The self-actualisation process for Abraham Maslow, the individuation process for Carl G. Jung, the search for meaning through logotherapy for Viktor Frankl, and the philosophies of various spiritual pathways endorsing a holistic worldview of conscious development are effectively shades of one main idea: life is movement and transcendence. Movement is what makes our lives eventful (full of events, dramatic or mundane) as opposed to linear: that is the reason why there is no constancy in life, neither a ‘happily ever after’ nor a ‘never ending dread’, for life is by essence movement. It shifts, it expands, it contracts, it bounces up and down and right and left, and it brings respite only when it has exhausted all that it could create in this material world. That is why only the present moment exists, and my limited consciousness can grasp this only through awareness of the body as it is in this moment.
The body itself is in constant movement, for when it ceases to be animated – by which I refer to the internal flow of blood and the working of organs which we hardly ever notice, as opposed to the movements of the limbs which are easier to notice and to consciously control – then life is no more. Thus, life is movement, and this movement is what helps us learn and grow into what we are meant to be, whereby we realise that beyond the apparent duality that triggers the dynamics of movement, there is a transcendent state which encompasses opposites and contradictions.
Transcendence brings an awareness that my individuality is mirroring everything else around me, outlining the interconnectedness between all forms of life. In other words, I grow into my sense of self (here understood as conscious identity) through life-as-movement. I learn through the contrasting occurrences that shape my daily embodied existence, until I can grasp that these apparent ups and downs of existence are purposeful in respect to life-as-transcendence, an understanding of my sense of self as a piece of a greater Self (which for Jung is the archetype of Wholeness, for Maslow the Human Spirit, or more generally named God or the Anima Mundi – the Soul of the World). It is that Self, that greater piece who is the main storyteller, the one who crafts meaning as life begins, unfolds and ends.
Life-as-movement and life-as-transcendence are one and the same fundamental principle of human life. It enables synchronistic encounters and opportunities, obstacles and hurdles, choices and crossings, love and awe. It makes life worth living, worth enjoying, worth struggling, because joy, love and awe manifest in unexpected ways when we let go of control and let ourselves join the movement, be transcended.
Observe the way you engage in daily life: do you throw yourself into it, jumping head first with a splash? Do you proceed cautiously, toe by toe and the body silent? Do you happen to do either depending on the context (if so, which ones lead to a splash, which ones to a muting)?
Explore the way you see life-as-movement by noticing the movement in your body (always there, always going), then the movement in your surroundings: beyond the sounds, beyond the seasons, can you notice the movement of life itself at any given second, at any given breath?
Then, can you explore and expand the resonance of the movement in your body and the movement of life itself in, out and through your body? That moment, ephemeral, is transcendence.