Meditation and Near Death Experience

Question:Sorry, I do not speak English. The text below was written in Portuguese and translated by Google. But I need this much response.

I am a 55 year old Brazilian studying and practicing self-taught meditation for 20 years. I am a great admirer of his work. Have read several of his books, interviews, and also attended various films and videos. I know of no other philosopher who can intertwine so accessible concepts of ancient Eastern wisdom with concepts of quantum physics in a simple, concise, transparent and at the same time profound. For me it is a privilege belonging to his generation. Maybe I could not reach the unitary experience of consciousness in this life was not the contagious brilliance of his ideas and his work

The 6th chapter of his book "How to Know God", makes the following statement:

"The irony of the near-death experiences is that, in return to tell how they felt raptured by the dazzling light that bathing, do not realize that the light was there the whole time. It is your own Self. "

Then I had this experience of near-death about 10 years ago, never 'saw' the presence of light. I would like to know how to feel again the presence of light - the very self - in meditation. Need a lot of response.

Answer:
The point I was making in the book is that the experience in near-death experiences of feeling reassured and comforted by the presence of light is only extraordinary because of the extreme physical circumstances and because culturally we lack the context for understanding what that presence is. In a meditation process that takes you beyond your discursive mind, that presence is recognized as your true self. It is not necessarily experienced as light, but the absolute intimacy of that silent presence has the same unmistakable characteristics. In actuality that presence of the Self is always there and available in everyone’s life if they can bring their awareness to it. Whether we transcend our external world in a near death experience or simply by sitting quietly and allowing the mind to become silent through meditation, in either case we are coming into the presence of our spiritual self.

If you are not coming out of your meditation practice with the experience of that silence or at least coming out of meditation with the benefit that comes from briefly contacting that silence, then you may want to learn a traditional meditation practice from a teacher. Keep in mind, you don’t need to try to recreate in your meditation practice. the exact near-death experience you had 10 years ago. That was a very specific circumstance and time. You have changed and time has passed. Every time we experience the Self in meditation the specific experience will be uniquely different, even though certain general characteristics will be the same. If you try to recreate a near-death experience in your meditation you will only succeed in keeping yourself from experiencing the natural, spontaneous experience of the Self that is actually available.
So let go of any expectation that your experience of your inner presence in meditation has to be like your old near death experience. Then if you find you are still are not getting the benefit of transcending in your meditation, consider learning a practice that has a tradition and has been proven effective through the centuries.

Love,
Deepak