Transcendence

It’s sometimes said that transcendence is the goal of all spiritual practices.  To transcend means to go beyond.  We might think of transcendence as going beyond the ordinary, the everyday, the prosaic.  Often, transcendence is a peak experience and, if we’re lucky, we each have a few of these over the course of our lives.  Perhaps we look at a sunset and feel a sense of awe. We visit the great outdoors and experience nature so fully that our senses seem to expand and create an inner stillness combined with a feeling of wonder or deep fulfilment.  We may feel a sense of the sublime, an awareness of the sacred, a taste of the spiritual.

Transcendence is possible using any of the senses, each sense can induce a peak experience in the right conditions. Avant garde artist Brion Gysin had a transcendental experience so beautiful that he wanted everyone to have a similar experience and he worked on creating a machine that would bring transcendental experiences to its users.

Transcendental Meditation has exactly the same aim. It’s a simple technique that anyone can learn, which allows the mind to experience finer, quieter states of thought in an easy, natural manner.  During TM, it’s possible for the mind to become so settled that we transcend even the finest impulse of thought and experience transcendence.  This is an experience of pure consciousness, the mind is fully awake yet quiet. It’s an experience of simply ‘being.’

One of the remarkable things about TM is that it’s possible to have this experience the first time you do it.  Practice is not necessary, just the correct training and guidance.  The Meditation People teach TM online.  We use high quality audio equipment on the Zoom platform which allows our students to learn and enjoy the experience of transcending.  The realisation that TM is natural and easy is often a surprise.  Transcending is a fulfilling experience and the mind finds it attractive. Indeed, the satisfaction that the mind experiences during TM is the reason it works.  It’s a way of adding, bit by bit, a little more happiness, wonder and joy to our lives.

We teach TM online every month and schedule extra courses to suit our students’ diaries.

Brion Gysin’s experiences of transcendence and his invention is described in this article from the Guardian.