You are right that as long as view enlightenment as a future happening or a reward for a long meditation practice, it is no different from looking for heaven or utopia or any such thought projected ideal state.

The key difference with true meditation which is abidance as unconditioned Awareness is that it is not a future reward. The very meditation is the reward. When one is in that state, it is full of peace and clarity.. The only thing with this state during the gradual process is that it may slip away due to the old habits and thought patterns taking over. So diligence and alertness is necessary to root oneself back in one's true state. So it is more like jumping back and forth between 'heaven' and back rather than waiting for heaven at some future time. The glimpses of heaven gets wider and deeper as one stays with the process. For a few, this glimpse is sudden and seemingly everlasting. For many, the glimpse is gradual. But there is no qualitative difference.

To use the language of the video you shared, for some the neural pathway of the right brain is established suddenly and irrecovably. For others the pathway is gradually established by activating it longer and longer during each meditation.

Also as I already mentioned, this is not about living in the now as characterized by many. It is about accepting the now. They are both vastly different. Former is seeking a certain kind of experience, latter is to see all experiences choicelessly.

And problems not being labeled as problems does not mean at all that we don't deal with them seriously. It just frees one of thought movement toward what could have, should have, would have happened etc. Our entire energy can focus on the problem at hand. A state of total attention deals with problems most effectively.

Anyway thank you again for the response.