We Move in Infinite Space
It seems to me that almost all our sadnesses are moments of tension, which we feel as paralysis because we no longer hear our astonished emotions living. Because we are alone with the unfamiliar presence that has entered us; because everything we trust and are used to is for a moment taken away from us; because we stand in the midst of a transition where we cannot remain standing. That is why the sadness passes: the new presence inside us, the presence that has been added, has entered our heart, has gone into its innermost chamber and is no longer even there, is already in our bloodstream.
And we don't know what it was. We could easily be made to believe that nothing happened, and yet we have changed, as a house that a guest has entered changes. We can't say who has come, perhaps we will never know, but many signs indicate that the future enters us in this way in order to be transformed in us, long before it happens. And that is why it is so important to be solitary and attentive when one is sad: because the seemingly uneventful and motionless moment when our future steps into us is so much closer to life than that other loud and accidental point of time when it happens to us as if from outside.
The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate; and later on, when it "happens" (that is, steps forth out of us to other people), we will feel related and close to it in our innermost being. And that is necessary. It is necessary - and toward this point our development will move, little by little - that nothing alien happen to us, but only what has long been our own. People have already had to rethink so many concepts of motion; and they will also gradually come to realize that what we call fate does not come into us from the outside, but emerges from us. It is only because so many people have not absorbed and transformed their fates while they were living in them that they have not realized what was emerging from them; it was so alien to them that, in their confusion and fear, they thought it must have entered them at the very moment they became aware of it, for they swore they had never before found anything like that inside them. Just as people for a long time had a wrong idea about the sun's motion, they are even now wrong about the motion of what is to come. The future stands still, dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space.
-- Rainer Maria Rilke, "Letters to a Young Poet"
SEED QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION: What do you understand by "absorbing and transforming" our fates? How do you relate to "the future stands still, but we move in infinite space?" Can you share a personal experience where you felt you were moving in infinite space?
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15 Past Reflections
On Jun 9, 2022 anna T wrote :
The closest memory of that experience of 'moving in infinite space..was in a vivid moonlit dreamscape in which I was being carried and simultaneous floating along a spiral stairway .
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On Jul 9, 2021 Mary Linda wrote :
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On Jun 16, 2013 perilous wrote :
I am not a scholar in Latin but the Latin word for danger is 'periculum' which gave 'pericoloso' in Italian, 'peril' in French and English. Another Latin word 'perire' means: to die, from 'per'/ through and 'ire'/ to go. There is no 'ex perieri'. The Latin word 'experiri' means: to try out. Also generally understood to mean: going through.
The result of experience is stored in the brain as memory which in turn conditions further experience and limits it. A danger too often ignored.
1 reply: Amy | Post Your Reply
On Jun 15, 2013 Ganoba wrote :
2 replies: Daniel, Lina | Post Your Reply
On Jun 11, 2013 Rekha Garg wrote :
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On Jun 11, 2013 david doane wrote :
I don't like Rilke's use of the word fate, since I think of fate as a predetermined end point, and I don't think any of us have one of those. I don't think I am living in my fate and it is emerging from me. I believe it is important to absorb my real self, which I think of as allow my real self and be true to it, and in the process I transform into who I am. My appreciation of "the future stands still" is that my future is uninvented and unknown, and it is invented by my choices moment by moment and is known in hindsight when I look back and see what I have become. Each of us does move in infinite space, meaning to me that there are infinite possibilities, and the product is and will be the result of my choices in living combined with what life does to me. I don't believe I have full control of my 'fate,' but I do have a significant part in the fate that is unfolding and being invented.
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On Jun 10, 2013 Thierry wrote :
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On Jun 9, 2013 sad wrote :
I have read this passage over and over and at this point I cannot grasp what the great poet is saying to his young friend. I have in stock another passage from Rainer Maria Rilke which struck me as very beautiful and insightful but I just don't have the key to this one. I will be on the look out for more inspiring comments.
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On Jun 7, 2013 Conrad P. Pritscher wrote :
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On Jun 7, 2013 Dan Duncan wrote :
Rilke occupies a special place in my life's journey.
When I was 19 and struggling to write poetry, I read his Letters To A Young Poet, and there was a question that he asked Kappus that brought me up short. I remember that Rilke's answer was something like this:
"You ask me whether you are a poet and I cannot tell you. But I will say this: You need to sit down with yourself and ask yourself very seriously if poetry is the most important activity in your life. Based on how you answer that question, you will be able to say whether or not you are a poet."
I closed the book, and after a long silence, from somewhere deep inside, my answer came.
"No, Poetry is not the most important thing in my life: LIVING is the most important thing!"
From that moment, I began to practice a life of poetry as exploration and not as a disguise.