as above, so below
If I walk the 3+ kilometers between my room and my office at the university, I only have to cross eight streets, and five of those streets are in the two blocks closest to the university. I also must ascend or descend at least 260 steps; the longest staircase in the 3+ kilometers has exactly 168 steps.
Henceforth, when man is for once overcome by the horror of alienation and the world fills him with anxiety, he looks up (right or left, as the case may be) and sees a picture. Then he sees that the I is contained in the world, and that there really is no I, and thus the world cannot harm the I, and he calms down; or he sees that the world is contained in the I, and that there really is no world, and thus the world cannot harm the I, and he calms down. And when man is overcome again by the horror of alienation and the I fills him with anxiety, he looks up and sees a picture; and whichever he sees, it does not matter, either the empty I is stuffed full of world or it is submerged in the flood of the world, and he calms down. But the moment will come, and it is near, when man, overcome by horror, looks up and in a flash sees both pictures at once. And he is seized by a deeper horror.
—Martin Buber (lifted from A Whaler's Dictionary by Dan Beachy-Quick)
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