In this talk, Zach explores the sacred I-thou relationship, based on 1923 work of Martin Buber, Ich Und Du, meaning I and Thou, or I and You. While our modern capitalistic, materialistic, and nationalistic culture thrives on I-it relationships, we must bring our whole being to the I-Thou relationship to enter into a world of mutuality. Similar to what the mystics report upon awakening, the I-Thou relationship is sacred and relates to others as manifestations of the divine.
Intro Poem A Divine Meeting, Indeed, part of the 108 Savasana Poems collection, click here to purchase.
Learn more at www.zachbeach.com
“Spiritual practice is not what you are doing, but what you are thinking”
– Swami Satchidananda
“The Church says: the body is a sin.
Science says: the body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The Body says: I am a fiesta.”
– Edwardo Galeano
“I consider a tree.
I can look on it as a picture: stiff column in a shock of light, or splash of green shot with the delicate blue and silver of the background.
I can perceive it as movement: flowing veins on clinging, pressing pith, suck of the roots, breathing of the leaves, ceaseless commerce with earth and air—and the obscure growth itself.
I can classify it in a species and study it as a type in its structure and mode of life.
I can subdue its actual presence and form so sternly that I recognize it only as an expression of law — of the laws in accordance with which a constant opposition of forces is continually adjusted, or of those in accordance with which the component substances mingle and separate.
I can dissipate it and perpetuate it in number, in pure numerical relation.
In all this the tree remains my object, occupies space and time, and has its nature and constitution.
It can, however, also come about, if I have both will and grace, that in considering the tree I become bound up in relation to it. The tree is now no longer It…
To this effect, it is not necessary for me to give up any of the ways in which I consider the tree. There is nothing from which I would have to turn my eyes away in order to see, and no knowledge that I would have to forget. Rather is everything, picture and movement, species and type, law and number, indivisibly united in this event.
Everything belonging to the tree is in this: its form and structure, its colors and chemical composition, its intercourse with the elements and with the stars, are all present in a single whole.
The tree is no impression, no play of my imagination, no value depending on my mood; but it is bodied over against me and has to do with me, as I with it — only in a different way.
Let no attempt be made to sap the strength from the meaning of the relation: relation is mutual.”
― Martin Buber, I and Thou
“We must recognize this universe not as a collection of objects but a communion of subjects.”
– Thomas Berry
“Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.
Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.”
– David Whyte
“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.
It was like waking from a dream of separateness… The whole illusion of a separate holy existence is a dream… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud…
And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. . . . Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed.”
– Thomas Merton
“I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands even at the height
of their arc of anger
because we have finally realized there is just one flesh to wound
and it is His – the Christ’s, our Beloved’s.
I have come into this world to see this:
all creatures hold hands as
we pass through this miraculous existence
we share on the way to even a greater being of soul,
a being of just ecstatic light, forever entwined and at play with Him.
I have come into this world to hear this:
every song the earth has sung since it was conceived in
the Divine’s womb and began spinning from
His wish,
every song by wing and fin and hoof,
every song by hill and field and tree and woman and child,
every song of stream and rock,
every song of tool and lyre and flute,
every song of gold and emerald and fire,
every song the heart should cry with magnificent dignity
to know itself as God:
for all other knowledge will leave us again in want and aching
–only imbibing the glorious Sun
will complete us.
I have come into this world to experience this:
men so true to love
they would rather die before speaking an unkind word,
men so true their lives are His covenant –the promise of hope.
I have come into this world to see this:
the sword drop from men’s hands
even at the height of their arc of rage
because we have finally realized
there is just one flesh
we can wound.”
– Hafez, From ‘Love Poems From God’ by Daniel Ladinsky
