Reflections on Rainer Maria Rilke

When I was 17, I discovered a copy of Lao - Tzu's "Tao - Te - Ching " in my father's library. The discovery blew me away. My most favorite saying of Lao -Tzu will always be : "Silence is the highest revelation." As someone who got plenty of of opportunity to savor solitude as a teenager, and later on in life again, when my family imploded, silence became a friend as familiar as a favorite sweater. I just recently discovered Rainer Maria Rilke, who seems to have been no stranger to solitude and the challenges it presents. One thing I am learning from Rilke's experience with this particular companion of human existence, is that solitude works best in conveying its lessons, if you stop resisting and fighting it. You have to go in bare knuckled, it seems. I am learning , a little late in life, that a big part of self acceptance is rooted in the ability to spend time with yourself in a comfortable manner. Modern life is very clever at making us believe we are capable of spending time by ourselves, what with computers and cell phones, and video games. And yes, these can make alone time more pleasant, but true solitude and its ultimate gifts demand we sometimes turn everything off in order to hear the tunes and music , and voice of our inner self. That is a challenge these days, but I am beginning to figure out that Rilke, and Lao-Tzu  before him, were absolutely right in insisting on the importance of silence in this self discovery adventure. Quiet is an absolute requirement, the kind of quiet you might experience walking through a forest, or on a quiet morning stroll, where you start to tune in to the sounds and voices all around you, from birds, frogs, wind, water. In " Letters to a young poet" (Rome, December 23, 1903), Rilke says : "Only the person who accepts solitude can place himself under the deep laws of the universe. When he steps into the fresh morning or out into the event-filled evening, all that is not him falls away, as if he had died, although he stands in the teeming midst of life." It seems quiet is essential to self understanding, and with that understanding comes acceptance. It is sinking into my heart and mind, finally, that the better friends you are with yourself, the better chances you have of developing friendships that are worthwhile and nourishing. As someone trying to reach out with my poems and stories and thoughts, I find great truth in Rilke's advice: "As you unfold as an artist, just keep on, quietly and earnestly, growing thorough all that happens to you. You cannot disrupt this process more violently than by looking outside yourself for answers that may only be found by attending to your innermost feeling." (Letters to a young poet. Paris, February 17, 1903). Some things never go out of style.