Alyssa Sinclair
Essay Two: Martin Buber
In life things can always be viewed through a variety of lenses. There is simply never just one way to see and experience the world. This vast variety of lenses is what allows pilgrims to define and understand sacred places they travel to and exist in. Weather it is a sacred place to the individual, a specific religious group, or a long valued place due to a line of ancestors, that place is still, ultimately, experienced individually. As Martin Buber discusses in his book there is a visible distinction between I-it and I-thou, and through this theory we are able to see two of the lenses through which people can understand sacred place if they can experience it at all.
Martin Buber discusses two different realms, I-it and I-Thou. I-it sees itself as the subject, the center of it all, and the ego to use all things as objects. I-Thou, also referred to as I-You, sees itself as subjectivity and can only be understood only in its entire entity. In the world of I-Thou there is an understanding or relation. For example, as discussed in class, from Phenomenology of Prayer the marketplace is the place where we deal with the struggle of living. In this place we have to deal with the buying and selling, this parallels to Buber’s description of I-It because every mean is an obstacle, and the self is the only interest. The I-it in the market place worries about how much can be obtained for how little. There continues the idea that we go to the market place in self-interest of these exchanges. In contradiction, if we are able to find a disinterest in this marketplace we are celebrating the existence of other human beings and the value that a particular sacred place may hold (Benson, p.14), this correlates with the idea of I-Thou, the unmediated realm.
Additionally, Lane discusses the importance of presence in his book Landscapes of the Sacred. “It affirms that simply moving into an allegedly sacred place does not necessarily make on present to it.” (Lane, p. 29) This understanding can also be compared with Buber’s theory. For example, Ulura, also known as Ayers Rock is a sacred place in Northern Australia. To many it would appear as a large rock, watering holes, and open caves, used for water, shelter, and other necessary survival experiences. This is the I-it realm that this sacred place is for use of survival. In this sense Ulura is used for experience and therefore does not participant (Buber, p.56) in this sense there is no interaction between the individual and the place around them. For the Aboriginal people, they believe that the world was once a featureless place, and that the Ulura is the result of creation and destruction (Layton). The vast number of stories told by the aboriginal people detail every crack, cave, and drop of water that exists in this place. This perspective takes on the I-thou realm; the aboriginal people feel that each and every aspect of this place has a project of its own, honoring its creator and the in-depth features that resulted from that. Unlike I-it there is no presence of experience, only relationship with the world.
The interaction with the elements within a sacred place is uniquely individual, as is the understanding a sacred place itself. Through the reading of Martin Buber this division of the two realms – it and thou – lead a person to interact differently in the presences of a sacred place. It would be nearly impossible for the I-it realm to experience a sacred place because of its focus on experience and the presence of the ego. Like those of the Aboriginal people in the place of Ulura, they are able to see the sacred place as subject; therefore there are no limits. The sacred cannot be limited, for there is no way to understand a sacred place if one feels they are greater then the sacred place they are in.
References:
Benson, B. E., & Wirzba, N. (Eds.). (2005). The phenomenology of prayer. Fordham Univ Press.
Lane, B. C. (2002). Landscapes of the sacred: Geography and narrative in American spirituality. JHU Press.
Layton, R. (1986). Uluru: an aboriginal history of Ayers Rock. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.
*Also Reference to excerpts provided by professor from Martin Buber
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