Does This Mean This?

[The White Belt]

When people say 'I Stopped Myself' Who is I and who is MYSELF?

 

Are they saying my higher consciousness stopped my ego?

Or my inner being stopped my ego? Etc.

 

What are good words for this paradox, the I and I (I was going to but I didn't)?

 

Thanks in advance guys. Sorry if it seems vague.

[Scholar]

The ego stopped itself. The desire not to do was greater than the desire to do. 

[The White Belt]

@Scholar So by that logic it's best to develop a healthy ego?

[key]

1 hour ago, BeginnerActualizer said:

@Scholar So by that logic it's best to develop a healthy ego?

More rather, an allowing ego. 

[Prabhaker]

17 hours ago, BeginnerActualizer said:

When people say 'I Stopped Myself' Who is I and who is MYSELF?

Your own will is so divided into itself. You don't have one will; you have many wills in you. You are a crowd!

Gurdjieff used to say you don't have one 'I', you have many small 'I's'. And those 'I's' go on changing. For a few minutes one I becomes the sovereign, and then it is thrown out of power; another I becomes the sovereign. And you can watch it! It is a simple fact. It has nothing to do with any theory.

You love a person, and you are so loving. One I dominates: the I that loves. Then something goes wrong and you hate the person - in a single moment love has turned into hatred. Now you want to destroy the person - at least, you start thinking how to destroy the person. Now the hatred has come in: another I which is totally different is on the throne.

That's why it happens that you can decide tonight: "Tomorrow morning I will get up at three o'clock; whatsoever happens I am going to get up." You fix the alarm and at three o'clock you stop the alarm and you are annoyed by the alarm. And you think, "One day - what does it matter? Tomorrow...." and you go to sleep.

And again when you get up at eight o'clock in the morning you are angry at yourself. You say, "How could it happen? I had DECIDED to get up. How did I continue to sleep?"

Gurdjieff used to say that unless you have a permanent crystallized I you should not trust yourself. You are not one, you are a crowd: you are polypsychic.

 

[kurt]

@BeginnerActualizer

The non experiencing witness or what you refer to as higher consciousness (it's not really higher, it is the only aspect that is sentient - the rest are just inert objects) is actionless and ever free from action. 

When you refer to you, and managing you, it's always the temporal self, or "ego"as some people say. 

There will never not be a time you don't have an ego that must perform actions. However, liberation is freedom from that dooer, it's actions and the results of its actions. 

Yes, develop a more neutral ego, neutralise it's suffering by neutralising it's likes and dislikes. Only a calm and "pure" mind can naturally self inquire because self inquiry is the nature of the mind. The human mind always is looking for the amswer to life's riddle and doesn't rest until it knows who it really is.  So the point is, is to develop a mind that is conducive to moment by moment inquiry.

All of this can be validated by your own experience

Edited October 2, 2016 by kurt

[Andrea Marchetti]

We are not one single indivisible unity. We are many me. Imagine many different impulses, what we call me is the current order of groups of impulses: the ones that are submitting, the ones that dictate, the ones that help the dictator, the ones that help the submissive... It may be a kingdom, a dictatorship, a democracy.. It all depends on the level and the character of the person. In schizophrenic people there is a remarkable anarchy within... We continually change order many times during the day, according to situations or the strength of the impulses. A group of impulses working together is a personality. And we have many.

When we say I stopped myself it's just the personality that has the power in that moment that blocks a rebellion from other impulses.

But only consciousness can say I. It usually does through the current order in that moment... And this is what we call ego.
Higher consciousness is simply consciousness that recognise the internal movements and detach itself from these movements, it is simply observing the continuos exchange between and metamorphosis of various personalities and impulses. It can still say I but there is not a delimited and fixed I anymore. Of course, a person who is detached from his impulses has a very flexible order in himself, so he can flow every moment.

Edited October 2, 2016 by Andrea Marchetti

[kurt]

@Andrea Marchetti Thats a really great way of explaining it. 

"I" am jealous