In the allegedly factual
Tibetan Book Of The Dead, as in CS Lewis' avowedly
fictional
The Great Divorce, individuals entering the hereafter are offered the Light but might be unable to accept it. Although I am sceptical of a hereafter, I think that these accounts express an experience in the here and now.
We do not realise our enlightenment in the first moment of meditation because our past actions and present thought processes hold us back. Meditation prepares us for a hereafter if there is one but meanwhile is also an enlightened and enlightening act here and now.
