These are the kind of questions that make us puzzle profoundly about our existence. And one of the reasons why I think thinking about not being—about total non-existence—is so creative, is that (in comparison with that thought) the fact that we are seems kind of queer; incredibly odd.
There will always be “I”s in the world. Every “I” is, in a way, the same “I.” We all might be anyone else. And there is no escape. It goes on and on and on and on. So long as there is consciousness anywhere, there is “I.” You, then, in a way, look out through all “I”s. And that, perhaps, is the secret of the great virtue of compassion.