I’ve often wondered what it means to transcend something. I looked up its meaning and contrasted it with the word “bypass.” Transcendence means to go beyond the limit of something, whereas bypassing means to find a way around something.
Conceptually, they aren’t the same, but in reality, many of us mistake bypassing for transcendence. Therefore, to transcend something means to go through and beyond the limits of whatever is arising. For example, we may be experiencing grief due to a loss in life, and transcending it means to experience it fully till “I” rise beyond and it doesn’t bother “me” anymore.
I believe this is a misunderstanding of the concept of transcendence because there is no separation between the objects in whatever is arising. Therefore, objects (grief, sorrow, depression, etc.) will arise every now and then. In my opinion, transcendence is not going beyond the limits of anything, but to see the totality of arising (seeing everything as limitless), with complete acceptance of the way our minds and body reacts to the arising.
Transcendence means not to make the slightest effort to change What-Is. So, if grief arises, our ability to be totally open to it is transcendence. Similarly, if anger arises in someone conditioned to be short-tempered, the acceptance of the total movement of anger (“me” not being separate from the content, which is anger).
In a spiritual context, transcending the mind and going beyond is to see it as one with what is beyond. The limited and limitless are one. It isn’t about going beyond, but going into it to see what it is. What spiritual awakening brings about is the opening of the emotional centers in the body. We crave for awakening (for knowing the Truth), but the moment we are confronted with our deep-seated emotions, we run or hide behind spiritual concepts. We utter words, “I am Atman, Brahman, Pure Consciousness beyond anything that arises in manifestation.” While that is true, what is arising in manifestation isn’t separate from the vastness of Beingness.
Sri Ramana Maharshi had a disciple called Echammal, who cooked food at the ashram. She had faced the deaths of her loved ones and given up on life when she met Ramana. One day, she received a telegram that her adopted daughter with a small child had passed away. Sri Ramana had tears in his eyes as he read the content of that telegram. He again cried when she brought her grandson (whom she had named Ramana) and placed him in his arms. Why did Ramana cry, being a Self-realized sage? He cried, not for himself, but for the grief that Echammal was going through. He was pure emotion in the moment (not beyond it). We cannot go beyond anything because limits are unreal. Our own limitation as the mind-body organism is unreal; however, it is already the “beyond.” Therefore, every emotion, while being transitory, is as real as the “beyond.” To be in its total movement (without a separation between “me” and “my experience”) is to be in the beyond. This flow never stops, and there is no one to go beyond anything, and that, in my humble opinion, is true transcendence.
With love,
Jagjot
