Martin Buber and The Way of Man Essay

Martin Buber is today’s one of the most important representatives of the human spirit. He was born in Vienna in 1878, studied philosophy and the history of art at the University of Vienna and of Berlin. In 1916 he founded Der Jude, a periodical which he edited until 1924 and which became under his guidance the leading organ of the German-speaking Jewry. Professor Buber has written widely in the fields of philosophy, education, philosophy of religion, community, sociology, psychology, art, Biblical interpretation, Judaism, Hasidism, and Zionism. Buber’s works best known in America include I and Thou, the classical statement of his philosophy of dialogue, Between Man and Man, Eclipse of God, The Tales of the Hasidism and the way of man The way of man is a book by martin Buber which would seem to be simple but a person who read it through and think they have understood it fully, when in fact they have discovered only one or two dimensions of its message. Everything that is in I and Thou is also implicit in The Way of Man, but it is in there in a much more compressed form. I and Thou is compact too, but The Way of Man is much more compact, yet still rich and pregnant with meaning. It almost demands that you read it again and again, its meanings are hidden in between the lines, so people who are meditative in reading could understand the meanings of the book and the wisdom in that little book. And if The Way of Man is short, deceptively simple and heavy with meaning, the recurring dream that frequently came to Buber is even more so. His description of this dream is only one page long, but for those who have a good understanding of how dreams sometimes speak the deeper language of the heart and spirit, this dream is a rich and powerful one indeed. And the fact that it recurred to Buber several times is itself significant. Recurrent dreams are often, according to Carl Jung, our soul’s (or God’s? ) attempt to tell us something extremely important about our deepest well-being, and they have to recur because we are so resistant to hearing whatever the message is that they are trying to teach us. So Buber saw this dream as a particularly significant one. The Influence of Hasidism in The Way of Man Although his existence as a modern Western man has made it impossible for Buber to become a Hasid, it is to Hasidism, more than to any other single source that he has gone for his image of what modem man can and ought to become. For Hasidism, as for Buber’s philosophy of dialogue, one cannot love God unless one loves his fellow man, and for this love to be real it must be love of each particular man in his created uniqueness and it must take place for its own sake and not for the sake of any reward, even the salvation or perfection of one’s soul. Hasidism is a mysticism which hallows community and everyday life rather than withdraws from it, rejecting asceticism and the denial of the life of the senses in favor of the joy that can transform and re-direct the â€Å"alien thoughts,† or fantasies, that distract man from the love of God. According to Buber Despair, to Hasidism, is worse even than sin, for it leads one to believe oneself in the power of sin and hence to give in to it. One must overcome the pride that leads one to compare himself with others, but he must not forget that in himself, as in all men, is a unique value which must be realized if the world is to be brought to perfection. Everyone must have two pockets, said one Hasidic master. In his right pocket he must keep the words, for my sake was the world created, and in his left, I am dust and ashes. Hasidism stresses simple piety and fervor more than intellectual subtlety or the attempt to schematize heavenly mysteries. As every lock has its key which fits it, so every mystery has the meditation that opens it, said a great Hasidic teacher. â€Å"But God loves the thief who breaks the lock opens: I mean the man who breaks his heart for God. According to Hasidism, the very qualities which make us what we constitute our special approach to God and our potential use for Him. There is nothing so crass or base that it cannot become material for hallowing. The profane, for Hasidism, is only a designation for the not yet hallowed. Hallowing transforms the evil urges by confronting them with holiness and making them responsible toward what is holy. It is not in our inward devotion alone or in Freudian sublimation which uses the relation to the outer as a means to inner change, but in essential, mutual relations with others that we are able to serve God with our fear, anger, love, and sexual desire. What God asks of man is that he become humanly holy, i. e. , becomes holy as man, in the measure and in the manner of man. The Relationship of God and Man God asks us questions that He already knows the answer to so as to call us to examine ourselves. This is based on the belief that we are capable of knowing who and what we are by self-examination. The chief did not what to be called to examine himself because he was afraid of what he might find out. Each human being is unique, should seek to discover, then be himself and do what he ought to do in service to God. The way to reach God is revealed when a person comes to understand who and what he or she is in their own individuality in recognition of that absolute which create and stirs those inner desires so leading that person to that absolute, which is God, by being what he or she ought be as God intends. Heart-Searching the Way of Man: Man and Man Relationship The task of man, of every man, according to Hasidic teaching, is to affirm for god’s sake the world and himself and by this very means to transform both. There is a demonic question, a spurious question, which apes God’s question, the question of Truth. Its characteristic is that it does not stop at: ‘Where art thou? , but continues: From where you have got to, there is no way out. This is the wrong kind of heart-searching, which does not prompt man to turn and put him on the way, but, by representing turning as hopeless, drives him to a point where it appears to have become entirely impossible and man can go on living only by demonic pride, the pride of perversity. Every single man is a new thing in the world, and is called upon to fulfill his particularity in this world. Thus the way by which a man can reach God is revealed to him only through the knowledge of his own being, the knowledge of his essential quality and inclination. A man may only detach himself from nature in order to revert to it again and, in hallowed contact with it, find his way to God. Any natural act, if followed, leads to God, and nature needs man for what no angel can perform on it, namely, its following. But just this perspective, in which a man sees himself only individual contrasted with other individuals, and a genuine person, whose transformation helps towards the transformation of the world, co rains the fundamental error which Hasidic teaching denounces. The essential thing is to begin with oneself, and at this moment a man has nothing in the world to care about than this beginning. Any other attitude would distract him from what he is about to begin, weakening his initiative, and thus frustrate the entire bold undertaking. ‘Our sages say: Seek peace i your own place. You cannot find peace anywhere saves in your own self. When a man has made peace within himself, he will be able to make peace in the whole world. Human Beings as Treasures In their true essence, the two worlds are one. The goal here is integration. As Buber stated earlier, it is man’s work to hallow creation, and here in section 6 to draw God into the world since God wants to come into the world through man. So the theme of The Way of Man comes together, integration. My life is a gift so any ‘treasure’ I have is not of my own making. I have a wonderful wife, two beautiful children, and my health, live in freedom, and have a good job and financial stability. Any of these wonderful gifts could be taken from me at any time, so I must be careful as to what I put my trust in and what I value as my ‘treasure. To have any lasting, ultimate value I must store up treasures that are imperishable and of eternal significance. My relationships and the priorities I place on them will be of eternal significance, which the most important relationship being with God. It is when I put my relationship with God first that all my other relationships begin to be what they ought to be. As somebody think of their marriage and their relationship with God functions like a triangle, the closer you both draw to God, the closer you will draw to each other. ’ So ‘treasuring’ the eternal has earthly value as well. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. †(Matthew 6:19-21) I would say this means God gives man freewill; He is a perfect gentleman who will not enter where He is not invited, but will gladly enter where He is. Body and Soul as Conflicting Entities There is a conflict between body and soul where the person is not ‘all of one piece. When one aspect attempts to lord over the other or tries to bring the other into submission, this is what is referred to as patchwork since there is disunity in the person. Resolution occurs when the core of the soul, the divine force is allowed to bind the conflicting desires of body and soul to act in concert as it is intended to be. When the desires of both body and soul are unified in purpose and action, in absence of conflict, a person is being what he or she ought to be. In order to make peace with the world you must first be at peace with yourself. Often times we preach hardest against that which we struggle with ourselves. In previous years in struggled with atheism so Buber gravitated toward atheists seeking debate and argument because I myself wanted answers; doubt is very disintegrating. A couple of years ago he struggled with the issue of free-will, despite the fact that he despises the implications of determinism Buber listened to and studied prominent Calvinists. He is not comfortable with only listening to what he wants to hear because Buber views that as a form a self-brainwashing. As it is mentioned The way of man brings about and rather learns through conflict and antithesis. Relationship to God and Man Leads to Development Human beings are basically social beings who mingle each other for their daily needs and livelihood. Buber has given more importance to the relationship to god and man where one becomes authentically human by fulfilling their existential nature. Both these relations are essential for a human being for his personal development as well as the development of the society. In a society where the individuals nourish their behavior and character through firm relations, obviously the society also would flourish in all the dimensions. According to Buber, if person could nourish the relation with God and is not able to contact with human beings his life will be a failure and vice versa. But as far as the new age is concerned, we are becoming more self-oriented in character and in nature. Often time’s human beings relate with God and man in order to gain something, or to secure their lives in this world. Our culture has changed from the rich traditions, where people lived in harmony with each other, helped each other, obviously that was an ‘other oriented’ era. Once there were villages where cultures had grown, people lived in faith and relations sprout like the tree in the river side. But nowadays there are concrete villages where people live in broken relations, fake faiths and comforting life styles. Here Buber’s thoughts are revolutionary to change the heart of the people. The way of man could bring about a paradigm shift in people, where only through healthy relationship human develops their behavior and character. Thus the philosophy of development could be a fruit of the relations with God and the fellow beings. Conclusion Most systems of belief the believer considers that the can achieve a perfect relationship to God by renouncing the world of the senses and overcoming his own natural being. Not so the Hasid. Certainly, cleaving unto God is to him the highest aim of the human person, but to achieve it he is not required to abandon the external and internal reality of earthly being, but to affirm it in its true, God oriented essence and thus so to transform it that he can offer it up to God. Hasidism is no pantheism. It teaches the absolute transcendence of God, but as combined with his conditioned immanence. The world is an irradiation of God, but as it is endowed with an independence of existence and striving, it is apt, always and everywhere, to form a crust around itself. Thus, a divine spark lives in everything and being, but each such spark is enclosed by an isolating shell. Only man can liberate it and re-join it with the Origin: by holding holy converse with the thing and using it in a holy manner, that is, so that his intention in doing so remains directed towards God’s transcendence. Thus the divine immanence emerges from the exile of the shells. But also in man, in every man, is a force divine. And in man far more than in all other beings it can pervert itself can be misused by himself. This happens if he, Instead of directing it towards its origin, allows it to run direction less and seize at everything that offers itself to it; instead of following passion, he makes it evil. But here, too, a way to redemption is open: he who with the entire force of his being turns to God, lifts at this his point of the universe the divine immanence out of its debasement, which he has caused. The task of man, of every man, according to Hasidic teaching, is to affirm for God’s sake the world and himself and by this very means to transform both.