An old English hymn says:

A man who looks on glass,
On it may stay his eye,
Or -- if he pleases -- through it pass
And then then heavens espy.

When in meditation we fix our awareness on something -- our own breath, if we are doing focused meditation, or whatever is engaging our attention, if we are practicing awareness meditation -- we are like that man. Sometimes we see only the object itself. But there are moments -- sometimes when we have actually finished meditating -- that we realize that we have seen through the object to its essence: that a bird, a tree or a flower is more than we experience in terms of the visual or auditory stimulus we perceive, but is a part of something much deeper to which we ourselves belong.

Some of us choose to call that God, or the dharma, or the Tao. But the name we use is not really important. In those moments we encounter something so profound and meaningful that it makes all the work of Steps 10, 11 and 12 worthwhile.