Psychological Aphorisms

He who in ordinary consciousness sums up the characteristic color of the soul experiences with the word “I” does not yet understand what is expressed by this word. He only comes to this when he gradually learns to place the I-experience in the series of other inner experiences in inner vision. He can observe how the experience of hunger in its first stage relates to the experience of satiety. The sense of self is heightened by the experience of hunger and dulled by the experience of satiety in these first stages. The need for rest after satiation is connected with this. It is only at the further stages, when hunger intervenes destructively in the organization, that it becomes different. In the further pursuit of this observation, the realization arises that the word 'I' does not denote a fulfillment of the soul's life, but rather a longing, a desire-like quality that awaits fulfillment. Thoughts that one cherishes only strengthen the sense of self when they are ideals, when desire lives in them. The “I” is experienced by ordinary consciousness in the sphere of desires. Therefore, at this stage, it is a desire for fulfillment, a source of selfishness.