Embodying Buber.

A series of explorations into awareness, sensitivity, being in the world, and the world being in us. The philosophical backdrop for which is Martin Buber's I and Thou.

- 15 Feb 2021
- 4 min read
1. I and Thou
15 Feb 2021 - 1061 words
Summary Austrian-born philospher Martin Buber wrote that there are two modes of engaging with others. The predominant mode places I over the objectified other (It). This is the mode that modern...
- 16 Feb 2021
- 3 min read
2. The Body of I and Thou
16 Feb 2021 - 777 words
Summary The structural habits of our body filter our experience of the world around us and reduce the incoming data that contributes to our thought and behavioural patterns. If we want to try...
- 17 Feb 2021
- 4 min read
3. An interlude: walking into walls
17 Feb 2021 - 996 words
Stand in front of a wall, at least two metres away from it. Close your eyes. Walk forwards until you touch the wall. Repeat Sometimes the best exercises are those that seem to have absolutely no...
- 18 Feb 2021
- 5 min read
4. Lift me up
18 Feb 2021 - 1352 words
Summary Breathe a long, slow inhale up the length of your back, feeling it encourage your head higher Once you can feel your verticality being moved by your breath, begin to attend to it while...
- 19 Feb 2021
- 5 min read
5. Don't bring me down
19 Feb 2021 - 1430 words
Summary Breathe a long, slow inhale up the length of your back, feeling it encourage your head higher. Allow a long, slow exhale to stroke down your front, releasing your ribcage, and encouraging a...
- 20 Feb 2021
- 2 min read
6. Aloha!
20 Feb 2021 - 515 words
This fascinating exercise comes my study at Frankie Briers' Wise Fool School. Each week of the course, he invited us to take on a practice and see what emerged from it. This particular week's exercise...
- 21 Feb 2021
- 2 min read
7. Aloha revisited
21 Feb 2021 - 438 words
Enter the room, aloha. Leave the room, aloha. I usually have a quiet hour each day before anyone else gets up, if you ignore the fogginess of getting out of bed that walks with me as I fumble my way...
- 22 Feb 2021
- 6 min read
8. Welcome the world
22 Feb 2021 - 1651 words
Summary Breathe a long, slow inhale up the length of your back, feeling it encourage your head higher. Allow a long, slow exhale to stroke down your front, releasing your ribcage, and encouraging a...
- 23 Feb 2021
- 4 min read
9. Gather yourself
23 Feb 2021 - 1042 words
Summary Breathe a long, slow inhale up the length of your back, feeling it encourage your head higher. Allow a long, slow exhale to stroke down your front, releasing your ribcage, and encouraging a...
- 24 Feb 2021
- 3 min read
10. Standing in the polarity of Yes and No
24 Feb 2021 - 704 words
This is another Wise Fool School production by Frankie Briers. He invited us to stand in the polarity of Yes and No. This has a very particular practice as a standing meditation. He explains: The...
- 25 Feb 2021
- 1 min read
11. Thank you
25 Feb 2021 - 284 words
Dear body I have so much to be grateful for that this letter is unlikely to capture all the years. This morning you walked me along the beach, sang to me the hissing of the waves, hummed to me the...
- 26 Feb 2021
- 6 min read
12. Encountering real magic
26 Feb 2021 - 1573 words
I'm trying to find a way back to Buber, not because I've left him behind, but because I haven't made the connection explicit for a while. My intention is to cultivate the conditions that make an...
- 27 Feb 2021
- 4 min read
13. It's all in the anticipation
27 Feb 2021 - 1120 words
Breathe a long, slow inhale up the length of your back, feeling it encourage your head higher. Allow a long, slow exhale to stroke down your front, releasing your ribcage, and encouraging a soft...
- 28 Feb 2021
- 1 min read
14. Taking my own medicine
28 Feb 2021 - 261 words
There's a wee power struggle going on at the moment. Our youngest daughter, who is a brilliant story-teller, has been given the task of writing a short story. She doesn't do short. We've been trying...
- 01 Mar 2021
- 1 min read
15. The first conversation
01 Mar 2021 - 253 words
We had recently moved out of London in order to bring up very young children. I still had a two-hour commute to work each day. I was constantly at the behest of the clock and permanently exhausted. My...
- 02 Mar 2021
- 1 min read
16. Fancy a cuppa?
02 Mar 2021 - 254 words
Before you read this, make yourself a cup of tea (or coffee). Seriously. Now, pick it up and then put it down again. Listen carefully. Pick it up. D'you hear it? A slight sound as you lift it? Put it...
- 03 Mar 2021
- 3 min read
17. Look at your hands
03 Mar 2021 - 797 words
Look at your hands awhile. Turn them over and study them, their curves and lines, maybe stretch the fingers open a few times as if receiving a gift and then release them. Look now at one hand, thumb...
- 04 Mar 2021
- 4 min read
18. The quality of your desire
04 Mar 2021 - 1036 words
Summary We do or we don't want things (actual things, or relationships, or ideas). We desire them, or we avoid them or we fear them. Any which way, we are in a relationship with the thing as we see...
- 05 Mar 2021
- 1 min read
19. The ideas room
05 Mar 2021 - 281 words
I'm tired. My list of writing ideas has been emptied out. So I sit at my desk, awaiting inspiration. It's an interesting process – it feels as if possibilities are getting edited out just before they...
- 06 Mar 2021
- 2 min read
20. Different voices of head, heart & hara
06 Mar 2021 - 388 words
Summary The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Even so, it helps to locate and listen to the different voices within. Our different parts are intelligent in different ways and, by listening...
- 07 Mar 2021
- 3 min read
21. In the beginning was the Word ...
07 Mar 2021 - 894 words
Summary Learn to speak from the whole of you by talking to each part in turn. Take one word Play along. Take a single word – yes or no . Go stand in front of a wall, say it out loud. In order to feel...
- 08 Mar 2021
- 4 min read
22. Writing the three centres ...
08 Mar 2021 - 948 words
Summary Another way into hearing your whole self speak is to write from each part in turn. I wanted to write about writing from your whole self today, but something's come up. My eldest daughter has...
- 09 Mar 2021
- 2 min read
23. Practising to show up
09 Mar 2021 - 469 words
The first step in speaking your truth is just showing up. And that - when dealing with swirling thoughts in your head - can be a whole challenge of its own. I’ve lost count of the number of times that...
- 10 Mar 2021
- 2 min read
24. Spinning the ropes
10 Mar 2021 - 479 words
I've a new hobby, though it's strange to call it that. It's just something I do most days. I spin a rope. It's about the thickness of my thumb, with a couple of knots I've tied at the ends as handles,...
- 11 Mar 2021
- 3 min read
25. Writing as transmission
11 Mar 2021 - 643 words
If you stop to think about it, writing is a torturous path for passing on knowledge. I have an experience. I reduce it down to a few distinct thoughts about that experience. I write it down,...
- 12 Mar 2021
- 4 min read
26. Grokking the world
12 Mar 2021 - 999 words
There's a universe between what you can see and you can't see; there's a multitude of noises between what you can hear and can't hear. What's just out of sight? What's just beyond your...
- 13 Mar 2021
- 2 min read
27. The nature of meaning
13 Mar 2021 - 325 words
That turns out to be a better title than I had intended - meaning is something we humans create to connect things not obviously connected, therefore it is a human construct. But I'm interested in...
- 14 Mar 2021
- 4 min read
28. Silencing
14 Mar 2021 - 942 words
Last week, a meteorite smashed down on a driveway in rural England. The homeowner thought that someone had thrown a lump of coal on their tarmac. Thankfully, the news that day was full of scientists...
- 15 Mar 2021
- 3 min read
29. A new start
15 Mar 2021 - 767 words
When I was 15, I was part of our school's Combined Cadet Force (CCF). It was that kind of boys' school – play rugby and other team sports, study Latin and Ancient History, and prepare yourself to join...
- 17 Mar 2021
- 2 min read
30. I don't exist
17 Mar 2021 - 307 words
I am formed and brought to life by relationship with others (incuding non-animate and non-human others). Philosopher Martin Buber wrote that there are two ways of being in the world. The most common...