Will and Grace

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 bubers 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 bubers 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.

preface: on will and grace; introduction: will and grace: meditations on the philosophy of martin buber in search of lost betweens; god is the between of i and thou: notes and thoughts on the principles of dialogical ecology; on dialogical philosophy and zen buddhism; on zens paradoxical spirituality; what is god? between texts and mogra trees; on the creation of the world; on the uses of the word god; meditations on the relationship between poetry and prayer; on the biblical sabbath as radical i-thou dialogue; a dialogue with the tao te-ching and some talmudic thoughts; on the sense of place and placelessness; on the meaning of namaskar: a dialogical understanding; notes and thoughts on libertarian socialism, capitalism and the transformation of labor; three dialogical thoughts on love, art and the boddhisatvah; on relationship and salvation; on the season of the birth of the son of man; on temples and gardens: a meditation on sacred places; form is content, content is form: between rituals and sacraments: on buddha, spinoza and the existence of god; on the logical paradox of religious circularity: a dialogical commentary; a thought on religions and sexuality; on the meaning of here and now; some dialogical digressions into the nature of being; notes on teresa and juan; notes on spinoza and weil; dialogue as the alternative between mysticism and dualism: the tasks of the i and thou; on desire, attachments and freedom; on the false continuum i-me-mine: a dialogical alternative; of bibles and prophets; my monologue of two with mr. buddha, moses of the desert and friends, in two parts: a poem; a meditation on prayer and on gods petitional seekers; a dialogue with a poem by st. thomas aquinas; on holocaust remembrance day: a meditation and a theology; on interbeing, language and boundaries; on dialogue and silence; a dialogical meditation on the subject of death with an introduction and three parts; on service and awakening; on three types of spiritualitiesand on the ways of spiritual errors; on suffering and sacrifices; spinoza and the intellectual dialogue with god-nature; religion as whole-being social transformation: moses, jesus and buddha; moses of the desert: teacher-poet; a prologue to a conversation on dialogue, mysticism and sainthood; dialogical meditations of time and space; a koan on dialogue: a dialogue about koans between futilities and encounters; a brief critique of institutional religion: the cases of jesus, buddha and the sufis; on the gods of laughter: a funny conclusion; a brief dialogical commentary on psychotherapy and awakening; on regrets and dialogues; on rebbe nahmans narrow bridges; what pessoa the poet told me today about dialogue and presence; dialogical thoughts on a hasidic teaching; a dialogical thought about prophecy; on the 50th anniversary of martin bubers death; a brief meditation for rosh hashana; on prophetic monotheism; notes on dialogue and religious anarchism; on gods, humans, buber and the books of good; peace as teacher: on free will and the case for radical pacifism; on the messianic project: redemption, dialogue and the buddha of compassion; borges on buber; hammarskjöld on buber: and a poem; in search of lost betweens: on pilgrimage; buddha nature and the dialogical community; campbell and god as metaphor: buber and god as encounter; on abraham the father; on isaac the son; on bubers tree, mertons snow, and watts potatoes; a conversation on the poetic life: dialogue, mysticism and the ways of the world; on space and dialogue; on faith and reason; an ending poem on the birth of a baby and a note on my parents and old yiddish poets; conclusion: on the future of dialogue.