Definitions: (1) rising above or going beyond limits; extending ordinary experience; surpassing; (2) the potential actualization of physical, mental, and spiritual reality; (3) exceeding in excellence; supreme; superior; (4) not constrained by subjective understanding, conjecture, or experience; objective; (5) said of the Divine Being <i.e., prior to, beyond, and above material existence>; independent of the physical universe
Quotes:
• Spiritual transcendence is never satisfied; its potential is unlimited. — Abraham Harold Maslow (1908-1970) American psychologist
• To abandon the struggle for private happiness, to expel all eagerness of temporary desire, to burn with passion for eternal things–this is emancipation, and this is the free man’s worship. — Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872–1970) A Free Man’s Worship {1903}
Comments:
• One can know truth, not only in an intellectual sense but also in an ontological sense. There are perceptions beyond scientific or philosophical keening.
• It has become common to think transcendence means to leave what is unwanted behind. It would be unwise, and therefore less valuable, to forget our hard-earned lessons – better to bring everything along as your true and full experience. In genetics “junk” DNA is an important part of our basic structure, even though entire species which created these unique traits are long extinct. We learn and grow from our mistakes as well as from our successes.