What does it mean to immerse rather than transcend?

Answer:

Modern religion and pop psychology loves to talk about enlightenment and trascending the everyday. The idea is typically visualized as a meditating figure floating into the heavens. The idea of heaven as being above the earth stems from the mythology of many modern religions which casts the earth as an unworthy place that people should escape. Buddhists consider it an illusion that causes suffering, and attempt to see through it. Christians and most Abrahamic religions see the earth as a sinful place that acts as a test of faith. In both cases, the earth is not where humans were meant to be. Earth is bad, the good stuff comes after you die.

Freepathers feel that this mythology, which casts the earth as an intrinsically sinful place where one is meant to suffer while one waits for entrance into the perfect heaven above, is dangerous to life on earth and ecosystem itself given humankind's ability to affect the ecosystem. People who think the world is meant to be suffering do not think things are strange when the ecosystem is so damaged that everything depending upon it suffers from said damage. People who think the earth is a sinful place, may see less reason to avoiding damaging things- just as one would not see a problem in kicking the fence of a crack house. People who see the earth as a waiting room for heaven, are not likely to see a pressing need to keep the earth in working order far into the future.

Freepathers therefore look in the opposite direction. Rather than idealizing the heaven image, freepathers look for understanding and epiphany in the moist black wormy earth below them. While Christians hope to ascend to heaven on the wings of angels, Freepaths prefer the metaphors of sinking roots deep into the land. Learning more through a deeper connection, one that also strengthens the land itself.