Why Rilke’s writings at this point in time and space?Â
Because Rilke is one of the writers who helps us integrate our lives, whose questioning of the world around us, invites us to immerse ourselves in its reality and to discover that the binaries of inner and outer, up and down, in and out, really are not sufficient to direct us to the wholeness of life.Â
He once wrote in the journal entry:Â
And I think in many ways this is what has drawn me back to Rilke again and again. I’ve spent most of my life reading Rilke and translating his works, interpreting his poems and writings for audiences, gatherings of folk who are seeking to find an integration in their own lives.
Rilke early on said that we should live the questions and not look for premature answers, live into the uncertainties of our lives and discover there a resource that allows us to live more fruitfully, more lovingly, more faithfully.
And this notion of ‘daring the present’, of daring to imagine that everything in our life, everything matters. And that in a sense, we’re given the opportunity day by day to discover in each moment that we belong to the whole, what Rilke simply called the whole, that our lives are not in one sense experiments to make something happen, but they’re rather invitations to enter into the deep mystery of our of this world and the mystery that gathers each one of us into its heart.
I look forward to gathering in Bonnevaux a very special place for my next retreat Everything Matters: Living the Questions & Daring the Present with Rainer Maria Rilke (29 Apr – 04 May 2025).
We’ll have periods of silent meditation each day and gatherings to explore Rilke’s poems and writings as a resource to discover what it means to say that everything matters in our lives. I hope you’ll join us.
