"To reduce suffering, to elevate fulfillment, to have some peacefulness in our life, to have concentration—these are some of the reasons that we practice meditation. Beyond that, there is the spiritual dimension. All over the world meditation is the main vehicle for deepening one’s spiritual life. People have different beliefs, they have different spiritual paths, there are different religions in the world; there are different philosophies. I compare these to software; different kinds of computer programs—different ideas that people have about the spiritual nature of things. Meditation is not another piece of software that competes with existing religions, like Christianity or Judaism. Meditation is hardware. It’s something that you can use to implement whatever your particular philosophy or religion may be; to implement it at a vastly deeper level than you would have ever thought possible."

--Shinzen Young, The Science of Enlightenment