Self-Transcendence
“Your self-transcendence-goal
Is not something
That you have to achieve.
It was already given to you long ago
By your Beloved Supreme.
You have only to believe it.
You have only to receive it.”
–Sri Chinmoy (a.k.a. Chinmoy Kumar Ghose, Indian Philosopher and Spiritual Teacher, 1931-2007)
You can find many really profound aphorisms here: http://www.srichinmoy.org/resources/library/poetry/aspiration_plants/index.html
Transcendence Restores Humor
“Transcendence restores humor. Spirit restores humor. Suddenly, smiling returns.
Too many representatives from too many movements even many good movements, such as feminism, environmentalism, meditation, spiritual studies seem to lack humor altogether. In other words, they lack lightness, they lack a distance from themselves, a distance from the ego and its grim game of forcing others to conform to its contours.
There is self-transcending humor, or there is the game of egoic power. No wonder Mencken wrote that “Every third American devotes himself to improving and lifting up his fellow citizens, usually by force; this messianic delusion is our national disease.” We have chosen egoic power and politically correct thought police; grim Victorian reformers pretending to be defending civil rights; messianic new paradigm thinkers who are going to save the planet and heal the world. They should all trade two pounds of ego for one ounce of laughter.”
–Ken Wilber (American Philosopher, 1949-)
“One Taste: Daily Reflections on Integral Spirituality” (Ken Wilber)
Transcend Yourself
“Arise, transcend thyself. Thou art man and the whole nature of man is to become more than himself.”
–Sri Aurobindo (a.k.a. Aurobindo Ghose, Indian Nationalist Leader, Mystic, Philosopher and Creator of Purna (Integral) Yoga, 1872-1950)
Integrity and Transcendence
“I felt very connected to a higher power and I was sensitive to others’ feelings about it. But it seemed that all the adults at church sang about one thing and then practiced another.”
–Allison DuBois (American Writer and Psychic, 1972-)
Experiencing the Web of Life
“Our presence here (in space), outside the domain of the home planet, was not rooted in an accident of nature or in the capricious political whim of a technological civilization. It was rather an extension of the same universal process that evolved our molecules. And what I felt was an extraordinary personal connectedness with it. I experienced what has been described as an ecstasy of unity. I not only SAW the connectedness, I FELT it and experienced it sentiently. I was overwhelmed with the sensation of physically and mentally extending out into the cosmos.”
–Edgar Mitchell (American Scientist, Apollo 14 Astronaut and Founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, 1930-)
