Fundamental dialogue

Usually, experience of the world is in terms of "things". "I" is seen only in relation to "it". The object of experience, "it", exists in that it is differentiated from other objects. The experience is confined to the experiencer; what is experienced has no part in the activity of experiencing. However, when "I" is seen in relation to "thou", the "thou" is included in the experience. Facing another human being as "thou", aware of the "I - Thou" relationship, the other is no longer a thing, nor consists of things, but is the whole within himself. The individual can only truly, then, be himself in relationship to others, when the whole of his being is engaged. There must be a "meeting" which is an act of grace. This concept is elaborated by Martin Buber.

It arises when an encounter with another person, or possibly a feature of nature, involves a suspension of intellection, directed affection, and identity, although not in opposition to them. Rather than being specially significant communications, they come from no one in particular. They are little disclosures beyond the boundaries of interest and concept. As such they are by no means extraordinary, unless the ordinary is defined to exclude them. In Martin Buber's words: "no purpose intervenes between I and you, no greed and no anticipation; and longing itself is changed as it plunges from the dream into appearance. Every means is an obstacles. Only where all means have disintegrated do encounters occur". There is a sense of inexhaustibleness, a sense of complete rightness, and yet it cannot be deliberately engendered. It fulfils something in a person's being that will be neither subject nor object, a dimension that is untranslatable into passion, piety, or personal fulfilment. They are approachable by stepping back and by intending not to intend.