Quotes About Transcendence

Wir haben nie, nicht einen einzigen Tag, den reinen Raum vor uns, in den die Blumen unendlich aufgehn.

To transcend the ego does not mean, for Rilke, to enter into a spiral of radical self-doubt and philosophical skepticism or to open the floodgates of unconscious desire and irrationality. It means to be swept up by the movement of one's heart (or soul, if you like, or serotonin levels) without ever reaching a state where this movement will lose its purpose and desire by being fulfilled.

We of the here-and-now are not for a moment satisfied in the world of time, nor are we bound in it; we are continually overflowing toward those who preceded us, toward our origin, and toward those who seemingly come after us. In that vast open world, all beings are ? one cannot say contemporaneous, for the very fact that time has ceased determines that they all are . ?from letter to Witold Hulewicz (November 13, 1929)

most events are unutterable, consummating themselves in a sphere where word has never trod, and more unutterable than them all are works of art, whose life endures by the side of our own that passes away.

Things are not all as graspable and sayable as on the whole we are led to believe; most events are unsayable. occur in a space that no word has ever penetrated

You see, I want a lot. Maybe I want it all: the darkness of each endless fall, the shimmering light of each ascent. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from "Du Siehst, ich will viel," Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God , trans. Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy (Riverhead Books, 1996)

Ich finde dich in allen diesen Dingen,] Ich finde dich in allen diesen Dingen, denen ich gut und wie ein Bruder bin; als Samen sonnst du dich in den geringen und in den großen giebst du groß dich hin. Das ist das wundersame Spiel der Kräfte, daß sie so dienend durch die Dinge gehn: in Wurzeln wachsend, schwindend in die Schäfte und in den Wipfeln wie ein Auferstehn.

Was bin ich unter diese Unendlichkeit gelegt, duftend wie eine Wiese, hin und her bewegt, rufend zugleich und bange, daß einer den Ruf vernimmt, und zum Untergange in einem Andern bestimmt.

Only the solitary individual is subject, like a thing, to the fundamental laws, and if someone goes out into the morning as it is breaking, or looks out into the evening full of occurence, and if he feels what is happening there, every hint of station slips from him as if from a dead man, although he is standing in the midst of life itself.

Du entfernst dich von mir, du Stunde. Wunden schlägt mir dein Flügelschlag. Allein: was soll ich mit meinem Munde? mit meiner Nacht? mit meinem Tag? Ich habe keine Geliebte, kein Haus, keine Stelle auf der ich lebe. Alle Dinge, an die ich mich gebe, werden reich und geben mich aus. [Der Dichter]

Things are not all so easy to grasp and to express as most people would have us believe; most events are inexpressible, and take place in a sphere that no word has ever entered. Most inexpressible of all are works of art, existences full of secrets whose life continues alongside ours, whilst ours is transitory.

Come when you should. All this will have been/ passing through me for you to breathe.

As coisas estão longe de ser todas tão tangíveis e dizíveis quanto se nos pretenderia fazer crer; a maior parte dos acontecimentos é inexprimível e ocorre num espaço em que nenhuma palavra pisou.

Earth, isn't this what you want: to arise in us invisible?—Isn't your dream one day to be invisible?

I don't want to think a place for you. Speak to me from everywhere. Your Gospel can be comprehended without looking for its source. When I go toward you it is with my whole life.

Mümkün müdür tüm gerçeklikler onlar için bir anlam ifade etmesin; mümkün müdür hayatlar? boÅŸ odalardaki saatler gibi hiçbirÅŸeye baÄŸlanmadan geçsin?

Rainer Maria Rilke

This, a world seen no longer from the human point of view, but inside the angel, is perhaps my real task.

Does the cosmic space, we dissolve into, taste of us then?

A ella sólo nosotros la vemos; el animal libre tiene siempre su ocaso detrás de si y ante sí tiene a Dios, y cuando anda, anda en la eternidad, como andan las fuentes. Nosotros nunca tenemos, ni siquiera un solo día, el espacio puro ante nosotros, al que las flores se abren infinitamente.

Si ahora se acercara el arcángel, el peligroso, detrás de las estrellas, si bajara dando un paso sólo y viniendo de allí: hacia arriba latiendo, nuestro propio corazón nos mataría. ¿Quién sois?

But the living are wrong in the sharp distinctions they make. Angels, it seems, don't always know if they're moving among the living or the dead.

But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars. The rays that come from those heavenly worlds, will separate between him and vulgar things.

Standing on the bare ground,--my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space,--all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or parcel of God.