practical inquiry regarding meaning » concrete conditions » transcendence
As mortals—beings who project the possibility which negates our own existence (death)—we have a need to connect ourselves to something which will outlast our finitude. We have the need to transcend the finitude of our own existence. For some, this need is satisfied with religious observations. For others, having children guarantees their continuance. Others yet strive to give creative expression to a beauty only they can see—one that will live on through their art. However we approach it, we have this basic need to reconcile our existence with nonexistence.
The complete realization of this reconciliation occurs as we actively integrate ourselves back into the world as self-actualized, free individuals. If this can be achieved, a fundamental reversal occurs. Our experience is no longer that of an individual perceiving the universe; it's now as if we're the universe perceiving an individual. This may sound dramatic, and it can be, but we often experience this in small ways as we enter flow states. Self-consciousness falls away as we become fully absorbed in engaged activities. The goal of transcendence is, therefore, to accomplish this at the most fundamental level of our being.
