In this world we are needy. We need shelter, we need food, and then we need the accoutrement, the additions, and for each one there are different additions depending on their desires. Desires create needs, and then we spend our time in an effort to fulfill these needs. Often not knowing how they came about, where they came from, and why we’re in the process of doing it. But we get involved, and we get involved in a very deep and intense way. And then somehow our mood and our view of ourselves has to do with the results of our attempt to fulfill our desires. So we’re in this constant state of need; I need this, I need that.
Now, ask yourself a question: What is transcendence and what do you need to be transcendent? What are the prerequisites of becoming transcendent? Do you need a special place? Do you need a special time? Do you need special clothes? What do you need?
Now let’s use the example of somebody who was transcendent that we knew, Muhammad Rahim Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. What did he have as far as physical possessions? What I saw, from watching him, was that he had a sarong, and he had his t-shirt, and he had his turban, and he didn’t have much else. And what else he had, that came into his hands, went away very quickly. In one hand and out the other; there was no holding onto things.
So, we see that we can either be a slave to our needs, a slave to our desires, or we can choose to be transcendent. Now, just because we may choose to be transcendent doesn’t necessarily mean that transcendence is going to fall on us. It doesn’t mean that we will wave our hand and become otherworldly. What it does mean is that if you set an intention to become transcendent, you have to be able to understand what the word means and what the implications of it are.
Being transcendent doesn’t mean having 82 cars. Being transcendent doesn’t mean that you live in a mansion. Being transcendent doesn’t mean that you have so much money that you transcend your need for money. Being transcendent has to do with changing your paradigm. Paradigm means your state of understanding, the way you are, what it is that you consider important.
So if you choose to be transcendent you have to give everything that kept you from being transcendent away. Back to Bawa; what did he have? He had a sarong, and a t-shirt, and a turban, and sometimes he didn’t have a turban, and everything was given away. Well, we’re not saying that you have to give all your possessions away, but can you give all of your attachments to all of your possessions away?
There’s a very fine line between understanding attachment, and understanding having something. The attachment to having it is sometimes stronger than the need to have it. We need to work on our attachments. We need to work on the physical things that we are attached to. We need to work on not needing them in our lives for our lives to be satisfied, for our lives to be happy.
We have to understand that the most exalted being that we knew, the most transcendent being that we knew, the one who was capable of giving more to others than anyone we knew, the one who was capable of creating a space where overwhelming love overwhelmed everybody in that space, had given up his attachments to physical things and didn’t have them…
