My understanding of what the Buddha taught when he admonished his monks to go, and meditate; go do jhana, was that there is a necessity for the practice of meditation with the goal of concentration and the cultivation of insight. Meditation does have a goal, and it requires skill and effort, but not the kind of goal that causes one to try to squeeze insights from the mind like blood from a stone. The idea is to cultivate the ability to settle the mind, to calm and center focus the mind and then to contemporaneously cultivate insight into the workings of the mind. With this Right Effort, Concentration and MIndfulness, we develop the fertile ground for the comprehension of impermanence, not-self and dukkha/sukkah...leading to release from dukkha and attachment to unskillful ideas.I always hear that you shouldn't aspire to attain anything/have goals with meditation, as they'll ultimately hold you back in your meditation.
What I am expressing above is what I have gathered from the teaching of wise Theravada teachers. I have sat in years past with some Zen sanghas where there is much emphasis on "just sitting" and sitting with no goal. Some sitting in these sesshins complain that they sit for hours staring at a wall...for nothing. "That's it" claims the Roshi. "Do nothing. No goals!" This kind of practice may approximate samatha calming meditation, but it is not consistent with the samatha/vipassana practices, nor does it seem to me remotely consistent with the type of meditation that the Buddha encouraged in the Suttas.