Rabbi Sherwin Wine wrote many books and led a humanistic Jewish community for years. Here are two passages that I value very much from the beginning of his book Celebration – A Ceremonial and Philosophic Guide for Humanists and Humanistic Jews:

If there is any kind of humanistic “spiritual” experience, it lies in the sense of transcendence which comes from deeply feeling part of something greater than ourselves. (from the Introduction)

Only when we become aware that each of us is independently real do we discover our strength. (page 24)

If I combine these ideas, I wind up reflecting on the possibility of Humanistic Transcendence. It suggests to me that, in a true experience of each person’s independence, that person can also encounter the experience of transcendence.

This transcendence, notably, is human-bound ~ I am greater than myself alone when I know myself as part of a community, society, or humanity in general. This transcendence is not, in other words, heaven-bound ~ I am not losing my human-self in a being that is anything other than human.

This is a sort of this-worldly transcendence that might appeal to me and other humanists.