Being still, touching base, being with the breath, allowing the mind to quiet, opening the heart, settling the body, settling ourselves; this is meditation. As we sit, the patterns of the mind emerge, and we learn to see them clearly and inhabit our lives with wisdom.

To take responsibility for peace in your world is genuinely heroic. Practicing meditation can be hard on your stiff body and restless mind, but it does not hurt anyone. No one is harmed by your practice; indeed, everyone is helped.

from Paradise in Plain Sight; Lessons from a Zen Garden by Karen Maezen Miller  

It is often said that our meditation practice is ultimately not our own. We practice for the benefit of everyone we know and everyone we don't know, which is mostly everybody. Sitting with ourselves as we are is a radical and courageous act of compassion.  And when this compassion is unleashed, it lands everywhere including our own hearts.

Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at the bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are. - Jon Kabat-Zinn