28 July 2006

Turning towards

Bending back to oneself represents a pragmatic orientation that objectifies the other and lends itself to the creation of a self contained individual.
Turning towards the other constitutes an ensembled individual in continuous relationship with others with boundaries between self and other not tightly drawn.

Martin Buber


I posted this last November but in the light of recent teaching thought I'd bring it here.


More Buber quotes:
taking care of the world by sustaining the web of connexion

I have given up the “religious” which is nothing but the exception, extraction, exaltation, ecstasy; or it has given me up. I possess nothing but the everyday out of which I am never taken

in order to be able to go out to the other you must have the starting place, you must have been, you must be, with yourself

meaning is to be found neither in one . . . nor in both together, but only in the dialogue itself, this “between” which they live together

the genuinely thinking man must live through the feminine, the genuinely thinking woman the masculine; each must find the counterpole to his/her own order to allow the unity of spiritual life to develop from both

1 comment

Anonymous said...

Those quotes chime with John's teaching this Wednesday, particularly his:
"Subject and object - isn't that just so clumsy?"

caro