Encountering and Emptiness

"The You encounters me by grace--it cannot be found by seeking. But that I speak the basic word to it is a deed of my whole being, is my essential deed.

The You encounters me. But I enter into a direct relationship to it. Thus the relationship is election and electing, passive and active at once: An action of the whole being must approach passivity, for it does away with all partial actions and thus with any sense of action, which always depends on limited exertions.

The basic word I-You can be spoken only with one's whole being. The concentration and fusion into a whole being can never be accomplished by me, can never be accomplished without me. I require a You to become; becoming I, I say You.

All actual life is encounter." ~Martin Buber, I and Thou

This is a passage from one of my favorite books, Buber's I and Thou.  I most recently thought about it while talking with a dear friend about the Buddhist concept of the transient (or impermanent) nature of things and how you enter into relation with anything or anyone after the pain and fear of loss.   Growing up Jewish with strong Buddhist leanings and alot of study, I perceive the transient nature of our experience as the  common I-It experience -- an experience of subject-object and those things are indeed transient.  It is important to accept the nature of the change of our world of objects, people, places, things.  


I think of the concept of Buddhist emptiness more as the I-Thou (or I-You in the more modern Kaufmann translation) relation. We are an empty vessel with the capacity to filled with encounters of people, places, things, nature that extend through all time and space and connect us with the essence and source of being alive.  It is that capacity for emptiness and non-attachment through which we may be clear vessels for the deepest type of experiences.  Some may consider this the purest evidence of God, love, or our interconnectedness.  


Through my own exploration of myself in the light of Buddhist philosophy, I found myself much better able to handle the change, loss, and love of this life.  If we look at the potential of our experience to instead be encounters with all that is, we can move forward without fear and find more opportunity for joy.


Our I-Thou encounters, our moments of most profound emptiness are unique encounters between our hearts and our experience.  They are moments we carry with us through all space and time, expanding our heart, enabling us to better work toward the relief of our own suffering, and that of others.  They are unique to our whole being, our lives and they are the foundation of  our individual worldview.


We may seek to repeat an encounter or to share our transcendent encounters with others.  We must recognize that experience is different for everyone and that impermanence insists that we "may not step in the same river twice."  [Heraclitus] We may seek to influence others by attempts to share what is innately personal, individual, and unique; however, we need mindfulness that our experience cannot be theirs.  We need not fear this because as we look at the world with wonder we remind ourselves that we are empty vessels that can be filled with the vastness of the universe at any time; through any experience.  As we bring loved ones to the places where we experience this wonder, we show them how to be in the world with a full heart, with compassion and courage.
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I have heard people describe that when stepping to the rim of the Grand Canyon, they feel very small in relation to its vastness. In contrast I look at that enormous carving through the red rocks and feel as big as the entire universe and as old as all time, recognizing my connection to that place and to all that ever was there; allowing it, for as long as it will, to fill all space and time in my consciousness.


[photograph was taken in Santa Fe, NM Rio Grande Gorge, October 2005]