HOW TO DO TRANSCENDENCE THE ATHEIST WAY

The reason we have spiritualties and religions is because we want to rise above mundane existence a bit and feel stronger than anything life throws at us. We call that transcendence and it means we feel connected to something bigger than ourselves. There is something bigger than ourselves and if you sense it religionists tell you you are sensing God. That is nonsense. Even if it is the universe we look around and see that there are forces and facts and truths that we have to live alongside and we cannot dominate them. Transcendence is about being big enough to admit it is not all about you. Religionists don't need to bring ghosts and gods and spirits into all that. There is enough to worry about.

Many navel-gazers, Catholicism has its version in enclosed religious orders, want the feeling of being above it all.  Others want this too but they also want to think that moral considerations and values such as respect and love and justice are bigger than them.  They fear that human nature will define them to suit itself so that they will not be the real thing.  They want morality to transcend and be bigger than us and to be right even if we are all wrong.  Morality is based on needs not wants.  You need to be given hard rough bread to stay alive. The cake is not a need but an extra.  It is a privilege.  Needs in fact are bigger than us and we keep forgetting that.  You in fact never deal with your needs.  You simply let luck and time sort things if they can be sorted.  You move to something else if a need cannot be dealt with.  So there is no need for a God to dictate or give morality.  And saying God grounds morality not us so it is bigger than us does not help for an all-powerful God can reason, "I will let them invent or decide their own morality.  I am in control to deal with the damage and avert it."  And if we want to avoid man decreeing morality, man can get around this by lying, "God gave me these commandments for you to obey."

Transcendence is something many of us feel forced to fabricate. Why? We don't want to get pity and make others feel they will be burdened by us and start to avoid us. There is no way to know if you look at a group how many really do have a sense of having inner strength that is there no matter how bad things get. Religion hopes we will make the assumption that its groupings will be able to transcend and offer the gift of transcendence to those who need it. It takes advantage of our guessing.

In fact, you only ever transcend as an individual. Don't be manipulated into a system that tries to be parasitic on your sense of transcendence. Don't fall for systems that offer you placebos that you can mistake for being transcendent.

Transcending Time and Space with Love

The notion that God is our ultimate end our goal implies that we are wrong if we feel fulfilled even for a time on earth.

It implies that having children and being good to each other and eating and drinking and everything we do is a means to some end. They never take us to that end.

Why do we believe we need God then? Because we crave permanent and indestructible love and the peace it brings.  But you do not need God for that.  Learn to see that nothing can change the love you have given in the past and just because it is in the past does not devalue it but adds value to it.

It does not follow from the fact that many of our needs can be fulfilled that our ultimate need will be fulfilled. Or even that it can be fulfilled.

The desire to make another’s life better transcends the limits of time and space and even life itself. You can sense this. Take a few quite moments a day to try and feel this.

Try to sense how you love others. See and feel that in some way it does not matter about time and space. Love is bigger than them. Sense this as often as you can. The habit of seeing that love alone will comfort you when you and your loved ones are separated in life or by death.

Every moment of your life, is real. You may leave a moment to walk into the future but it still happened and nothing not even a God itself can change that. It may be in the past but it is as real as if it were happening now. If you lose a loved one, there is a sense that you never really lose them. They may have gone but they are as real as if they are around right now.

Is there a real past and present and future with our perception able to perceive the immediate past and present and future in what we call the present? Is there a past, a present and a future?

There is undoubtedly a past and a future. But is there a present as such?

The present is not different from the past and future. It is just a mixture of past and future.

Imagine the past is red paint. Imagine the future is blue. Mix them together and you get green, the present.

When the present is the past and the future together this is a mystery we cannot understand. But it proves that jn some sense the past is still with us.  This is a huge mystery.

You may ask, "How could you cease to exist when the present is both past and future? You need to cease to exist and it becomes past giving way to a future without you. But there is no moment in which this can happen. Everything gives us consolation."  This is wrong for it is clear that things do pass away.  The paper you burn in the fire is gone.

The argument that "There is no moment where your existence ends and yet there is" is just mystical woo.

Some say, "You will simply find yourself outside the body when you die. Death is not the end of life but only the end of your current earth life."

Some answer that "the end of life is the end of your time but you become part of a timeless existence.  It is accepted that time exists but is dependent on a state called eternity or timelessness. Eternity is like one present moment that never had a past or a future. It is unchanging. Einstein's theory of relativity verified the concept. Time is a part of eternity though it is different. Each moment of time is present in eternity. It shows that even when we die and are buried on earth, our life is still present in eternity."

There is a sense in which the past is with us but that does not mean your past self exists now.  It is like how a party ends but you are in such a buzz that it seems to be happening still.

Time proves that though you are destructible your experience is eternal.

Take peace in this knowledge. Those who have gone are still with you in that sense. It is as real as ever.

Understand that when your body breaks down it will be recycled by nature as will your consciousness.

We cease to exist at death. But the life experience still exists. Dying does not mean that the moments of life are not preserved somehow.

Some say we are collectively a person on some level, "If I were to transfer my faculty into you, you would know no different. The faculty is the same in all of us even if the consciousness in each of us is separate from the rest. If you get my eye, you get the faculty of sight though it is a different eye and you may not even notice any difference or know of it."  But this is refuted by our individual experience.

We never experience death but only life!  Everybody forgets that you cannot experience death (if we assume death really is non-existence and that there is nothing that lives on and survives it). You are aware or conscious one moment and then next you are not. All you experience is life.

I cannot be expected to die in spite of my life being worthwhile. I die because it was. No matter how useless somebody’s life may appear to others, the fact is that if the whole universe existed just so that that person could live makes it worth it.

I live in such a way that I will be at least sort of happy when my life is extinguished. Say, “I have lived, eaten and been merry and I have done great good for others. I know death is the end. I am happy to go because my life was worthwhile. Do you not see that the person who lived the best and most fulfilled life they could while believing hat death is the end is more mature than the person

I allow my life to be extinguished forever so that I can make way for others. I give my place in life for another to take it and enjoy it. There is no waste and I will return to nature to nurture.”

Death is the end of my existence. There will be no reincarnation or resurrection. I don’t want there to be for I am glad I lived. I am not going to be greedy. There will be no spirit world waiting for me. I make my loved ones happy on earth so that I will not need to hope to meet them again in a blissful afterlife.

When I die nobody or nothing can ever hurt me again. I rejoice in there being not even the smallest chance that I might suffer in Hell forever. It is better for there to be no life after death for anybody than for there to be life after death and for even one person to endure Hell forever.  Do you want your beloved mother at risk of damnation just because you want to meet her again in a Heaven?

My life will go out like a candle flame.  But nothing can take away the fact that I had many special times.  They are over yes but not gone.

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