Transcendence

Q: What is transcendence? Sarah — friend

A: Transcendence is a beautiful word, poetic and melodious. The basic meaning and intent is clear, coming from Latin:  trans (beyond) + scandere (climb, or go up). Transcendence thus suggests going above and beyond our current place, experience, limitations, boundaries. And unlike many words whose meaning has changed significantly from their origins, transcendence continues to mean going beyond perceived limitations to something bigger and greater.

With this origin, we get different shades of meaning depending on tradition, intentions, and the part of speech. When we look at adjectives “transcendent” is most often used as a superlative. We might say that a musician “gave a transcendent performance” going beyond the ordinary to achieve levels of expression above what seems possible.  We can see that what is being described is primarily a journey, more than a static thing. Perhaps it is most at home as a verb: “to transcend”. Here is a sentence: “I am seeking to transcend the felt limitations of my mind and heart in order to answer this question.”

Now, when we focus on the noun used in the question, we can see that what is at heart a process can potentially get concretized into something more static — a place or fixed state. In some traditions transcendence is indeed seen this way— a realm beyond this world, spiritual or nonphysical, such as heaven, or nirvana. This is indicated also in the adjective “transcendental”.

With all due respect to such views my approach in this essay is different. When I received the question I saw that until now transcendence did not play much role in my own thinking. Rather than trying to get somewhere beyond this world, I’ve always endeavored to become more present in this very world. Consequently, of all the questions I’ve been asked, this one has taken the longest to answer. I am posting this answer exactly one year since Sarah sent it to me. Throughout this year, transcendence has most of all revealed itself to be an ongoing invitation, a journey of discovery.

We all face limitations in how much freedom the structures of society seem to allow us, and the consequent sense of our insufficiencies, the stuck places in our emotions, and confused repetitious patterns of our minds. There is certainly beauty and love and joy and wonder, but there is also is frustration, pain, loss, and trauma.  How do we negotiate this complex reality?

It is comforting to imagine a transcendent realm we might escape to, an idea we find in many traditions. For example, early Buddhist teachings emphasized achieving nirvana and escaping this world of suffering. Many other religions have their own visions of heaven. But let’s remember that all such visions were crafted by humans living in this world. What does transcendence mean living here and now?  Thankfully many traditions do address this question.  Later Mahayana Buddhist traditions affirm that this very world and nirvana are one. The way to experience transcendence in that tradition is by working with our own minds and hearts, cultivating awareness, compassion, and inner freedom in the midst of our daily lives. Similarly, Sufi traditions in Islam propose an ideal of being “in the world, but not of the world”.  I also remember as a young person going to church, how we were urged not to be just Sunday Christians, but discover how to live the teachings throughout the week.

Centered in the practice of awareness, transcendence asks us to consider where our conditioning limits us unnecessarily, and what lies beyond those limits. And even though the word means “beyond” I continually see how transcendence requires the support found within ones own body-mind, through paying attention inwardly into the realities of ones own mental patterns, energy fluctuations, and emotional struggles. Socrates urged everyone to “know thyself.” When we look honestly we can see the narratives we have about ourselves and life —  our concepts, hopes, fears, sorrows. We can ask, “how do I transcend all that?” It takes self-compassion. When we are present with, and give room to, all that is alive within, we can learn to trust the wisdom of our hearts, and can more freely and effectively meet what is arising in the world around us, in all our relations, activities, and tasks.

Jack Kornfield reminds us, “After the ecstasy, the laundry.”  We might add, before the ecstasy, the laundry . . .  and the bills, and ones love life, and the death of ones mother.  Before and after are interwoven in the present moment.  My own Zen teacher, Eve Marko, subtitles her book on the practice of being a householder “Waking up in the Land of Attachments.”   

What is transcendence?  It is staying present and engaged, and learning to find “the beyond” right here in the heart of this moment-to-moment existence.