2. The Body of I and Thou

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 something new, we have to create the possibility of becoming something new. Specifically, what is the shape of the body that is ready for Martin Buber's encounter?

A simplistic view of the body is to think of it in terms of open and closed. An concentrating body might be a closed body, tight in its efforts to repel distractions and external pressures. Perhaps the opposite – an open body – will provide the fertile ground that we need to encourage encounter.

We can't demand encounter, but we can learn to open the body to possibility.

Living in a body

There are ways to be in a body, to be out of a body, and for a body itself to be.

Martin Buber’s idea of encounter requires a specific set of conditions to be available in the body, and whilst we can't make encounter happen, perhaps we can develop those conditions in us so that encounter is at least possible, if not likely.

However, the very first task is to learn how you live in your body. Where do you move from in your body - do you walk forwards from your head, your chest, you core, your feet? When walking are you actually in your body, or just in front of it?

What is a body?

I realise that I may mean something different from the usual when I refer to a body, so let's explore that a bit. A body is both a physical entity and a sensory environment.

The nuts and bolts

The physical body is a tensegrity device - one that is shaped by the interplay of compression and tension. Our tissues – muscles, tendons, fascia – pull and create tension. The skeleton pushes back, resisting that compression, creating a network of continuous tension that keeps the body upright.

That body works at its most efficient and effective when all those pressures and tensions are in balance.

Beyond the mechanical

Thomas Hanna coined the term somatics to describe the aspects of the body that seem to reach beyond the physical, the body as perceived from within, and as perceiving without. Somatic work develops the conscious relationship with the body's nervous system, which encourages greater proprioceptive (kinaesthetic) awareness, often considered the sixth sense.

Our proprioceptive system, along with our vestibular system, stabilises our position throughout movement, and develops the precision necessary for complex and refined movements. The better our nervous processes perform, the more effectively and efficiently we can act. We can navigate gravity, unfamiliar terrain, and demanding people. These are the systems that allow us to maintain openness in the face of the incoming pressure from others.

Back to Buber

For simplicity's sake, I view the body as either open or closed, or opening or closing. A body that is open, is open to something beyond it (an Other). A body that is closed has put up hard boundaries around it, that the Other may not penetrate^[1].

A clear requirement for engaging as I-Thou is an open mind, a mind welcoming whatever comes^[2]. If we assume that mind, body, and nervous system are supporting each other, then Buber's encountering body is also open, so what are the supporting qualities and structures for such a physicality?

Even if we're taking a philosophical stance, we have to consider our physical position. We are first and foremost subject to gravity. If we want to be free to respond to the world, we have to be able to move. Gravity may be support us in this, or dominate. It's our choice.^[3].

And what navigates how gravity affects us? Our body. So, how is your relationship with gravity?