To look away from the world, or to stare at it, does not help a man to reach God; but he who sees the world in Him stands in His presence.
Interpretation
Understanding the divine involves seeing the world through a spiritual lens rather than simply ignoring it.
In this quote, Martin Buber emphasizes the importance of perceiving the divine presence in the world around us. He suggests that merely avoiding worldly distractions or obsessively focusing on them does not bring one closer to God; rather, it is through recognizing the spiritual significance embedded within the world that one can truly experience the divine presence.
In practice
During a philosophical discussion about spirituality and existence.
When I confront a human being as my Thou and speak the basic word I-Thou to him, then he is no thing among things nor does he consist of things. He is no longer He or She, a dot in the world grid of space and time, nor a condition to be experienced and described, a loose bundle of named qualities. Neighborless and seamless, he is Thou and fills the firmament. Not as if there were nothing but he; but everything else lives in his light.
Play is the exultation of the possible.
There is no room for God in him who is full of himself.
Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.
It is usual to think of good and evil as two poles, two opposite directions, the antithesis of one another...We must begin by doing away with this convention.
God dwells wherever man lets Him in.
A scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he's often sure he can find one. And that's a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.
Man's music is seen as a means of restoring the soul, as well as confused and discordant bodily afflictions, to the harmonic proportions that it shares with the world soul of the cosmos.
The new freedom of expression brought by the Internet goes far beyond politics. People relate to each other in new ways, posing questions about how we should respond to people when all that we know about them is what we have learned through a medium that permits all kinds of anonymity and deception.
I asked the Zebra, _x000D_ are you black with white stripes? _x000D_ Or white with black stripes? _x000D_ And the zebra asked me, _x000D_ Are you good with bad habits? _x000D_ Or are you bad with good habits?
The human mind is impelled to action, or held in rest by some power, over which the mind itself has no control.
When you cry and weep, when you are miserable, you are alone. When you celebrate, the whole existence participates with you. Only in celebration do we meet the ultimate, the eternal. Only in celebration do we go beyond the circle of birth and death.
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