Meditation and enlightenment are one and the same. Meditation is the experience of a particular state of consciousness which has qualities of enlightened awareness.
We are pointing to an inner position of your own mind that is free from compulsive identification with fear and desire, with time, thought, memory, and feeling.
Taking this position requires enormous spiritual courage. By doing this, you will discover why the Buddha looks so happy and peaceful. You will experience the joy of letting everything go — all thoughts, feelings, and sensations that arise.
When you look at a powerful statue of the Buddha, you can see, in his face and posture, his experience of the freedom from the momentum of karma and from all fears and desires that are associated with it.
To experience this inner freedom, you should sit down to meditate, you should be holding on to nothing. The whole point is to have no attachment whatsoever — no attachment to life, death, or to anything in this world.
It is not a matter of letting go of any thing in particular. If there is something specific that’s troubling you psychologically and emotionally, you can try to let go of it and you may feel more peaceful, but that’s not meditation — and it’s not freedom.
Many people think that if they could just let go of this or that, they would be free. But if you are going to be free in a context of enlightenment, you have to be willing to let go of everything...
Meditation only becomes real, powerful, authentic, and liberating when it is a practice of letting everything go. Otherwise it is reduced to little more than a psycho-spiritual relaxation technique. It may make you feel better, but it won’t set you free.
Feeling better and being free don’t necessarily mean the same thing. Feeling better is relative; being free is not. If you understand what it means to let go of everything, you know everything you need to know about meditation. Then your meditation is real. It’s the posture of freedom, the posture of enlightenment. Meditation, as a metaphor for enlightenment, is the practice of the unconditional willingness to be free from, to transcend, and to let go of anything that is in your way.
Notes:
We have heard, meditate to get enlightened. This is something new but I like it. Yes, meditation can be a mini enlightenment, just as sleep is a mini death. Upgrade the soul, Journey, Destination .... this is the mind working, and this is what meditation tackles.
True seekers should decide for themselves; had they had enough of the world if not then they should try to have enough of the world, which too is a meditation of a kind. There are however a couple of prerequisites one leading to another. For Example, Lord Buddha possessed as per ordnance. First He took birth in a Royal family possessing Wealth, women etc which led to the second i.e dispassion. Till dispassion arises true meditation cannot take place. God is In Extremes, at which soever point in the life of a human body dispassion arises from that point not much effort has to be made to let go of the worldly things; the age being immaterial where so ever one has had enough of any thing or all the things there is no desire left for those things then an effort i.e. meditation is useful till then it is use less as you yourself have pointed out.
We are made to believe that Budha had enlightenment and as if thereafter light company went defunct. It's not so; the source of light in our brain: Pineal gland is with all of us. The difference may be Budha knew as to what to do with enlightenment on the insistence of angels and we are not confident enough to throw light on our problems to solve those and look towards others to do so.
We may have different names for enlightenment e.g. awakening. How can there be any awakening if we are not able to get out of darkness by our own light.As soon as I name awakening, light bulb gets on and we even look towards Kundalini which acts as source of energy for that light.You will ask me if it was that simple, why we have this category of 'enlightened souls' here? The answer is also simple: because they followed their intuitions and climbed the tree. Not only this but also, they are here to bless us from tree top and encourage us that we can also do so.
Enlightenment is a happening and it can not be forced.People can meditate for hours, days and years without becoming enlightened. Conversely, enlightenment may come suddenly to some who have never meditated. Meditation is a method and should not be confused with the goal. More than meditation, meditativeness, that state is important, one can carry that meditativeness even in middle of a war or as one negotiates some business deal. Meditation (or any other sadhana) performed just a routine exercise without awareness will not result in enlightenment (not now, not ever).
The seed, then sprouts and then begins to grow into shrub. The gardener then gives a support and he creates a boundary to protect the plant from gale, rain, etc. He insulates the plant from bigger external influences. He does everything that he should and watches and waits for its growth, flowering and fruition. One day this stage is achieved. He simply laughs and thanks the existence. This is how an enlightened person showers his gratitude to his master and the whole existence. This is how on the last day of enlightenment Buddha bowed in gratitude to the whole existence.
You can take another example of a raw gold. A raw gold passes through a fire test and an acid test and in the process transforms into a 24-carat gold. The purest form of gold (24-carat gold) is hidden within the raw gold itself. The only condition is that it has to undergo or pass through the acid test or fire test. Through the fire test and acid test all the impurities of the raw gold are burnt and the resultant is a purest form of gold and that is a 24-carat gold. The whole process is like meditation. The by-product is its ultimate purity. The raw gold is a potentiality and its transformation into a 24-carat gold is its actuality. The same is the case with the transformation of a human being. The human being also passes through the fire test or acid test called meditation. In the process of meditation all the lower energies are dissolved and the result is a pure and spotless consciousness. This state is called the state of enlightenment or Buddha-hood. Gautama Siddhartha undergoes this process of meditation for more than 40 years and one day awakens. And in this process Siddhartha becomes Buddha. Buddha simply means an awakened one. This is our ultimate potentiality and destiny. So meditation is a beginning and Buddha-hood or enlightenment is the end-result. And the by-product of this enlightenment is immense joy, love, compassion and celebration.
Will power is important because without will power, journey does not begin and it needs to be left behind after it has served its purpose. Because WILL POWER power is related to the EGO, the 'I'. The ego is the stumbling block to enlighment. As every one knows the Ego (i.e. will power) becomes the last hindrance to enlightenment. For Example: It is like putting all efforts to earn all those degress right upto PhD and then just burning them up, not attached to degrees too. who is to be attached, then one becomes a master one who can teach, one who is enlightened !
There is a natural meditation technique called 'Surya Meditation' taught by Maharshi Maheshananda that allows the physiology to effortlessly transcend. You can go to the website MountSoma.org and click on meditation and watch a free instruction video. It is a sacred knowledge that Maharshi wants available to all.
I f you are taking a stand in meditation, as you said a profound existential stand to life and death, it may not take you to enlightenment.You are still in the realm of DUALITY.
Samyam is the main attainment, you become one with existence at will .this is much higher state than meditation; this will lead you to enlightenment. But even enlightenment is not the ultimate. When you know that you are enlightened, you still exist. You are in the asmita state.
Nirvaana or bodhi is attained when you have gone beyond existence and consciousness alone is all pervading truth. The peace in the statue is ideas of a follower.There are so many saints who have attained to Buddhahood (bodhi). They are the real enlightened masters but they don't speak. Their presence itself is sufficient to transform the seeker and the atmosphere.they live because we need them for our sake.
Reference:
http://www.speakingtree.in/spiritual-articles/new-age/a-metaphor-for-enlightenment
