ON THE QUESTION OF BEING
How do things then stand concerning the crossing of the line? Does it lead us out of the zone of consummate nihilism? The attempt to cross the line remains captivated in a form of representation that belongs to the dominion of the oblivion of being. This is why it continues to speak in terms of fundamental metaphysical concepts (Gestalt, value, transcendence). {GA 9: 422}
Can the image of the line adequately depict the zone of consummate nihilism? Is the image of the zone better?
[250] Doubts arise as to whether such images are suited to depict the overcoming of nihilism, i.e., the recovery of the oblivion of being. Yet presumably every image is subject to such doubts. These doubts, however, are unable to touch the illuminative force of images, their originary and uncircumventable presence. Such considerations testify only to how little experience we have in the saying of thinking, how little we know the essence of such saying.
The essence of nihilism, which finds its ultimate consummation in the
domination of the will to will, resides in the oblivion of being. We seem to
respond best to such oblivion by forgetting it, which here means: casting
it to the winds. Yet in so doing we fail to heed what is meant by oblivion as
concealment of being. If we pay heed to this, we experience an unsettling
necessity: Instead of wanting to overcome nihilism, we must attempt to
first tum in toward its essence. Turning in into its essence is the first step
through which we may leave nihilism behind us. The path of this turning
takes the form and direction of a turning back. This does not, however,
mean going back to times past in the attempt to freshen these up in some
contrived form. "Back" here means the direction pointing to that locality
(the oblivion of being) from which metaphysics already received and retains
its provenance.
In accordance with this provenance, metaphysics as metaphysics remains prevented from ever experiencing its essence; for it is within a surpassing and for it that the being of beings shows itself to metaphysical representation. Appearing in this way, it expressly makes its claim upon metaphysical representation. No wonder metaphysical representation rebels against the thought that it moves within the oblivion of being. {GA 9: 423}
And yet an adequate and sustained meditation can attain the insight that, in keeping with its essence, metaphysics can never grant human dwelling the possibility of settling expressly within the locality, i.e., within the essence of the oblivion of being. For this reason, [251] thinking and poetizing must return to where, in a certain way, they have always already been but have never yet built. Only through building, however, can we prepare a dwelling in that locality. Such building can scarcely think of establishing
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