In the seventies and the late sixties, a lot of people were talking about having transcending experiences. And even now people talk about wanting transcending experiences, trying to put themselves in a position to have a transcending experience. Well, what does that mean, to have a transcending experience? Well, what most people think of it is that they somehow experience something that’s beyond their normative everyday existence. They’re somehow elevated into another way of seeing things, another way of understanding things, another way of being.
Well, that’s all well and good as far as an understanding, but as far as that occurring, some basic things have to happen within ourselves. In order to become transcendent, it should be evident that one has to stop being petty. One can’t be transcendent and petty simultaneously. So, the question is what is petty? And what are petty feelings and petty involvements? Well, a few days ago, I saw two people fighting over whether or not you should cut a cake straight through or put a cylinder in the middle of it and cut it off the cylinder. And there was vehemence in this argument, and there was also, and this is the important point, there was something dependent upon the winning of the argument, as if somehow self-worth was involved in winning the point of view and making that point-of-view tantamount and paramount. It was as if to prove themselves. Well, I would consider that petty. The cake is still the cake, and the experience of eating isn’t going to change.
What happens is somehow the people involved in that experience have to remove themselves from their attachment to needing to get their way. And this is what’s interesting about a transcendent experience — it’s not your way. It’s God’s way, and that’s why it’s transcendent. And if you insist on your way, then you can’t bypass your way and you can’t bypass your own pettiness. And your own pettiness becomes the anchor that keeps you from having a transcendent experience because you’re holding onto your way. And the word transcendent isn’t clear enough in its singularity to be defined for you as losing your way and finding another way, a transcendent way, a different way, Allah’s way as opposed to your way.
So, in order for us to become more, we have to become less first. And we have to become less of all of the things that we are that is attached to making us more. And it’s very interesting. To become more, you have to become less attached to becoming more. But, of course, the “more” means different things in different applications.
