God dwells wherever man lets Him in.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that God's presence is contingent on human openness and acceptance.
Martin Buber's quote emphasizes the idea that the divine presence is accessible to individuals who are willing to welcome it into their lives. It reflects a philosophical understanding of spirituality as a relational experience, where God is encountered through personal choice and openness, rather than being a distant entity. The quote invites reflection on the nature of faith and the importance of allowing space for the divine in both personal and communal aspects of life.
In practice
In a discussion about spirituality, one might say, 'As Martin Buber once wrote, God dwells wherever man lets Him in.'
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.
Feelings dwell in man; but man dwells in his love. That is no metaphor, but the actual truth. Love does not cling to the I in such a way as to have the Thou only for its " content," its object; but love is between I and Thou. The man who does not know this, with his very being know this, does not know love; even though he ascribes to it the feelings he lives through, experiences, enjoys, and expresses.
There is a point beyond which even justice becomes unjust.
If it is not tempered by compassion, and empathy, reason can lead men and women into a moral void.
Life is always frightful. We cannot help it and we are responsible all the same. One's born and at once one is guilty.
Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human.
What is the fear inside language? No accident of the body can make it stop burning.
I think books with spiritual themes simply point to the deeper mysteries of life - to what lies beyond us, to what's hidden inside of us, or perhaps to an understanding of what truly matters.
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