"For one human being to love another"

[Tariki]

I was just browsing on the Web, and caught the following words, written by Rainer Maria Rilke. They seemed worth sharing, for reflection.....

"For one human being to love another: that is the most difficult of all out tasks, the ultimate, the last test of proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation"

[neosnoia]

Aaaahhh, Rilke. My favorite poet.

[lunamoth]

Very very nice tariki. Thank you!

luna

[wil]

Rilke does have great contemplations.

Now it seems that we love our parents right from the womb.

Even when they don't provide optimum sustenance, care and love...our love continues.

And then in adolescence, we fall into love...quite easily...could be just lust as many say...but it seems like love.

So what is Rilke speaking of that is so difficult?

Loving so deeply, uconditionally, completely without conditions...is that what is so hard?

Or is it for one human being to love all....for us to be able to walk down the street and point at any given person, and be able to express love...now that is the challenge that I see...

[flowperson]

wil...

The Greeks had a word for this type of love...agape.I was taught that this sort of love was one, when entered into with commitment, often required the giving up of life to benefit the welfare of others. Any other sort of love boiled down to...in the end...a business arrangement.

flow....

[Eudaimonist]

Originally Posted by Tariki

I was just browsing on the Web, and caught the following words, written by Rainer Maria Rilke. They seemed worth sharing, for reflection.....

"For one human being to love another: that is the most difficult of all out tasks, the ultimate, the last test of proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation"

I disagree. Loving another is one of the easiest of tasks. Creating values (such as when the Buddha became awakened and explained it so well) is more difficult.


eudaimonia,

Mark

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by wil

So what is Rilke speaking of that is so difficult?

Where love rules,
There is no will to power,
And where power predominates,
Love is lacking.
The one is the shadow of the other.
- Carl Gustav Jung

[truthseeker]

I think that was a pretty good explanation, seattlegal.

I'll probably be saying the same thing but I think Love in itself is what it is. Children have the purest form of love because they haven't complicated it with issues of trust and expectations. As we experience life we forget oftentimes that we can't make people do the things that we want them to do - so if we accept people as they are and just love without judgement, it's quite easily done. No one wants to be called a fool though.