The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude. Going into oneself for hours meeting no one - this one must be able to attain.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of solitude for self-discovery and inner peace.
Rainer Maria Rilke suggests that true understanding of oneself requires a deep and prolonged solitude, where one can turn inward and reflect without external distractions. This solitude allows individuals to connect with their inner thoughts and feelings, leading to greater self-awareness and personal insight.
In practice
During a meditation retreat, I shared Rilke's quote to highlight the importance of solitude in finding inner peace.
Spring has again returned. _x000D_ _x000D_ The Earth is like a child that knows many poems._x000D_ _x000D_ Many, O so many. For the hardship_x000D_ _x000D_ of such long learning she receives the prize._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ Strict was her teacher. _x000D_ _x000D_ The white in the old man's beard pleases us._x000D_ _x000D_ Now, what to call green, to call blue,_x000D_ _x000D_ we dare to ask: She knows, She knows!
Verses are not, as people think, feelings (those one has early enough) -- they are experiences. For the sake of a verse one must see many cities, men, and things, one must know the animals feel how birds fly, and know the gesture with which the little flowers open in the morning.
a good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude
He reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog.
The only journey is the one within.
And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been
They devour each other and cannot even digest themselves.
The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.
Nothing exists for itself alone, but only in relation to other forms of life
The God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?
Bad men cannot make good citizens. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience are incompatible with freedom.
It was all very well going on about pure logic and how the universe was ruled by logic and the harmony of numbers, but the plain fact of the matter was that the Disc was manifestly traversing space on the back of a giant turtle and the gods had a habit of going round to atheists' houses and smashing their windows.
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