>>62
I agree.
Meditation - deep contemplation - can be used for honing your mindfulness skills, as well as for reaching enlightenment and ultimately Nirvana.
There are plenty of examples of people becoming enlightened outside meditation, because all it actually takes is a moment of realization. There are also other deep contemplation techniques than zazen (sitting meditation).
However, with western soto zen, a misconception has creeped in, where people claim that just sitting and emptying your head of all your thoughts, without understanding anything, will be enough for you to reach enlightenment, and that we are all buddhas without realizing it. This is dumb and wrong. Compare this to martial arts hoaxes where students break phony bricks with their fists.