Transcendence

“For thousands of years philosophers in China, India, and the West have given utterance to a thought which is everywhere and at all times the same, though diverse in its expression: man can transcend the subject-object dichotomy and achieve a total union of subject and object, in which all objectness vanishes and the I is extinguished. Then authentic Being opens up to us, leaving behind it, as we awaken from our trance, a consciousness of profound and inexhaustible meaning. For him who has experienced it, this becoming One is the true awakening, and the awakening to consciousness in the subject-object dichotomy is more in the nature of sleep.” — Karl Jaspers

“Transcendence beyond the world or before the world is called God.” — Karl Jaspers

When we think about God, the first thing we have to do is to see the constraining boundaries of our thinking.

The fundamental attributes of our individual existence are space, time, freewill, causality, and the dichotomies of transcendental (constitutive subjectivity) and phenomenal (constituted objectivity) dimensions of consciousness. The stream of our existence is a continuous process called ‘time’ and ‘change’: time flows, everything changes, each ‘moment’ — each phenomenal and underlying transcendental state of consciousness — is replaced by another ‘moment’, which is replaced by another ‘moment’, and so on and so forth. We are always in this process, for we are this process, and since we cannot get out of it, for that would mean getting out of our individual existence, we cannot think of anything outside of this process, nor outside of other fundamental attributes of our existence. But we are not explicitly aware of these constraining boundaries of our thinking, and consequently we do not notice that when we think, for example, of eternity, we are thinking of the infinite duration of time, and not of nontemporality, which we cannot in principle imagine. The same is true of other fundamental attributes of our existence that constrain our thinking as its natural boundaries.

Now, if we examine the religious concept of ‘God’, we will find that this concept is an anthropomorphic construct of our constrained thinking, which has not escaped its natural boundaries. For example, the ‘God’ of religions exists in time: ‘God’ successively decides and acts, creates and destroys. The reason why the anthropomorphic images of ‘God’ have been so popular for thousands of years is the inability of most believers to realize that when they think about ‘God’ they are thinking within the boundaries of their existence, whereas the Divine is transcendent to these boundaries and therefore the Divine cannot be thought in principle.

“One of the greatest favors bestowed on the soul transiently in this life is to enable it to see so distinctly and to feel so profoundly that it cannot comprehend God at all. These souls are herein somewhat like the saints in heaven, where they who know Him most perfectly perceive most clearly that He is infinitely incomprehensible; for those who have the less clear vision do not perceive so clearly as do these others how greatly He transcends their vision.” — St. John of the Cross

“We cannot doubt the existence of mystical experience, nor can we doubt that mystics have always been unable to communicate what is most essential in their experience. The mystic is immersed in [Transcendence]. The communicable partakes of the subject-object dichotomy, and a clear consciousness seeking to penetrate the Infinite can never attain the fullness of that Source. We can speak only of that which takes on object form. All else is incommunicable.” — Karl Jaspers

“[Transcendence] (tathātā) … is something that is perceived directly. That state cannot be expressed because it is to be personally experienced. … Since it is [Transcendence] that is personally experienced, it is not within the sphere of dialectics, and there is no example in the world that is able to represent it and cause it to be known.” — Vasubandhu

“[The ascetic] correctly understands the [transcendent] Reality, the fact that [its] essence is inexpressible. This is called [Transcendence] (śūnyatā) rightly grasped, rightly penetrated through correct transcendent wisdom.” — Bodhisattvabhūmi

“To think of something, I must think of something definite. Definite being is a mental conception. Transcendent Being is inconceivable and undefinable.” – Karl Jaspers

“Why dost thou prate of God? Whatever thou sayest of Him is untrue.” — Meister Eckhart

“Transcendence is beyond all form. We ascertain the philosophical idea of God as thinking fails us, and what we grasp in this failure is that there is a Deity, not what it is.” — Karl Jaspers

The negation of false objectifications of Transcendence is not a negation for the sake of void, but only the removal of conceptual rubbish and the clearing of intellectual space in which we will begin our progress towards the truth about God. We should start this movement only by ourselves and only from the very beginning — from the fundamental question ‘What is?’ And for the first time we encounter the mystery of Transcendence when, in our meditations, we are for the first time deeply astonished by the mystery of consciousness.

The only empirical reality that is ever given to us subjectively and intersubjectively is the reality of phenomenal consciousness: thoughts, emotions, memories, fantasies, illusions, hallucinations, dreams, worldly colorforms, sounds, sensations (olfactory, gustatory, tactile, etc.) and meanings; everything else that we imagine to explain the nature of this phenomenal reality are explanatory abstractions (e.g. the metaphysical concept of ‘physical matter’) which are nothing but thoughts, ideas. Thus, we never experience a non-phenomenal substance to which phenomena can be reduced. Therefore, the substance of phenomena is transcendent, it is an absolute mystery of transcendent consciousness-in-itself — Transcendence.

“Because it shows us no new object, the idea [of Transcendence], measured by our customary worldly knowledge, is empty. But by its form it opens up to us infinite possibilities in which Being may manifest itself to us, and at the same time lends transparency to everything that is. It transforms the meaning of the world of objects, by awakening in us a faculty of sensing what authentically is in the phenomenon.” — Karl Jaspers

“The eye of true Being looks at us from existence, as its Transcendence.” — Karl Jaspers

Our mundane thinking resists the idea of Transcendence because this idea lacks an objective content, it is empty (this explains why in Buddhism one of the names of Transcendence is ‘emptiness’ — śūnyatā). We cannot think outside the subject-object dichotomy, for all thinking is done within this division, outside it there is nothing thinkable; therefore we cannot think Transcendence, for Transcendence is neither a subject nor an object. We can point to Transcendence by the negative arguments of reason, but we can never make a positive assertion about Transcendence, for that would mean making an object of that which transcends all objects. Therefore, Transcendence can only be a matter of philosophical faith.

“Philosophical faith is the indispensable source of all genuine philosophizing. From it comes the striving of individuals in the world to experience and investigate the appearances of Reality with the aim of attaining the reality of Transcendence ever more clearly.” — Karl Jaspers

“Pure immanence without Transcendence remains nothing but deaf existence. … Transcendence does not enter into a blind soul.” — Karl Jaspers

Transcendence is inconceivable, but we can directly experience Transcendence in the mystical (transpersonal) experience of transcending our individual existence into That which underlies it.

“…The plurality [of consciousnesses] is only seemed, in reality there is only one Consciousness. This is the teaching set forth in the Upanishads. And not only in the Upanishads. The mystical experience of union with God usually entails a similar understanding…” — Erwin Schrödinger

“One of the most convincing aspects of the mystic illumination is the apparent revelation of the oneness of all things, giving rise to pantheism in religion and to monism in philosophy.” — Bertrand Russell

“Throughout the ages, mystics — independently, yet in perfect harmony with each other … — have described personal unique experiences in words that can be summarized in the phrase: Deus factum sum (I became God — Latin).”- Erwin Schrödinger

“Mysticism has been called “the great spiritual current which goes through all religions.” In its widest sense it may be defined as the consciousness of the One Reality — be it called Wisdom, Light, Love, or Nothing. … [T]he reality that is the goal of the mystic, and is ineffable, cannot be understood or explained by any normal mode of perception; neither philosophy nor reason can reveal it. Only the wisdom of the heart, gnosis, may give insight into some of its aspects. A spiritual experience that depends upon neither sensual nor rational methods is needed. Once the seeker has set forth upon the way to this Last Reality, he will be led by an inner light. This light becomes stronger as he frees himself from the attachments of this world or — as the Sufis would say — polishes the mirror of his heart. Only after a long period of purification — the via purgativa of Christian mysticism — will he be able to reach the via illuminativa, where he becomes endowed with love and gnosis. From there he may reach the last goal of all mystical quest, the unio mystica. This may be experienced and expressed as loving union, or as the visio beatifica, in which the spirit sees what is beyond all vision, surrounded by the primordial Light of God; it may also be described as the “lifting of the veil of ignorance,” the veil that covers the essential identity of God and His creatures. … Only the elect few will reach the farthest mountain on which the mythical bird, Sīmurgh, lives — to understand that they have reached only what was already in themselves.” — Annemarie Schimmel

So, we cannot objectify Transcendence in our thinking, but we can experience our transcendent Nature under certain conditions, which cannot be spoken of except by the poetry of mysticism:

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.