Transcendence
When a man passes from the dark stage of temptation to the more enlightened stage of transmutation, he has become a saint; namely, one who perceives the need of self-purification, who understands the way of self-purification, and who has entered that way and is engaged in perfecting himself. But there comes a time in the process of transmutation when, with the decrease of evil and the accumulation of good, there dawns in the mind a new vision, a new consciousness, a new man. And when this is reached, the saint has become a sage; he has passed from the human life to the divine life. He is “born again,” and there begins for him a new round of experiences; he wields a new power; a new universe opens out before his spiritual gaze. This is the stage of Transcendence; this I call the Transcendent Life.
When there is no more consciousness of sin; when anxiety and doubt, and grief and sorrow, are ended; when lust and enmity, and anger and envy, no more possess the thoughts; when there remains in the mind no vestige of blame towards others for one’s own condition, and when all conditions are seen to be good because the result of causes, so that no event can afflict the mind, then Transcendence is attained; then the limited human personality is outgrown, and the divine life is known; evil is transcended, and Good is all-in-all.
The divine consciousness is not an intensification of the human, it is a new form of consciousness. It springs from the old, but it is not a continuance of it. Born of the lower life of sin and sorrow, after a period of painful travail, it yet transcends that life, and has no part in it, as the perfect flower transcends the seed from which it sprang.
As passion is the keynote of the self-life, so serenity is the keynote of the transcendent life. Rising into it, man is lifted above inharmony and disturbance. When Perfect Good is realized and known, not as an opinion or an idea, but as an experience, a possession, then calm vision is acquired, and tranquil joy abides through all vicissitudes. The transcendent life is ruled, not by passions, but by principles. It is founded, not upon fleeting impulses, but upon abiding laws. In its clear atmosphere, the orderly sequence of all things is revealed, so that there is seen to be no room for sorrow, anxiety, or regret. While men are involved in the passions of self, they load themselves with cares, and trouble over many things; and more than all else do they trouble over their own little, burdened, pain-stricken personality, being anxious for its fleeting pleasures, for its protection and preservation, and for its eternal safety and continuance. Now in the life that is wise and good all this is transcended. Personal interests are replaced by universal purposes, and all cares, troubles, and anxieties concerning the pleasure and fate of the personality are dispelled like the feverish dreams of a night.
Passion is blind and ignorant; it sees and knows only its own gratification. Self recognizes no law; its object is to get and to enjoy. The getting is a graduated scale varying from sensual greed, through many subtle vanities, up to the desire for a personal heaven or personal immortality, but it is self still; it is the old sensual craving coming out again in a more subtle and deceptive form; it is the longing for some personal delight, along with its accompanying dread lest that delight should be lost forever.
In the transcendent state desire and dread are ended; and the thirst for gain and the fear of loss are things that are no more; for where the universal order is seen, universal good is seen; and where perennial joy in that good is a normal condition, what is there left to desire, what remains to be feared?
He who has brought his entire nature into conformity and harmony with the law of righteousness, who has made his thoughts pure, and his deeds blameless, he it is who has entered into liberty. He has transcended darkness and mortality, and has passed into light and immortality. For the transcendent state is at first a higher order of morality, then a new form of perception, and at last a comprehensive understanding of the universal moral causation. And this morality, this vision, and this understanding constitute the new consciousness, the divine life.
The transcendent man is he who is above and beyond the dominion of self; he has transcended evil, and lives in the practice and knowledge of good. He is like a man who, having long looked upon the world with darkened eyes, is now restored to sight, and sees things as they are.
Evil is an experience, and not a power. If it were an independent power in the universe, it could not be transcended by any being. But though not real as a power, it is real as a condition, an experience, for all experience is of the nature of reality. It is a state of ignorance, of undevelopment, and as such it recedes and disappears before the light of knowledge, as the intelle6hial ignorance of the child vanishes before the gradually accumulating learning, or as darkness dissolves before the rising light.
The painful experiences of evil pass away as the new experiences of good enter into and possess the field of consciousness. And what are the new experiences of good? They are many and beautiful—such as the joyful knowledge of freedom from sin; the absence of remorse; deliverance from all the torments of temptation; ineffable joy in conditions and circumstances which formerly caused deep affliction; imperviousness to hurt by the actions of others; great patience and sweetness of character; serenity of mind under all circumstances; emancipation from doubt, fear, and anxiety; freedom from all dislike, envy, and enmity, with the power to feel and all kindly towards those who see fit to constitute themselves one’s enemies or opponents; the divine power to give blessings for curses, and to return good for evil; a deep knowledge of the human heart, with a perception of its fundamental goodness; insight into the law of moral causation and the mental evolution of beings, with a prophetic foresight of the sublime good that awaits humanity; and above all, a glad rejoicing in the limitation and impotency of evil, and in the eternal supremacy and power of good. All these, and the calm, strong, far-reaching life that these imply and contain, are the rich experiences of the transcendent man, along with all the new and varied resources, the vast powers, the quickened abilities, and enlarged capacities that spring to life in the new consciousness.
Transcendence is transcendent virtue. Evil and good cannot dwell together. Evil must be abandoned, left behind and transcended, before good is grasped and known, and when good is practised and fully comprehended, then all the afflictions of the mind are at an end, for that which is accompanied with pain and sorrow in the consciousness of evil is not so accompanied in the consciousness of good. Whatsoever happens to the good man cannot cause him perplexity or sorrow, for he knows its cause and issue, knows the good which it is ordained to accomplish in himself, and so his mind remains happy and serene. Though the body of the good man be bound, his mind is free; though it be wounded and in pain, joy and peace abide within his heart.
A spiritual teacher had a pupil who was apt and earnest. After several years of learning and practice the pupil one day propounded a question which his master could not answer. After days of deep meditation, the master said to his pupil: “I cannot answer the question which you have asked; have you any solution to offer?” Whereupon the pupil formulated a reply to the question which he had propounded; and the master said to him: “You have answered that which I could not, and henceforth nor I nor any man can instruct you, for now you are indeed instructed by truth. You have soared, like the kingly eagle, where no man can follow. Your work is now to instruct others. You are no longer the pupil, you have become the master.”
In looking back on the self-life which he has transcended, the divinely enlightened man sees that all the afflictions of that life were his schoolmasters teaching him, and leading him upward, and that in the measure that he penetrated their meaning, and lifted himself above them, they departed from him. Their mission to teach him having ended, they left him triumphant master of the field; for the lower cannot teach the higher; ignorance cannot instruct wisdom; evil cannot enlighten good; nor can the pupil set lessons for the master. That which is transcended cannot reach up to that which transcends. Evil can only teach in its own sphere, where it is regarded as a master; in the sphere of good it has no place, no authority.
The strong traveller on the highroad of truth knows no such thing as resignation to evil; he knows only obedience to good. He who submits to evil, saying, “Sin cannot be overcome, and evil must be borne,” thereby acknowledges that evil is his master; and not his master to instruct him, but to bind and oppress him. The lover of good cannot also be a lover of evil, nor can he, for one moment, admit its ascendency. He elevates and glorifies good, not evil. He loves light, not darkness. When a man makes truth his master, he abandons error; and as he transcends error, he becomes more like his master, until at last he becomes one with truth, teaching it, as a master, by his actions, and reflecting it in his life.
Transcendence is not an abnormal condition; it belongs to the orderly process of evolution; and though, as yet, few have reached it, all will come into it in the course of the ages. And he who ascends into it, sins no more, sorrows no more, and is no more troubled; good are his thoughts, good are his actions, and good is the tranquil tenor of his way. He has conquered self, and has submitted to truth; he has mastered evil, and has comprehended good. Henceforth nor men nor books can instruct him, for he is instructed by the Supreme Good, even the spirit of truth.