"All emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you"

Rainer Maria Rilke explores the essence and quality of human emotions by distinguishing between those that unify and elevate us and those that fragment and distort our nature. The purity of emotion, according to Rilke, is not determined by whether an emotion is labeled as positive or negative, joy, sorrow, grief, exuberance, but by the breadth of its influence on the self. Pure emotions are those that involve the whole being, where a person is truly gathered, focused, and elevated by the power of the feeling. Such emotions contribute to inner integration; they do not pit one aspect of a person against another but instead encourage a synthesis, a deeper harmony within oneself.

Impure emotions, conversely, have a divisive effect. They seize only a single facet of the self, an isolated feeling, an unchecked impulse, a fleeting urge, while ignoring or even suppressing the rest. These emotions fracture the internal unity of a person, leaving them distorted, off-balance, and internally conflicted. Instead of gathering the self, they scatter it, so that one becomes narrowly identified with anger, jealousy, anxieties, or desires that are disproportionate to the whole of their being. The result is a distortion, since the fullness of self, with all complexities and contradictions, is denied in favor of a singular overpowering force.

Rilke’s insight challenges the tendency to judge emotions only on superficial moral or social grounds. Rather, he invites a deeper self-examination: Is this emotion enlarging the self, helping it to rise toward fuller potential and authenticity? Or is it constricting, narrowing awareness, or causing inner strife? The call is to cultivate emotional integrity, to allow feelings that bring unity, fullness, and growth, and to be wary of those feelings that produce inner division and misalignment. Ultimately, the aim is to achieve wholeness, where emotions are not suppressed but allowed to gather, to lift, and to reveal the best of the self.