In my state of spiritual abstraction, I no longer belong to myself and to my eyesight. I am nothing more than a single narrow gasping lung, floating over the mists and summits.
Interpretation
The quote conveys a sense of transcending the self to experience a profound connection with the world.
Reinhold Messner's quote reflects a state of spiritual elevation where the individual feels detached from their own identity and perceptions. This radical abstraction suggests that in this elevated state, one becomes more of an observer, absorbed in the larger essence of existence, symbolized by the image of a gasping lung floating above the world. It speaks to the concept of losing oneself in the beauty and complexity of nature and life.
In practice
In a motivational speech about finding inner peace and connection with nature.
I became famous for the fact that I would break many, many limits. People said, 'He does all these crazy things.' But oddly it was a crazy thing only because scientists and climbers said, 'Everest and the 8,000-meter peaks without oxygen - impossible. Messner is becoming sick in his head.'
A 30-year-old rock climber is an old man. At 40, one is in the middle of his high-altitude power. At 50, a crosser of deserts is at his best age. But at 60, each of us is out of the game.
I think my cultural work is more important than the adventures I did. The adventures are not important for human beings. It's the conquering of the useless.
In mountaineering, there is not only the activity, but the philosophy behind it. Some say a moral, but I am against that because all morality is dangerous.
I was the first man to climb the world's 14 tallest peaks without supplementary oxygen, but I never asked how high I would go, just how I would do it.
I go to the mountains for an adventure and each time I pray I will get up and down again.
So much of liberalism in its classical sense is taken for granted in the west today and even disrespected. We take freedom for granted, and because of this we don't understand how incredibly vulnerable it is.
The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction, for war is a drug.
Wordplay hides a key to reality that the dictionary tries in vain to lock inside every free word.
I'm ex-player, ex-technical director, ex-coach, ex-manager, ex-honorary president. A nice list that once again shows that everything comes to an end.
See the brotherhood of all mankind as the highest order of Yogis; conquer your own mind, and conquer the world.
Cheat? Good heavens, this is an amateur cricket match amongst leading prep schools, I'm an Englishman and a schoolmaster supposedly setting an example to his young charges. We are playing the most artistic and beautiful game ever devised. Of course I'll cunting well cheat. Now, give me my robe and put on my crown. I have immortal longings in me.
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