Live the questions now…

Posted on by ben Alexander

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

–Rainer Maria Rilke (1875ย โ€“ 1926)

41 thoughts on “Live the questions now…”

  3. Yes, I’m curious to know and understand the questions, I have.

  5. David,
    Content to live with questions? Only a Truth greater than the questions would make that acceptable.
    Pax,
    Dora

      1. Glad to. As someone of faith in the Judaeo-Christian God, there are many questions I have that the revelation of God through his word does not directly address. Like Job, the questions/complaints can come pouring out. But also like Job, finally we can cover our mouths and lay our faces on the dust before an incomprehensible โ€œOtherโ€ who yet loves us even as His wisdom decrees incomprehensibilities. A personal relationship with God, the ultimate Truth or Reality or Being, doesnโ€™t negate questions but is based on trust, a trust He has earned, you might say, by the very lengths He has gone to make Himself known. So we can be content to live with the questions, the unknowables, because He is greater than them.

        I hope you see where Iโ€™m coming from on this.
        Pax,
        Dora

        1. Dora, sure, I’m familiar with this line of thinking because I’ve heard it from many rabbis, but I don’t accept it as truth.

          who yet loves us

          this is one assumption that I do not make and see no reason to make.

          a trust He has earned, you might say,

          I would not say that and see no reason to say that.

          the very lengths He has gone to make Himself known.

          I’m very happy for you and anyone else who believes this because it is a very comforting thing for a finite and essentially powerless being to believe in an uncertain universe, but I do not believe it and do not see any reason to believe it.

          All best,
          David

          1. David,
            Whatever you assume or don’t assume, my point was to address the Rilke quote. For me to be content merely to live with questions is untenable without the overarching truth of God.

            Anyway, my 2ยข . . . . ๐Ÿ˜‰โค๏ธ

            Pax,
            Dora

          2. Dora, for me, it’s not a matter of being content because I don’t think contentment is achievable without lying to myself about my lived experience. Given the alternatives, living with questions feels more honest, albeit significantly less comforting.

            The only comfort I get from my approach is the comfort of feeling like I’m being true to myself, rather than pretending to accept somebody else’s convictions… but I don’t like to pretend so I have to take whatever comfort I can get ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ

            Much love,
            David

          3. David,
            I know exactly where you’re coming from. It’s a tough place to be. My prayer for you? Shalom, in the true sense of the word.
            ๐Ÿ•ŠPax,
            Dora

    1. Living question mark:
      a hook-shaped exclamation
      on a fisherโ€™s line
      streaming through sparkling waters
      always coming up empty

      2. lol – not before making a nuisance of herself for 2 pages worth o verbal rambling ๐Ÿ˜€
        thank you, David, generous to a fault you are ๐Ÿ™‚

  10. Wow, beautiful Rilke is a fascinating character. ๐Ÿ™๐Ÿปโ™ฆ๏ธ

  11. Yes, he does look quite thin but apparently he was plagued with bad health his whole life. Not enough meat perhaps. ๐Ÿ™‚

  12. Star quote ๐Ÿคฉ on another note, would someone please give Mr Rilke a cheeseburger? ๐Ÿ”๐Ÿคฃ

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