Listening as embracing the other

Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue

Dialogue can only be grasped as an ontological phenomenon — a meeting of one whole being with another whole being.

He writes, ‘‘what is essential does not take place in each of the participants or in a neutral world which includes the two and all other things; but it takes place between them in the most precise sense, as it were in a dimension which is accessible only to them both’’ (BMM, 203–204). This sphere is transient and rather uncommon, yet it is reconstituted over and over when human beings encounter each other. Thus, dialogue occurs, according to Buber, in the intersubjective realm that exists between persons; it cannot be reduced to something that happens within an individual’s psyche or the dynamics of a group" - Presence or Awareness or to lay (logos as it was meant to be)

Buber used the term ‘‘embrace’’ here to refer to the act of identifying with someone else’s position and lived situation while simultaneously maintaining a clear sense of oneself.

Henry McHenry and by Andrew Metcalfe and Ann Game 

The experiencing is what people express and not what has been experienced. In a dialogue you do not deal with the parts of a person or a person who is the ‘past’ of themselves or even the person who they are; the dialogue needs to be with a person who is and for this there is a strong need of attentive listening.

Listening is much more about being present to the other than about displaying some proficiency or following a set of techniques. Listening is equivalent to being, So one of the better ways to build it is by watching someone do it rather than learn it through techniques or by listening to someone.

How does one create an environment in a dialogue or in a classroom where you can be - attentively listen and speak to each other?