I And Thou

— What, then, do we experience of Thou '<

— Just nothing. For we do not experience it.

— What, then, do we know of Thou ?

— Just everything. For we know nothing isolated
about it any more.

The Thou meets me through grace — it is not found
by seeking. But my speaking of the .primary word to
it is an act of my being, is indeed the act of my being.

The Thou meets me. But I step into direct relation

with it. Hence the relation means being chosen and

choosing, suffering and action in one ; just as any action

of the whole being, which means the suspension of all

, partial actions and consequently of all sensations of

i actions grounded only in their particular limitation, is

bound to resemble suffering.

The primary word I-Thou can be spoken only with
the whole being. Concentration and fusion into the
whole being can never take place through my agency,
nor can it ever take place without me. I become
through, my relation to the Thou ; as I become /, I say
Thou.
* All real living is meeting.

The relation to the Thou is direct. No system of ideas,
no foreknowledge, and no fancy intervene between /
and Thou. The memory itself is transformed, as it
plunges out of its isolation into the unity of the whole.
No aim, no lust, and no anticipation intervene between
I and Thou. Desire itself is transformed as it plunges
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