Question

Difference between penance and meditation

Answer 1

People doing Penance are in meditation posture.
Meditating people are also in same posture.
Penance have goals to achieve and Meditators have goals like controlling mind and thoughts,etc,...
Both of them have Motives and Benefits so i cannot experience the difference.

Answer 2

Penance is repentance of sins .Meditation means awareness.
Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. "Watching your breath" is meditation; listening to the birds is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation.
Meditation is not a technique but a way of life. Meditation means 'a cessation of the thought process' . It describes a state of consciousness, when the mind is free of scattered thoughts and various patterns . The observer (one who is doing meditation) realizes that all the activity of the mind is reduced to one.
If you wont repent on your wrong doings you wont go deep in
your meditation...You must purify your conscience and do meditation...then you can do your meditation perfectly.