I've liked this quote for many, many years. It is from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke.
"...show patience towards everything in your heart that has not been resolved and to try to cherish the questions themselves.... Do not hunt for the answers just now -- they cannot be given to you because you cannot live them. What matters is to live everything. And you must now live the questions. One day perhaps you will gradually and imperceptibly live your way into the answer. "
Recently, I came across the words within a longer excerpt. I think the short bit above appealed to me as a young adult, so full of questions and so wishing for answers. The longer context, almost symbolically, now appeals to me as an older adult, having a broader perspective perhaps (hopefully!), but still looking for an understanding of my life's path.
"...if you stick with things such as those that refresh my eyes; if you stick with nature, with whatever is straightforward in it, with those small objects that hardly anyone ever sees and that can suddenly turn into something great and immeasurable; if you truly have such a love for the insignificant and, quite simply, as someone who wishes to serve, seek to gain the confidence of the seemingly impoverished, then you will find that everything will become easier, more consistent and somehow more malleable, perhaps not your intellect, which astonished, will fall behind, but in your innermost consciousness, alertness, and knowledge.
I should like to ask you dear sir, as well as I can, to show patience towards everything in your heart that has not been resolved and to try to cherish the questions themselves, like sealed rooms and books written in a language that is very foreign. Do not hunt for the answers just now -- they cannot be given to you because you cannot live them. What matters is to live everything. And you must now live the questions. One day perhaps you will gradually and imperceptibly live your way into the answer. ....accept whatever comes with complete confidence ....almost everything serious is difficult, and everything is serious.
Do you recall how ever since childhood this life has yearned for 'great things?' I can see it now yearning further, from the great to the greater. That is why it will not cease being difficult, and is also why it will not cease growing.
All that is necessary is that we should be in situations that work upon us and that put is from time to time in front of great natural things.
There are so many thoughts here for me to love!
The small and apparently insignificant relate to the grand and meaningful if we look long enough to accept the communion.
Our inner work will never cease. And shouldn't.
And now, I particularly like this concept - "...you will find that everything will become easier, more consistent and somehow more malleable, perhaps not your intellect, which astonished, will fall behind, but in your innermost consciousness, alertness, and knowledge."
This gives me a bunch of lovely, peaceful thoughts at this time of my life when I am finding myself especially curious about my path forward form here, and more and more aware that Life will always be a mystery, unsolved by the intellect, full of still unanswered questions. Coming to terms with that as a beautiful thing. Letting the intellect "fall behind", being with whatever presents itself, seems to be a constant challenge for me.
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