My understanding of the pinnacle of meditation is that of the Vedanta which is also aligned with Jnana Yoga, i.e., yoga of knowledge. Of course, this knowledge is not of a cognitive, subject-object sort. It is simply consciousness effortlessly "seeing" itself purely as consciousness without apparent cause, mediation, purpose or intent to achieve anything whatsoever. Such absolute consciousness is the primordial condition of the possibility of reality itself.
This Consciousness as Self-awareness is the image of God. It is the Truth Jesus speaks of, the eternal "I am that I am," that he says will set us free. The fulfillment of Jnana, the Truth, is abiding in the Heart of Consciousness, the Eternal Living Light of Lights, in absolute Freedom. This in no way precludes being fully, wholly & robustly in the world because in Jnana we always know & are always abiding in Self-Consciousness, safe and free. It needs no worldly form. It is true Self, or, Soul, if you like.
In my experience this doesn't preclude the unconscious arising, the return of the repressed, i.e., what I call karmic momentum. But in the State of Being of Jnana, unresolved unconscious or karmic sufferings arise & dissipate in Consciousness, given we can then understand and "see" that phenomenal pain is not real.
The only thing that is experientially Real is Consciousness itself. From its Heart, it yields or manifests love, peace, happiness & freedom but, as the homogenous equanimity of "ananda," it immanently transcends all ways it's various affective "colors" or nuances shine forth. One may believe that the Real may include other things even God, e.g., but unless it is experiential it is only belief. Nothing wrong with that. Of course one 'experiences' the phenomena of the lived world but it is not "real." That is, it is constantly subject to change and impermanence.
Beliefs may well be "true" in any given system of thought. But unless experienced they remain theoretical at best or mere opinion at worst. But meditation is absolute abidance in "experientially knowing" who we are, the pure 'I am that I am,' without having to believe anything. To me this is the Sacred, the Heart of the Holy. It is also eternal & absolute openness to the Mystery.
It's path, if we would call it a path, happens in " Satsangh," which means being in "communion with Truth. In Satsangh one participates in a dialogue in which the teacher, the Jnani, leads & points the student in the direction of the experience of this Absolute Truth. This Truth is a knowing of Self, in Inquiry, "vichara," in the Sanskrit. This experience does not give answers. It ends all questions. That is, the intellectual questions about the True Self end but, of course, the questions of the world will always remain. From the standpoint of True Self we can be "in" the world but free of being "of" the world. IMO this is the realm & home of the mystic.
