The guarantee of an afterlife prevents the development of valuable critical reflections in relation to the temporal realm which in turn indirectly qualify the transcendent.

This occurred to me the other night as I was trying to get to sleep. Probably my unconscious regurgitating something I read years ago then firing it into my drowsy mindset for curiosity's sake.

I think it means that the transcendent is the ethereal by-product of the resolutely practical which wants nothing to do with it, like Sean Penn's character in The Thin Red Line when he refuses to be recognized for an heroic act.