There between us

Martin Buber says on page 120 of I and Thou that the way is a spiral, that each turn brings us more binding to fate and more opening to Thou. Every turn is closer to perversion and to the Kingdom “there between us.” The Thou is not an intermittent flashing, but the rising of a soft and gentle moonlight that covers and lightens all.

I like that “there between us.” That perhaps is the foundational expression of the Tao of Conversation. For it is in the between that we live, and that between is Spirit. Spirit is probably much more than this in between but we cannot see it nor touch it in this lifetime, for we are addressed. In this addressing we are. It is so bright and so loudly silent that we can see nothing else. It is the water in which we swim, the air in which we breathe, the ground on which we walk out our lives, the aeon in which we are born and die. This there between us is how we are addressed. That is the space of conversation, the time of it, indeed beyond time and space, for we are simply there as I AM THERE is there, between us, facing us, addressing us as Thou to Thou. Life means you; life means us. It is clear if you have understanding.

It is not a matter of finding the words, for words can get in the way, but of finding the person and the between. Sometimes we cannot get on the path between, sometimes the person or we ourselves puts up or put up shields, masks, walls. Do we crash through or turn away? There is a choice on each side, and sometimes love says Crash.

This then is love: to engage: to seek the path and the person.

:- Doug.

Published in: Conversations | on September 17th, 2005 | No Comments »

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