Transcendence & Humility

The Franklin River is an iconic eighty-mile body of water that flows through the majestic wilderness of southwest Tasmania in Australia. Traveling the river by raft takes about ten days from beginning to end. The trip begins with some easy sections, then makes its way through numerous challenging ravines before it finally opens up on some quiet flat pools and shingle rapids.

Marcus Morse, a lecturer at La Trobe University in Australia and an experienced guide and outdoor teacher, wanted to understand the specific experiences that people go through when they embark on such a difficult journey. Morse asked thirty-two participants who were planning to travel on the Franklin River by raft to report on their experiences through journaling and interviews. The most powerful feeling that the participants described on their return was a sense of humility towards nature. Specifically, they expressed a type of trepidation in being directed towards something that was beyond their imagination in terms of its scale, temporality, and beauty. One person explained: “When you stop and you look around you, you realize how profoundly unimportant you are to the natural flow of life as it unfolds in there. And I think . . . that [is a] sort of lesson in humility. . . it makes me profoundly aware of how unimportant I am personally, that my species is not the be-all and the end-all.”

Another traveler noted, “The sense of diminishment that you get which can be both inspiring and also a bit frightening because it’s ego dissolving.” What these participants were expressing is a sense of transcendence that people who spend a lot of time in nature sometimes feel: they encounter an awe of nature and a realization of how small and insignificant they are in relation to it. Other people experience similar feelings when they reflect about other larger things, such as God, death, history, or the larger universe. Since the beginning of time, and especially with the emergence of the monolithic religions, most humans have accepted their insignificance in relation to God or some supreme power. It is a form of metaphysical humility in which believers acknowledge their nothingness and the greatness of god who gives them being. They acknowledge their status as a creature, which, without its creator, simply doesn’t exist.

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Amer Kaissi is a Professional Speaker, Executive Coach, and Professor at the Department of Healthcare Administration at Trinity University. Check it out his new book “Humbitious: The power of Low-Ego, High-Drive Leadership.” This article is an excerpt from the book.