-sense.

Consider for a moment what the Work says—that you have no Real I and you are nothing but a mass of mechanical reactions to life. I say, think about this, and think about it deeply, and you will begin to see what the Work is about, but of course if your ordinary associative paths of thought are never challenged by yourselves you cannot progress. Do not think that this new teaching can be based on your old associative thinking. This Work is about an entirely new way of thinking, both about others, about yourself, and about life. Once you begin to see that, the Work will become a source of strength and meaning within you.

Maurice Nicoll, “A New Way of Thinking" in Psychological Commentaries on the Teaching of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Vol. 4, p. 1415)