The teachings of Buddha can be symbolized to a stream of

water which passes through various places and acquire various

colours as it travels through the soil of space and time. By the
time the teachings reached to these modern times, the
Buddhist path has acquired many different streams and
colourations. However much these streams may appear
different from each other but their basic core teachings contain
the same core elements as propounded by the reverend
Buddha.

Meditation, for example , a technique of collecting your

consciousness from your body taking it inside deep for waking
up your higher centres, is central to Buddhism and appears in
all schools of thoughts. In Buddhism the reason for pursuing
meditation is to have self-actualization experience by himself
for understanding the reality through direct experience.
Buddhism does not believe in theorizing much but in having
direct personal experience. Ultimate reality, the Buddha taught,
cannot be understood except by personal practice. Buddha
initiates, sparks the light but real illumination has to be done by
seeker himself. The purpose is to wake up ourselves,
understand ourselves and, finally, as Zen master Shunryu
Suzuki (1904-1971) says, to forget ourselves. (Zen mind,
Beginners mind, p. 26) All spiritual knowledge and power is
obtained by reversing the attention from outward and
downward to inward and upward. All that is worth obtaining is
contained within ones body. If a person having treasure inside
his house searches in vain outside his house in whole world
then it is his folly. The inner path and inner practice is the
central core in Buddhism.

It is well accepted fact that the Buddha attained enlightenment

through intense meditation, and he declared that the profound
truth can only be obtained through inner practice. He told that
the profound truth he discovered can only be realized

personally by the wise. (Pachchattam veditabbo vinnuhi,

Majjhima Nikaya, i, p. 37). More explicitly, Buddha says:

I do declare to you that within this very body, mortal as it is and

only six feet in length, are the world, the origin of the world, the
ceasing of the world, and likewise the path that leads to
cessation. (Samyutta Nikaya, i, p. 62; Anguttara Nikaya, ii, p.
48)

Indicating that the innermost region of consciousness lies

beyond the reach of the mind, intellect and empirical
consciousness, the famous Mahayana text Lankavatara Sutra
says:

All things are to be comprehended by transcending the chitta

[intellect], manas [mind] and vijnana [empirical consciousness]
as is done by thee. Thou shouldst look inwardly and not
become attached to the letter and a superficial view of things.
(LAN, p. 10, tr. D.T. Suzuki)

The more contemporary Japanese poet-recluse Ryokan also

refers to inner consciousness in this verse:

Even if you consume so many books

As the sand of the Ganges
It is not as good as really catching
One verse of Zen
If you want the secret of Buddhism

Here it is: Everything is in the Heart. (Dewdrops on a lotus leaf,

p. 81)

And Zen master Muso Kokushi (1275-1351) explains:

There is a vast potential, latent within human beings that

remains undiscovered, because of the limitations placed on
consciousness
by
habitual
preoccupations.
The
recommendation that all cravings be relinquished does not
mean that detachment itself is a goal; it is a means of breaking
through self-imposed restrictions and opening up this
inexhaustible treasury of potential. (Dream Conversations on
Buddhism and Zen, p. 6)
Saraha, one of the earliest and most eminent among the
masters of the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism, emphasizes
that all spiritual knowledge is contained within this body and
can be discovered from within. It is futile, therefore, to search
for Truth in outward rituals and written scriptures, when the
bodiless reality or truth is hidden in this body itself. As he says:

Here [within this body] is the sacred river Yamuna,

And here is the River Ganges;
Here are the [holy places of] Prayaga and Benares,
Here are the sun and the moon.
I have visited in my wanderings
Shrines and other places of pilgrimage,
But I have not seen another shrine
Blissful like my own body.
All this pandits [scholars] expound the treatises,

But the Buddha who resides in the body

Is not known.
The bodiless form is concealed in the body,
He who knows this is therein released. (Dohakosha, 47, 48, 68,
89, in Buddhist Text through the Ages)

Similarly, the Hevajra Tantra says:

All beings are Buddhas,

But this is concealed by adventitious stains.
When their stains are purified,
Then Buddhahood is revealed. (As quoted in WPT, p. 10)

The purification is accomplished by meditation. In his

Encouragement to practice, Son (Korean Zen) master Chinul
(1158-1210) quotes Kuei-teng Tsung-mi:

We know that a frozen pond is entirely water, but the suns heat
is necessary to melt it. Although we awaken to the fact that an
ordinary man is Buddha, the power of Dharma is necessary to
develop cultivation. When the pond has melted and its water
flows freely, it can be used for irrigation and cleaning. When
falsity is extinguished, the mind will be numinous and dynamic;
then the effulgence of spiritual powers will manifest. There is
no other approach to practice but cultivation of the mind.
(Quoted in The Korean Approach to Zen by Chinul)