This transcendental state of unity is certainly an abstract concept, and in metaphysical languages we might have to refer to it as a higher dimension, but that higher dimension is not separate from our everyday experience of the physical world.  On the contrary, it provides the very substance of our entire experience of being here now.  It is the "stuff" of both consciousness and matter, from our living bodies to inanimate rocks to the distant quasars.  If that Cosmic Light were not shining forth at this very moment, nothing whatsoever would exist.

The essence of mystical knowledge resonates with our deepest level of being, yet it persistently defies our logic-oriented minds.  Normal objective logic is based on the knowledge of material separateness, and as far as our everyday existence is concerned, this is what reality is.  To the ancient mystics, this is the classical trap.

The physical level of experience is that part of our being which makes us think we are separate, when in Reality we are not.  If we think the physical is the only mode of being, we have fallen into the trap of the ego-self -- we have become so fully attached to the material realm that we too easily think of our body as our only mode of selfness, and have come to think of it as the only part of our being.  This causes us, for example, to fear death.  We fear death because we cannot see beyond it -- we have essentially no awareness of our true multi-dimensional reality and those modes of our being which are independent of the physical body.

The material world is transient -- things come and go, bioforms included.  To the mystic, all forms of impermanence are a type of non-reality, and in many of the ancient teachings, such as in the writings of one of the most highly revered nondualists, Shankara, we find the physical level being referred to as illusion.  This is not to say that it doesn't really exist, but rather that we see its true form in a limited, illusory sense.  There is no doubt that the physical experience is real.  If we walk into a brick wall, it hurts -- both the wall and the pain are real enough.  But the pain will pass, the goose-egg will heal, and the wall will eventually crumble.  What is important to realize is that through all the experiences of change, the true reality which underlies and creates the physical world of change does not change.  That level of reality which never changes is the most real -- everything else is temporary and illusory.  The ultimate substance and reality of the Universe is not separate particles scattered around in space, but rather a timeless condition of Universal Light.

Integrating the Realms

The general aim of transcendental mediation and yoga (yoking, union) is a conscious state of spiritual enlightenment in which the experience of maya (the illusion of time-bound separateness) is recognized for what it is.  In the old Eastern traditions, the desired result of dhyana (absorption into Reality, as during meditation) is the overcoming of the illusion and fear of death, so that, at the moment of death, the individual may obtain total liberation from samsara (the time-bound process of life-death-rebirth), resulting in a total dissolution of the individual psyche into the Supreme Reality.  The individual spirit, having been recognized as the only true reality by virtue of its immortality, remains in a state of blissful rapture with the wholeness of Being; where, of course, it has been all along.

This classical view has been criticized for its tendency to de-emphasize the importance of the creative expression of the Supreme in the material world.  Most of the ancient teachings contain an element of material world denial and involve a systematic negation of or withdrawal from the physical level.  This may have been appropriate for the day, and is still useful in meditation exercises since any connection to the "logicalness" of the physical senses tends to contradict and otherwise distract the meditator from the higher levels of experience.  However, this can leave the meditator with the feeling that the physical world is bad and physical sensations should be shunned, or with a sense that the physical world is so unreal that we don't have to worry about it at all.  Also, if a meditation begins with the classical type of material-world negation, and if a samadhic (rapture-like) state is experienced as a result, it can leave the seeker with the feeling, after "returning" to the normal state, that the samadhic state was actually somewhere "else", again loosing track of that essence of connection between the physical and spiritual realms, the main goal of the meditation in the first place.

Fortunately, more contemporary teachings and meditation techniques tend to stress that the sensory perception of physical objects need not necessarily be "disconnected" during the supersensory perception of transcendental experience.   In fact, the experience of physical life-senses should take on a more vivified reality, having been recognized as an integral part of the individual's ever-present connection with the transcendental Reality.  This reflects an important aspect of our current stage of conscious evolution, which emerged in one form earlier this century in the Integral Yoga of teachers such as Sri Aurobindo and Haridas Chaudhuri.

Individuality...is an active center of dynamic self-expression of the Supreme.  In that case, true wisdom cannot consist in mere self-negation in an absolute void, or in self-annihilation in the formless absolute.  The path of wisdom rather lies in the realization of one's essential oneness with the whole of existence and in the reconstruction of one's life on the basis of that realization.

Haridas Chaudhuri
Being, Evolution, and Immortality
1974, The Theosophical Publishing House

The integration of spiritual knowledge with physical knowledge is a key aspect of the awakening process that our planet is experiencing today.  It will obviously involve a fundamental paradigm shift in our understanding of space, time, and matter.

This paradigm shift began earlier this century with the birth of both relativity and quantum theory.  These scientific theories deal with universal principles, and being firmly based in the objective logic of physical knowledge, their deep revelations have appeared as very strange ideas.  It has taken this entire century to formulate and accept the full impact of their implications, although they have become no less strange to the logical mind.

Science has missed something essential; it has seen and scrutinised what has happened and in a way how it has happened, but it has shut its eyes to something that made this impossible possible, something it is there to express. There is no fundamental significance in things if you miss the Divine Reality; for you remain embedded in a huge surface crust of manageable and utilisable appearance. It is the magic of the Magician you are trying to analyze but only when you enter into the consciousness of the Magician himself can you begin to experience the true organisation, significance and circles of the Lila.

Sri Aurobindo
The Valley of the False Glimmer

Only when we fully integrate mystical knowledge into our worldview do the strange implications of modern science begin to make sense.  At the same time, the language of modern science becomes a great help in understanding ancient mysticism.