A quiet mind and self realization are two different things

Most people agree that they would be better off without all the mental noise. Typically, people on a spiritual path try to quiet the mind and that becomes the main objective of whatever methods and practices. A quiet mind does not guarantee awakening or enlightenment or what ever you want to call it.
In my experience, with lots of practice – and on a good day, I could hold out thoughts for a bit with will power and concentration. I would sit there, blankly – kind of like holding my breath under water. As soon as I would relax my concentration then thoughts would come flooding back in - and I was no more the wiser for all that effort.
By contrast, Self recognition, realization, and acceptance reduces mental activity naturally, because the mind is no longer searching for truth, peace, freedom, Self.
There is a huge amount of struggle, stress, and mental effort searching for that which is believed will bring fulfillment. With self realization there is a “laying down of one’s burdens”, a deep relaxation in the nervous system, an acceptance of this moment as it is.
Noticing silent awareness is the key to freedom from mental slavery.

Finding peace

For many years I was a seeker. I was busy looking for peace, freedom, universal love, the truth of this existence. In that time, I had many glimpses, many moments of direct experience of high, spiritual states. But when these experiences would pass, I believed that I had lost it, and would feel like a failure. Then I would again resume searching for that which I believed that I had and lost.

Turns out that I ‘was looking for love in all the wrong places’, as the song goes. States of consciousness come and go, like every thing else. I don’t always experience love and peace and high states. But every time I turn my attention to silence, that is present. That silence or stillness or awareness itself opens my awareness to the qualities of peace, love, unity, a sureness of the vastness of Being, in which time and space and all forms dance - like the petals of the lotus. This is available to everyone.