If the reader, that is I — the I in the body reading these words — am still reading, then it’s safe to assume that ‘I’ already have some knowledge of what I am. I may have noticed some, a few, or many, of the following points:

I am not always truthful

I am not always honest

I am not always pleasant to others

I am not always content

I am not always pleasant to be with

I am sometimes angry

I am sometimes moody

I am sometimes aggressive

I sometimes regret being aggressive

I am sometimes confused

I sometimes have conversations with myself

I sometimes tell myself off

I sometimes criticize myself

I sometimes boast

I sometimes want something

I sometimes am greedy for something

I sometimes reject others

I sometimes regret actions I have made.

I am not telling you anything that you — that I — don’t know — am I?

One? Which one?

If I, that I that is in the body reading these words, look closely at the list above I might notice something. I might notice that I am not in fact always one being but am often more than one.

• For example, if I criticise myself then who is criticising? And who is receiving the criticism?
  

• If I tell myself off, then who is doing the telling? And who is receiving it?
  

• If I have a conversation with myself, who is talking? And who is listening?
  

• If I regret an action, then who regrets it? The same one that did it? Or not?
  

• If I am not truthful, then who is aware of the untruth? And who tells it?
  

• If I am in a mood then who is aware of this? And who has the mood? And who suffers it?
  

Is the self that criticises the self the same as the self that incurred the criticism? And the same as whatever sees all this?

Is the I always the same I? What is the substance of the ‘I’?

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