Transcendence

Part Two: Spiritual Knowing—Transcendence

Three primary outcomes of Whole Body Mystical Awakening are:

(1) Deep connections with God, Jesus, guides, and one another

        (2) The emergence of our spiritual gifts

                  (3) Transcendent consciousness

Transcendence is the loftiest and most difficult dimension to describe. It is, most simply, “going beyond.” In transcendence, one moves outside of their normal sense of self, time, and space, encountering life from a larger perspective. One senses the fundamental unity underlying the diversity of all. One moves closer to seeing everything from God’s point of view. 

Moments of transcendence can often be fleeting, and they come upon us in the midst of nature, great art or music. It’s often what we mean when we use the word “worship” in the best sense. While it’s not completely controllable, spiritual practices that can lead us into transcendence meet one of the deepest human needs. In his hierarchy of needs, Maslow added later in life “transcendence” to the pinnacle—above self-actualization.

While we can approach transcendence in a variety of ways, what does transcendence look like in spiritual practice?

Transcendence in spiritual knowing

First, transcendence is knowing that is not knowing. The “not knowing” is in a numinous, clear, still mind in the head space. Here we are not aware of images, pictures, words, sensations as we are in the awakened field of knowing. I find outer space the best metaphor for the vast openness of transcendence in the head dimension.  However, when considering all four of our centers of spiritual knowing, Whole-Body Transcendence seems to be experienced differently by the head, heart, gut, and feet.

My friend Ken Wilber, who wrote the Afterward to my most recent book, has written extensively on transcendence, calling it the  “causal” realm of consciousness. He eloquently frames it this way:

"Nature retreats before its God, Light finds its own Abode. That’s all I keep thinking as I enter into this extraordinary vastness. I am going in and up, in and up, in and up, and I have ceased to have any bodily feelings at all. In fact, I don’t even know where my body is, or if I even have one. [Head]

I know only shimmering sheaths of luminous bliss, each giving way to the next, each softer and yet stronger, brighter and yet fainter, more intense yet harder to see. Above all, I am Full. I am full to infinity, in this ocean of light. I am full to infinity, in this ocean of bliss. I am full to infinity, in this ocean of love. I cannot conceive of wanting something, desiring something, grasping after anything. I can contain no more than is already here, full to infinity. I am beyond myself, beyond this world, beyond pain and suffering and self and same, and I know this is the home of God, and I know that I am in God’s Presence. I am one with Presence, it is obvious. I am one with God, it is certain. I am one with Spirit, it is given. I shall never want again, for Grace abounds, here in the luminous mist of infinity. [Heart] 

Around the edges of this love-bliss there are tender tears, the faint reminders that I have so wanted this, so longed for this, so desperately yearned for this—to be saturated to the ends of the universe, to be full and free and final. All the years, all the lifetimes, searching for only this, searching and suffering and screaming for only this. And so the tender tears stand at the edge of my infinity, reminding me. 

Out of this Light and Love, all things issue forth, of this I am now certain, for this I have seen with the eye of my own true soul. Into this Light and Love, all things will return, of this I am now certain, for this I have seen with the eye of my own true soul. [Gut]

And I have returned with a message: Peace be unto you, my human brothers and sisters; and peace be unto you, my animal brothers and sisters; and peace be unto you, my inanimate brothers and sisters—for all is well, and all is well, and all manner of things shall be well. We are all of the same Light and Love, of this I am now certain, for this I have seen with the eye of my own true soul." [Feet]

I have inserted the four body centers of spiritual knowing into his eloquent narrative to point out that Ken’s eloquent testimony illustrates that transcendence can be experienced in all of the body’s four centers of spiritual knowing even though Ken tends to focus theoretically on the head. To make this more obvious, let me elaborate.

• The mind as vibrant clear consciousness holds the center of what Wilber calls “extraordinary vastness.”

• The heart is the radiant source of immense, unending love and bliss, holding all sentient beings in its embrace.

• The gut is the creative Source of our divine identity in incarnational form, the vital force of being from which life itself flows.

• The feet and legs are the connection with the embodied, energized, earthy, cosmic, material dimension of creation.

As spiritual beings having a human experience, we carry the Universal Christ from Beyond-Us, Beside-Us, and Being-Us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). We are spiritual beings on a walking (feet), living (gut), feeling (heart), thinking (head) human journey. That spirituality moves up from feet to head, through the divine poles and polarities in our physical bodies. It includes the divine physical universe (feet), our divine/human life force (gut), divine/human feelings (heart), and our divine/human consciousness (head) that is the One universal consciousness of no separation within and between all these dimensions. 

This is not to imply that these dimension and faculties are totally and neatly contained in or limited to each body space. However, phenomenologically, we experience them as physically centered in these areas.

The experience of transcendence moves from least dense to more dense the further down the body we go. There is no “denseness,” nothing at all, in head’s vast, clear transcendence. There are feelings of bliss in heart transcendence encompassing all sentient beings which makes this denser. Even greater density is found in the vital life force energy, divine/human identity, and creativity of the spiritual womb. The most density is found in the legs and feet grounding us to all material reality. Yet, as long as the feet are consciously connected to the less dense dimensions further up the body, the spiritual knowing from our feet, too, have their aspect of transcendence in the connecting Oneness of all physical creation.

In brief, Whole Body Mystical Transcendence can be experienced in:

• The vibrantly clear mind of infinite consciousness

• The radiant heart full of love and bliss, embracing all beings

• The gut’s vital being of our core divine identity

• Energized, grounded feet of embodied connection to our physical body, the earth, and the material reality of the cosmos.

This is an amazing invitation to connect with the awesome divine/human reality in which we live, and move, and have our being.