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About this quote

What does it mean?
Death is the opposite of life that we turn away from.
In plain terms
Death is life’s opposite that we avoid.
What can you take from it?
Acknowledge death as part of life’s duality.

Where it applies

  • grief counseling
  • philosophical contemplation

Putting it to work

  • reflect on mortality
  • accept life’s cycles

Questions to consider

  • How does avoiding death affect living?
  • What can acceptance change?

Another view

It simplifies complex attitudes toward death.

More from Rainer Maria Rilke

  1. He was a poet and hated the approximate.

    Permalink to quote #7
  2. Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.

    Permalink to quote #9
  3. The work of the eyes is done. Go now and do the heart-work on the images imprisoned within you.

    Permalink to quote #6

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