Will and Grace: Meditations on the dialogical philosophy of martin buber (Transgressions)

This book is a poetic reading of the dialogical philosophy of martin buber. my reading of martin buber takes me to this principal insight: god is not in heaven nor on earth. god is not above nor below. not within and not without. not in the soul or in the flesh. god is not an entity anywhere: god is the between of an i and a thou. these pages are not an academic study in the strict sense. my meditations in this book are not a literal description of buber’s philosophy, for buber would never have approved of taking his words in any way other than in dialogue. buber wrote in-dialogue with the reader, and i read buber in the poetic philosophy of his words. in other words: we can say that the essential thinking in martin buber’s philosophy is that the presence of god in us is always enacted as the presence of god between us. god, like love, like poetry, is a deed we do. the god-deed is actualized not in rituals or temples, but in the practices of the sacraments of the neighbor. for there is nothing we can predicate of god, but we can still meet god in the embrace of the neighbor. we meet god as we meet with one another in genuine relationship. god is not in the relationship, god is the relationship. god is no-thing, but there is nothing that isn't god in the between of an i and a thou. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Introduction (Hune Margulies)....Pages 1-4 God is the Between of I and Thou (Hune Margulies)....Pages 5-20 On Dialogical Philosophy and Zen Buddhism (Hune Margulies)....Pages 21-27 On Zen’s Paradoxical Spirituality (Hune Margulies)....Pages 29-34 What is God? Between Texts and Mogra Trees (Hune Margulies)....Pages 35-52 On the Creation of the World (Hune Margulies)....Pages 53-58 On the Uses of the Word “God” (Hune Margulies)....Pages 59-62 Meditations on the Relationship Between Poetry and Prayer (Hune Margulies)....Pages 63-72 On the Biblical Sabbath as Radical I-Thou Dialogue (Hune Margulies)....Pages 73-80 A Dialogue with the Tao Te-Ching and Some Talmudic Thoughts (Hune Margulies)....Pages 81-86 On the Sense of Place and Placelessness (Hune Margulies)....Pages 87-88 On The Meaning of Namaskar (Hune Margulies)....Pages 89-90 Notes and Thoughts on Libertarian Socialism, Capitalism and the Transformation of Labor (Hune Margulies)....Pages 91-110 Three Dialogical Thoughts on Love, Art and the Boddhisatvah (Hune Margulies)....Pages 111-114 On Relationship and Salvation (Hune Margulies)....Pages 115-120 On the Season of the Birth of the Son of Man (Hune Margulies)....Pages 121-126 On Temples and Gardens (Hune Margulies)....Pages 127-131 Form is Content, Content is Form: Between Rituals and Sacraments (Hune Margulies)....Pages 133-138 On the Logical Paradox of Religious Circularity (Hune Margulies)....Pages 139-140 A Thought on Religions and Sexuality (Hune Margulies)....Pages 141-142 On the Meaning of Here and Now (Hune Margulies)....Pages 143-145 Some Dialogical Digressions into the Nature of Being (Hune Margulies)....Pages 147-152 Notes on Teresa and Juan (Hune Margulies)....Pages 153-155 Notes on Spinoza and Weil (Hune Margulies)....Pages 157-158 Dialogue as the Alternative Between Mysticism and Dualism (Hune Margulies)....Pages 159-163 On Desire, Attachments and Freedom (Hune Margulies)....Pages 165-167 On the False Continuum I-Me-Mine (Hune Margulies)....Pages 169-170 Of Bibles and Prophets (Hune Margulies)....Pages 171-172 My Monologue of Two with Mr. Buddha, Moses of the Desert and Friends, in Two Parts (Hune Margulies)....Pages 173-179 A Meditation on Prayer and on God’S Petitional Seekers (Hune Margulies)....Pages 181-183 A Dialogue with a Poem by St. Thomas Aquinas (Hune Margulies)....Pages 185-186 On Holocaust Remembrance Day (Hune Margulies)....Pages 187-189 On Interbeing, Language and Boundaries (Hune Margulies)....Pages 191-193 On Dialogue and Silence (Hune Margulies)....Pages 195-198 A Dialogical Meditation on the Subject of Death with an Introduction and Three Parts (Hune Margulies)....Pages 199-213 On Service and Awakening (Hune Margulies)....Pages 215-218 On Three Types of Spiritualities and on the Ways of Spiritual Errors (Hune Margulies)....Pages 219-222 On Suffering and Sacrifices (Hune Margulies)....Pages 223-225 Spinoza and the Intellectual Dialogue with God-Nature (Hune Margulies)....Pages 227-231 Religion as Whole-Being Social Transformation (Hune Margulies)....Pages 233-238 Moses of the Desert (Hune Margulies)....Pages 239-241 A Prologue to a Conversation on Dialogue, Mysticism and Sainthood (Hune Margulies)....Pages 243-246 Dialogical Meditations of Time and Space (Hune Margulies)....Pages 247-250 A Koan on Dialogue (Hune Margulies)....Pages 251-253 A Brief Critique of Institutional Religion (Hune Margulies)....Pages 255-258 On the Gods of Laughter (Hune Margulies)....Pages 259-260 A Brief Dialogical Commentary on Psychotherapy and Awakening (Hune Margulies)....Pages 261-264 On Regrets and Dialogues (Hune Margulies)....Pages 265-267 On Rebbe Nahman’s Narrow Bridges (Hune Margulies)....Pages 269-271 What Pessoa the Poet Told me Today about Dialogue and Presence (Hune Margulies)....Pages 273-274 Dialogical Thoughts on a Hasidic Teaching (Hune Margulies)....Pages 275-277 A Dialogical Thought About Prophecy (Hune Margulies)....Pages 279-281 On the 50th Anniversary of Martin Buber’s Death (Hune Margulies)....Pages 283-284 A Brief Meditation for Rosh Hashana (Hune Margulies)....Pages 285-286 On Prophetic Monotheism (Hune Margulies)....Pages 287-289 Notes on Dialogue and Religious Anarchism (Hune Margulies)....Pages 291-299 On Gods, Humans, Buber and the Books of Good (Hune Margulies)....Pages 301-304 Peace as Teacher (Hune Margulies)....Pages 305-310 On the Messianic Project (Hune Margulies)....Pages 311-315 Borges on Buber; Hammarskjöld on Buber (Hune Margulies)....Pages 317-318 In Search of Lost Betweens (Hune Margulies)....Pages 319-324 Buddha Nature and the Dialogical Community (Hune Margulies)....Pages 325-326 Campbell and God as Metaphor (Hune Margulies)....Pages 327-328 On Abraham the Father; on Isaac the Son (Hune Margulies)....Pages 329-332 On Buber’s Tree, Merton’s Snow, And Watt’s Potatoes (Hune Margulies)....Pages 333-336 A Conversation on the Poetic Life (Hune Margulies)....Pages 337-342 On Space and Dialogue (Hune Margulies)....Pages 343-344 On Faith and Reason (Hune Margulies)....Pages 345-346 An Ending Poem on the Birth of a Baby and A Note on My Parents and Old Yiddish Poets (Hune Margulies)....Pages 347-348 Conclusion (Hune Margulies)....Pages 349-350