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14. Self, Realities, and the Transcendents.........................

Chapter 14 the Transcendents

The attainment of a cosmic self is the highest goal of living.

Overview: Humans have amassed a large amount of knowledge about them-
selves and the world, but there are limitations to human understanding. There
are facts that we do not yet know or cannot yet explain. And still there are real-
ities that, because of their fundamental nature, can never be clearly understood.
Mind is one of these. Mind is the axiomatic standpoint from which we know
everything else. It is simply there, beyond proof or disproof.
Our reflective capacity leads to the realization of the finitude of life. Con-
trasted with the enormity of the universe, our ephemeral existence appears
worthless. Religion is the question raised when our transitory self confronts the
immensity of the universe. It is an endless search without a clear-cut answer.
However, in the pursuit of this question, we are linking our minuscule self with
the immense, and our transitory self with the constant. The merging of man and
nature is the highest form of being. In this manner, self, which initially “crystal-
lizes” out of the world, in the end yearns to return to it.

14.1 Self and the Realities

When viewed from the inside, mind is the indubitable, supreme reality.
From this axiomatic foothold we process the derived reality of the out-
side world. However, it is only partially true to say that the mind reflects
the world. It would be more correct to say that mind reflects part of the
world. On the perceptual plane, each animal species lives in a world