How Does Meditation Compare To Guided Relaxation?

[With English interpretation] Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's (법륜스님) Answer to “How does meditation compare to guided relaxation?”
A question chosen from the weekly Sunday meditation with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim(법륜스님).

Peace of mind is only one step away.

Transcript

I have experienced relaxation sessions where I was encouraged to focus on a soothing thought,

Such as lying on the beach or sitting on top of a beautiful mountain.

How is the meditation similar or different from this practice?

What's similar is that you both hold a kind of a tranquil,

Relaxed mind.

A sense of tranquility,

A sense of idleness of the mind.

The difference is that in previous case,

In your case,

You are investing in a thought,

In an imagination.

In our meditation case,

You are trying to pause any thoughts.

Because you are investing into an imagination of your own making,

From a meditation perspective,

Although your mind may be relaxed,

You are engaged in a distraction.

With that kind of relaxation,

You don't gain a deeper insight or deeper wisdom into the nature of things.

However,

Through meditation,

You can clear your mind and gain an insight and also clear off all the debris of the ingrained prejudices or bias that you did not know you held.