Meditation is best understood as "...mental culture in the full sense of the term. It aims at cleansing the mind of impurities and disturbances, such as lustful desires, hatred, ill-will, indolence, worries and restlessness, skeptical doubts and cultivating such qualities as concentration, awareness, will, energy, the analytical faculty, confidence, joy, tranquility, leading finally to the attainment of highest wisdom which sees the nature of things as they are, and realizes the ultimate truth, Nirvana." from "What the Buddha Taught," by Walpola Rahula.

So there it is. If one wants to be serious about this thing, there is only the hard road of the practice of meditation. There is much else that passes for Buddhism in this world (prayers, prostrations, good deeds, the impulse to save "all sentient beings,") but this is the way. You must save yourself before you can save anyone else.