Transcendence

I would like to go back and make my post about "The Sublime" by Longinus. This was a particularly fascinating piece for me to read, but also, there are a few things that I could still need to work out in order to wrap me head around it. We defined sublime as exalted in thought, a spiritual state, tending to inspire awe including intellectual and moral worth. Longinus explains sublimity through writing. However, I find true sublimity to be divorced from the material world and pertaining to a mental state of mind. I suppose this mental state of mind could be expressed through writing and could be recorded. When I think of the sublime, I think of transcendence achieved through prayer, meditation and deep internal thoughts. I think just as Longinus was saying that our writing should include emotions that are necessary and only during the times that call for them pertains to us in life as well. We must not let our emotions get the best of us if we are going to have a higher consciousness and transcend into a better mind state. poor emotional states of being weigh us down and hold us back from our mental potential.

I do believe that sublimity can be taught, but I feel as thought in order to be introduced to it and taught, you must first have a very open mind and be willing. You must have the capacity to understand and be able to have those "noble" thoughts that are so needed to reach sublimity. I, however, have a hard time making the connection with the notion that sublime is a relationship between the reader, writer, and experience because I find sublimity to be a very personal individual thing, especially when referring to something like transcendence.