But meditation is the main focus of zen Buddhism, which took the practice back to _what the Buddha actually did himself_ to become enlightened, which was sit un

But meditation is the main focus of zen Buddhism, which took the practice back to _what the Buddha actually did himself_ to become enlightened, which was sit under the bodhi tree and meditate until the truth came to him. Other Asian traditions have long reached the point where it's the monks and priests who do the Buddhism same as in Catholicism it's the Pope and the priests who are the main channels of actual Christianity. For example, Pure Land Buddhism relies on chanting the nembutsu, a chant that is designed to bring you to the Pure Land aka Heaven eventually, none of this is in the original Buddhism, hence why Zen and similar sects tried to strip out all the fluff and accoutrements that they considered needlessly tacked on to the original Buddhism, with the idea of returning practice back to what truth and reality means for you, because your subjective experience is necessarily unique to you, and any words or teaching added in to it are going to be trivial compared to what you find out for yourself about how the world presents to you and your life, hence the need for meditation to give you the space and time and peace to work that out.