you need to practice until meditation is your day job, and life is everything else that is just noise, that happens in the gaps 

this is the meditation inversion

to begin with, one can aim for a physical/exercise inversion as a pre-step

zazen's method is 'just-sitting', and letting things come and go. there are tons of lectures but they are all of the 'while you inhale, you are actually exhaling, while you are sitting,  you are also standing up' kind. compared to this, ab is a more warm and fuzzy

the only structure zen imposes is form, and the very act of dropping everything in our busy minds and sititng vacantly seems daunting, and we impulsively flinch and back off ...

 ajahn brahm's thai forest method is a more elaborate in terms of literature but the core message is 'open the door of your heart' to the thing in front of you - whether it's an irritant or yourself - and be kind to it.

with this , almost everything opens up and simmers down, and all the literature - whether suttas or sermons -  is just gravy on top.

the meditation is mileston-ed with things like beautiful breath, nimittas, jhanas etc and provide a 'thing', while zen has nothing to hold on to

comparing the two, zen seems more 'intellectual' effort, to maintain the 'effort of no effort choice of no choice', eventually whittling our own effort to keep even this away to until it barely exists but doesn't not exist  (i suppose) whereas the ab method is to just turn towards and hug whatever is in front of the mind 

the third contender is vipassana. 10-day camp attendees have reported bliss on the third day from just eating and being outside. gemini puts it down to dopamine-fasting effects of 3 days of painful anapana practice and bland food. youtubers report that scientific studies show that 10 day course caused permanent or almost permanent structural change in the brain (intensity matters?)

shinzen young tells us that attention power is something that can increase by training and practice. one technique he suggests for dealign with strong emotion is to hold on to the emotion when it hits, and observe where in the body it shows up, what it feels like, and what is its flavour/texture etc

finally, buddhism seems like something someone would derive if they followed a common-sensical approach, though there's no guarantee that every one would end up follow the same path of enquiry, but i would expect to end up there eventually