I-YOUniverse

In I and Thou, Martin Buber wrote that there are two basic modes of existence: I-It subject-object and I-You subject-subject.

I-It is ordinary experience, with many boundaries. We cannot speak I-It with our whole being; we become an isolated individual, an ego.

We speak I-You, however, only with our whole being. There are no boundaries. We experience nothing, have nothing. We stand in relation, in actuality; we become a person. God is the eternal You.

Life consists of alternation between I-It and I-You existence. All I-It is potential I-You; some is latent, where I-You has been but faded, as if it’s taking a deep breath or about to emerge a butterfly from a chrysalis.

I-It experience can “become so permeated by [I-You] relation that this gains a radiant and penetrating constancy in it. The moments of supreme encounter are no mere flashes of lightning in the dark but like a rising moon in a clear starry night… Men’s relations to their true You, being radii that lead from all I-points to the center, create a circle.” (p. 163)

You’ll find a wonderful photographic tribute at the link below. All references to Martin Buber, I and Thou, trans. Walter Kaufmann (NY: Touchstone Books, 1970).

Martin Buber photographic exhibit here.