"I and Thou" vs. "Landscapes" - Derek Bryant

Upon reading "I and Thou" by Martin Buber I was thoroughly perplexed. It wasn't until I read it aloud did I fully understand what Buber was trying to say. In short he tries to convey to the reader that I as a You is built through relations, because relations are a reciprocal growth of both sides involved. And that experiencing something does nothing to help better I as a You, rather it builds I as an It because I-It then sees the world not as a place that can give and take in a relation but only as a means to conquer. Using this approach and what we have read in Lane's book, "Landscapes of the Sacred," is that when we look at a sacred place, it becomes sacred only when we look at it as a relation in which both I-You and the place give and take from each other. As Buber comments "Only where all means have disintegrated encounters occur.... Relation is reciprocity. My You acts on me as I act on it. Our students reach us, our works form us." If we take this thought and apply it to landscapes it is easy to think that our world can form us just as much as our works. Buber also talks about how we must look at the world to be able to see God. Stating that those who argue over where God is are wrong. He believes that by seeing I-You in everything and all things in the world will you find God. Because that is the only way God can even be conceived. Since God is omnipotent he is in all of You as he is the world and therefore we are all Him as we are I.