We Move in Infinite Space

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முடிவில்லா வெளீயில் பயணம்
- ரெய்னெர் மரியா ரில்க


சோகம் வந்தடையும் தருணங்கள் எல்லாம் பதற்றம் மிக்க, உணர்வுகளை இழந்த தருணங்களாக நமக்கு தோன்றுகின்றன, அறிமுகமில்லாத ஒரு புதிய நிலையுடன் நாம் தனியாக இருக்க வேண்டிய சூழ்நிலை; நமக்கு தெரிந்த எல்லாம் ஒரு கணம் நம்மிடம் இருந்து எடுக்கப்பட்டு விட்ட ஒரு நிலை. இருந்தாலும், ஒரு மாற்றத்தின் நடுவே நம்மால் நின்று கொண்டே இருக்க முடியாது. அதனால்தான் சோகம் என்பது கடந்து போகிறது. புதிய நிலை நமக்குள் ஐக்கியம்மகி நம் ரத்தத்தோடு கலந்து போகிறது.

இதனால் ஒரு விருந்தாளியின் வருகையால் ஒரு வீடு எப்படி மாறுகிறதோ அப்படி நாம் மாறிப் போகிறோம். வந்தவர் யார் என்று யோசிக்கிறோம். அறிகுறிகளை வைத்துப் பார்த்தால், நம்முடைய எதிர் காலம்தான், அது நிகழ்வதற்கு வெகு முன்பே, நமக்குள் புகுந்து, உருமாறி, அமர்ந்து இருக்க்கிறது என்று சொல்லலாம். இதனால் சோகமாக இருக்கும்போது மிக கவனத்துடன் இருப்பது நல்லது.

எந்த அளவுக்கு சோக நிலையில் நாம் அமைதியுடன், பொறுமையுடன், திறந்த மனதுடன் இருக்கிறோமோ அந்த அளவுக்கு, ஆழமான, தெய்வீகமான ஒரு நிலை நமக்குள் நுழைய முடியும். எந்த அளவுக்கு அதை நாம் வரவேற்று நமதாக்கிக் கொள்கிறோமோ, அந்த அளவுக்கு அது நமது விதியாக மாறுகிறது. பின்னர் அது நிகழ்காலமாகி நடக்கும்போது, அதை நம் உள்ளூயிரால் புரிந்து கொள்ள முடியும்.

இவ்வாறு நாம் மன வளர்ச்சி அடையும் போது நமக்கு நிகழ்வது எல்லாம் நமக்குள் வெகு காலமாக இருந்தவையே; வெளியில் இருந்து வருவன இல்லை என்பது தெளிவாகிறது. தீதும் நன்றும் பிறர் தந்து வருவது இல்லை. விதி என்பது நம்முள் இருந்தே வெளிப்படுகிறது என்பது புரிகிறது.

பெரும்பாலான மக்கள், எதிர்காலம் தன்னுள் நுழையும்போது அதை கவனித்து ஐக்கியம் செய்வதில்லை, அதனால் அது நிகழ்காலமாக மாறி நடக்கும்போது, அதை அடையாளம் கண்டு கொள்ளவதும் இல்லை. தாம் கவனித்த அந்தத் தருணம் வரை, அது எங்கு இருந்தது என்று அதிர்ச்சியும் குழப்பமும் அடைகிறார்கள்.

பூமியை சுற்றிதான் சூரியன் வருகிறது என்று பண்டைய மக்கள் தவறாக நினைத்தது போல நாமும், காலத்தின் வருகைப் பற்றி தவறாக நினைக்கிறோம். காலம் நின்று கொண்டு இருக்கிறது. நாம்தான் முடிவில்லா வெளியில் நகர்ந்து கொண்டு இருக்கிறோம்.

கரு: என் இன்றைய நிலைதான் நாளையாக மாறுகிறது என்பதை நிதர்சனமாக உணர்ந்த அனும்பவத்தை பகிர்ந்து கொள்ளுங்கள்.
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
AT
anna T
Jun 9, 2022
'Absorbing and transforming our fates.....the thought that crossed my mind indicates that the the human heart is implicit in this process..the crucible wherein the forces of Life and Consciousness converge. Perhaps we often forget how deeply embedded we are in Nature which is made up of many kinds of 'force'..and in some mysterious way we are here to fulfil a 'higher purpose'?
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 .
ML
Mary Linda
Jul 9, 2021
Before my poems and writings began, as transmissions through me, a deep sadness came to abide. Then one night just before falling into sleep my body entered into a trance like altered state. A noise across from my office prompted me to get up. Only when trying to touch the floor there was no gravity and my subtle body floated through the room turning to look at my body still in the bed. I then floated out of the room into my office, where met with a dark cloud which my hand went through to have it dissipate through the window. Then I floated through the window to fly and sing what was guided as my soul song. I don't remember returning to my body but soon after the poems and writings began. I am working on a second book now. This moving into infinite space changes everything through our greater awareness and realization We are infinite beings having bodily/mind experiences in finite space.
PE
Jun 16, 2013

 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.

AM
Amy Jun 16, 2013

 Jesus' theme (over and over again) was death to life . . . death to life . . . to life, be death!  
Everyday we die to self (The "I" in me can hardly be seen anymore).  As servant people, we are divided by the number of people we are directly (and indirectly) linked to.  Each earthly relationship I am in, "takes away" from me (to die).  In Christ, however, I am transfused with Grace (to live).  
Everyday we make choices, in this death process (moving and changing in this great infinite space)
It's not about you!
It's not about me!
It's about Him in us.  
In the face of light and dark . . . I choose the Light of Life!
"Love" someone today . . . and watch it come back to you!    

GA
Jun 15, 2013
 The last line,"we move in infinite space" is the crucial one. Rainer is talking of the experience when we move in infinite space. Such an experience is of the core of the being and cannot really be expressed in any language; prose, poetry, painting, sculpting, dance or whatever because all these are bound by culture, tradition, ideology, religion and so on. How can an expression that belongs to a bounded space express that which belongs to infinite space? It chooses to express itself whenever it pleases. That is why poets often say that they do not write poetry. It is the muse that speaks through them. What we call experience comes out of the interaction between a limited self with the bounded world. It is of the world and hence there is an unhealthy  urge, almost a compulsion to express it even before it has run its course. This is very subjective but we treat it as if it is universal and then we have arguments, debates and fights. The worst troubles are when an attempt is... View full comment
DD
Daniel Dunan Jun 15, 2013

A comment on a comment:

The word "experience," so often used as a catch-all for daily phenomena, has an interesting source, which brings me up short whenever I hear it or, occasionally, use it:

"ex" = from, out of
perieri = peril, danger

"Experience" then, encapsulates that which is derived from, or is the fruit of, danger, peril.

LI
lina Aug 15, 2013

ur opinion is deeply useful for me , because i was  going to accept all the subject though i knew some things is wrong but i did not really undrestood what is that....
thanks Ganoba

RG
Jun 11, 2013
   हम अनंत आकाश में घूम रहे हैं  - रेनिअर à¤®à¤¾à¤°à¤¿à¤¯à¤¾ रिल्के द्वाà... View full comment
DD
Jun 11, 2013

 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. 

TH
Jun 10, 2013
To more or less understand this passage I first have to be sensitive to its peculiar context and stay close to the words the poet uses. Otherwise I might end up generalizing or drifting away from what it actually says. The context is that of a young poet turning for guidance to the great man whose poetry he loves and admires. Maybe seeking a form of assurance that poetry is really his vocation. It is not that the world, the outside, can determine our fate, confirm or infirm that vocation through either appraisal or criticism, answers his mentor. Before 'this steps forth out of us to other people' (who will reflect it) an all too important process has taken place if we are receptive to the 'unfamiliar presence' that manifests itself in moments of sadness, melancholy. As this is felt, this becomes part of our being and alters our fate.This is how discreetly 'the future enters us' (through the present moment) and 'it is necessary' that this presence, unfamil... View full comment
SA
Jun 9, 2013

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.

CP
Jun 7, 2013
 Thanks for the opportunity to respond.  The absorbing and transforming are all in one's mind.  A future standing still as we move in infinite space is also all in one's mind.  Sharing a personal experience where I felt I was moving in infinite space relates to my reading Joss Whedon's commencement address at Wesleyan University this spring.  He said: "Our culture is not long on contradiction or ambiguity… It likes to be simple, it likes things to be pigeonholed – – good or bad, black or white, blue or red.  And we are not that.  We're more interesting than that.  And the way that we go into the world understanding is to have these contradictions in ourselves and see them in other people and not judge them for it.  To know that, in a world where debate has kind of fallen away and given way to shouting and bullying, that the best thing is not just the idea of honest debate, the best thing is losing the debate, because it m... View full comment
A
a Jun 12, 2013

 Amen Conrad!  Thank you for sharing!  Warm and kind regards to you, too!

DD
Jun 7, 2013

 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.

IL
Ila Jun 11, 2013

 Just what I needed today. I've been struggling to understand the inner unhappiness with where I'm at, knowing what is predestined for me to fulfill, yet feeling "constrained" by life's activity and busyness to move forward. I will re-read. It makes a lot of sense.