The Ethics of Meditation: Non-Excess

This is a big one, y’all. Non-excess is likely the ethical tenet that I teach most often {even if I don’t specifically say ‘non-excess’}... 

Often this teaching gets translated as abstinence or celibacy, and in certain monastic orders, it is indeed practiced in this way. Yet, when we look at the original teachings of this tenet, we discover non-excess is about establishing vitality and balancing the mind, body and energy. 

Author Deborah Adele translates the teachings of non-excess as meaning ‘to walk with god’ - to experience the sacred in the everyday. And, we quickly see that we cannot experience sanctity or vitality if we are overwhelmed in excess.

Excess can show up in our food, our work, our entertainment, our possessions, even our spirituality.

We are a people of excess. For many of us, we can get almost anything, usually delivered to our door the next day. And in many countries, we can throw it in a trash can and pay to have it picked up and dumped somewhere we are likely never to see or acknowledge because if we did, we would be horrified. 

The teaching of non-excess asks us to move slowly and employ restraint. 

Admire the sunrise, the sunset, the stars, the moon, the clouds and the birds. 

Take the time to eat food that is beautiful and nourishing, and to stop when you are just full enough. 

Put your phone down. Step away from technology. Go to bed early and get up early too. 

The deeper we go, the more we begin to understand non-excess as the ultimate pleasure principle. Being alive is not a mistake. We are alive, and we are meant to be awake for it, to enjoy it, and celebrate it. 

The key is that it isn't a bacchanalian free for all. Vitality and sanctity are brought forth through restraint, through limiting our excessive ways. 

Join me for today’s episode of The Mindful Minute as we tease out the nuances of non-excess and share in a 20-minute guided meditation.

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