TRANSCENDENCE?

Well, that's a big mysterious word! Let's demystify it. The literal meaning of transcend is to rise above or go beyond. Transcendence then is the action of rising above or going beyond. And what do we rise above or go beyond? Well, it could be anything. Where the possibility of transcendence excites me is in the possibility of going beyond my normal human experience into a realm of what might be called mystical experience.

 The mystic seeks to find:
– the extraordinary in the ordinary
– the miraculous in the mundane
– the sacred in the profane.

In plain English, the mystic looks for spiritual experience where one isn't typically expected to be found. A mystical experience then can be one in which spirit is experienced in the midst of ordinary life activity. It seems we believe that to have a spiritual experience we have to travel afar, perhaps to a distant mountain top, or we have to engage in an elaborate ritual. What if we have missed the point? What if spiritual experience is readily at hand all the time in the ordinary walk of our life?

The genius of the mystic is that the mystic expects to find spiritual experience in everyday life. Maybe it is that expectation that allows for the mystical experience to occur. I know this is the truth! We all know the old saying, "Seek and ye shall find." The mystic seeks and the mystic finds. Might not we all be closet mystics, with our mystical/transcendent experiences, just waiting for us to turn them on by looking for them?

I say we go out and live today from the mystical point of view. I go forth expecting transcendent experience throughout my day. I will transcend through nature, my fellow man and in myself. The sun is up there once again today keeping us all alive! How does that work? My body is right now, as I type this, full of processes that I know nothing about. Oxygen in and carbon dioxide out yet I'm not a chemist. Who did that? Miracles are all around me if I will just expect and then notice them!