Some folks like to think that logic or language cannot explain the transcendent. I think this is only a case of an internal incoherency, or unwillingness to describe or fully realize the nature of such a situation. Implicit in this seems to be fear, fear for the possible implication of a lack of divinity - which scares the hell out of some people. Apparently divinity is contingent upon mystery - upon mystery remaining in the darkness. No wonder mystics often dissent scientists and their relentless pursuit of truth.
Let's look at the various types of transcendence there exists.
1.) Transcendence of self-consciousness. This is the same kind of self-forgetfulness which comes from becoming absorbed, fascinated, concentrated and focused. In this sense, meditation or focus on something outside one's own psyche can produce self-forgetfulness and therefore loss of one's own self-consciousness, and in this particular sense, of transcendence of the conscious self.
2.) Transcendence of time. For instance, my experience of becoming bored while waiting for the train, and feeling slightly irritated, and suddenly slipping over into being submerged in timeless eternity rather than just a bored and irritated individual in the moment and specific place - of being "utterly lost in the present."
3.) Transcendence of culture. When one can examine one's own culture in which one is rooted, in an objective kind of way, this parallels the process of psychological self-therapy of simultaneously experiencing and of self-observing one's own experience in a kind of critical or editorial or detached and removed way so that one can criticize it, approve or disapprove of it and assume control, and, therefore, the possibility of changing it exists. A cultural-transcendant man is a universal man, he is a member of the human species, who is rooted in a particular culture but rises above that culture and can be said to be independent of it in various ways and to look upon it from a heightened perspective.
4.) Transcendence of one's past. One's own past can be embraced and accepted into one's present self - which entails full acceptance and recognition of reality as it is [which is the only precursor to genuine conscious change]. It entails the transcendence of remorse, regret, guilt, shame, embarrassment, and the like. Essentially, this is taking responsibility for one's past. One becomes an agent of the future.
5.) Transcendence of death, pain, sickness, etc., when one is at a level high enough to be reconciled with the necessity of death, pain, etc. Such transcendence entails a point of view which holds that all these are in a sense, necessary, and can be understood as necessary. Upon the achievement of this attitude, bitterness, rebelliousness, anger and resentment may dissolve or at least subside.
6.) Transcendence of the We-They polarity. To rise above the dichotomized nationalism, patriotism, or enthnocentricism, in the active cultivation of synergy, be it interpersonal synergy, or the synergy of social institutions, corporations or of cultures. This can be paralleled to one who takes more intra-personal/self development in order to be more inclusive and superordinate, more integrative.
7.) Transcendence of shortcomings, etc., in the sense of simply being able to do more than one thought one could do or more than one had done in the past, e.g., to be a better winemaker, or a faster runner, or a stronger weightlifter, or whatever.
8.) Transcendence of space. This can be simply in the sense of becoming so absorbed into something that one forgets where one is - this can and likely, usually overlaps with transcendence of time, as listed above.
9.) Transcendence of effort and striving, of wishing and hoping. In the simplest sense, this is the sheer enjoyment of the state of gratification, of hope fulfilled and attained, of being there rather than of striving to get there, of having arrived rather than of traveling toward.
10.) Transcendence of disintegration, isolation, aloneness. This is a state of mind in which one conceive-percieves the whole "cosmos" or at least the unity and integration of it and of everything in it, including his very own self. This gives rise to the feeling as if he belongs by right in the universe, of being one of the family, rather than an orphan.
There we have it - 10 types of transcendence, in plain and clear as day, rational language.
Reference: Farther Reaches of Human Nature.
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
Edited by SkorpivoMusterion (02/25/06 05:51 AM)
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Transcendence of the conscious self? More like the transcedence of the consciousness of the opaque mental lens that is one's illusory sense of self.
I see the distinction you're trying to make, and I can see why you would think precisely what you've written - and I can also see how it doesn't necesarilly conflict with what was written, depending on how we want to look at it, but either way, thank you for your intelligent expansion. Oh, and wow, you actually did all that with coherent, logical and rational language? Without any vague, incoherent, arcane muddiness or esoteric gobbledygook? Damn, the very idea! Amazing. 
True transcedence involves realization, not "forgetfulness".
Why would you say it only involves one but not the other? Does it not involve both? Certainly. Such forgetfulness, akin to "letting go", is a product of a realization whether implicit or explicit.
-------------------- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and sweet as love.
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I see the distinction you're trying to make, and I can see why you would think precisely what you've written - and I can also see how it doesn't necesarilly conflict with what was written, depending on how we want to look at it, but either way, thank you for your intelligent expansion.
I realized that it didn't necessarily conflict with what was written, I simply sought to expand upon the language used a bit in order to make it more clear, perhaps. Thanks for noticing. 
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Oh, and wow, you actually did all that with coherent, logical and rational language? Without any vague, incoherent, arcane muddiness or esoteric gobbledygook? Damn, the very idea! Amazing. 
I was going to include a reference to Sepiroth's return and how he works through us with five golden music notes never before heard in order to allow such transcendence to be possible, but I was nonetheless pressed for time. 
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Why would you say it only involves one but not the other? Does it not involve both? Certainly. Such forgetfulness, akin to "letting go", is a product of a realization whether implicit or explicit.
Certainly, I was just looking for another way to express the same thing, to clarify, perhaps. 
 Peace.
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If I should die this very moment I wouldn't fear For I've never known completeness Like being here Wrapped in the warmth of you Loving every breath of you
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10.) Transcendence of disintegration, isolation, aloneness. This is a state of mind in which one conceive-percieves the whole "cosmos" or at least the unity and integration of it and of everything in it, including his very own self. This gives rise to the feeling as if he belongs by right in the universe, of being one of the family, rather than an orphan.
This is a logical state of mind to have. If you posit that the universe started with a big bang (which it probably did, though how and why are entirely other issues), then by the law of conservation of matter we are still the very same primordial energy that banged. Just in a different and evolved form. An excellent analogy would be a bottle of ink. If you took a bottle of ink and threw it against a wall (the big bang), it would expand outwards and dribble down. We would be analogous to a drop of ink on the outskirts of the splatter. Many people consider us to be of some distinctly different energy or substance from the universe however, and while such a fantasy is fun to entertain, it doesn't flow with everything else that is known about reality.
-------------------- "What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?" "Belief is a beautiful armor But makes for the heaviest sword" - John Mayer Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln
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