Welcome.
This is the indulgence meditation.
I invite you to settle in.
But before you decide you're settled in,
You might ask yourself,
Is there something you can do right now that might make the next 20 or so minutes better?
Adjust.
Bolster.
Loosen some tight clothing.
Take some care with yourself.
Take some time to be sure you're doing that.
Indulge yourself a bit.
Maybe indulge yourself a lot.
Tasting dark chocolate.
A ripe apricot.
A luscious elixir.
Savor the expanding joy in your body.
Nature is offering herself to you.
How astonishing to realize this world can taste so good.
The word indulgence has gotten a bad rap.
Puritans and Protestants,
The work ethic.
50-hour weeks for 40 hours of pay.
Adversity makes you strong.
Indulgence makes you weak.
I say to you,
Break free of all that.
The universe isn't spending its time putting obstacles in your path to teach you lessons.
Break free.
Indulge.
Allow yourself indulgence.
Without guilt.
Without the weight put on you by society or the media,
By parents,
Or by some grumpy priest.
When sipping some ambrosia,
Raise your glass.
Close your eyes.
Toast the universe.
The sun and moon and earth dance together to bring you this delight.
Receive the nectar on your tongue as the kiss of the universe.
How would you like to be indulged?
What delight would you like the sun and moon and earth to create for you?
Can your meditation be a meditation of indulgence?
All around you,
In every moment,
The world is offering a feast for your senses.
Songs are playing.
Tasty food is on the table.
Fragrances are in the air.
Colors the eyes with light.
You who long for union,
Attend this banquet with loving focus.
The outer and inner worlds open to each other.
Oneness of vision.
Oneness of heart.
Right here,
In the midst of it all,
Mount that elation.
Ascend with it.
Become identical with the ecstatic essence embracing both inner and outer worlds.
Revel in the miracles of your senses.
In Sanskrit,
The word for the senses is indriya.
It means the companions of a god.
The indriya are always drinking.
Drinking in the universe.
Offering it to their god.
Offering the fullness of all to you.
Any of your senses can be a doorway into meditation.
Can be meditation.
Is meditation.
Your indriya reach out into the universe drinking.
Opening you.
Creating a joining.
A yoga between outer and inner.
Making such distinctions obsolete.
All around you,
In every moment,
The world is offering a feast for your senses.
Aristotle's obsession with lists of five greatly hampers the way we look at our senses.
The count most accepted today is that we have somewhere between 22 and 33 senses.
We can start with Aristotle's five.
You might indulge each sense as I describe it.
The senses of sight.
Brightness.
Contrast.
Shades of gray.
Red and green and yellow adding and combining to form the million different colors we can distinguish.
The sense of hearing.
Loudness.
Pitch.
Rhythm.
Harmony.
Disharmony.
Two thousand or more different smells the indriya provide.
We taste sweet.
Salt.
Sour.
Bitter.
Umami.
And all their combinations.
We sense a wide range of touch.
The brush of a feather.
The intensity of an embrace.
A vast span of temperature.
A vast variety of levels of pressure.
But there are many more senses.
We also sense balance.
Rotation.
Acceleration.
The stretch of muscles.
Different from the stretch of tendons and ligaments.
The knowledge of proprioception.
Our bodies sense and monitor blood pressure and oxygen content.
When we need to inhale.
When we need to exhale.
Body temperature.
When we need to drink.
When we need to take nourishment.
When our lungs or bladders or stomachs are full.
So much information we absorb.
And so much we might take pleasure in.
So much we might feel intense gratitude for.
Our senses move us.
Show us.
Protect us.
Allow us to take pleasure in the simplest of perceptions.
Let your senses take you on a journey.
Whatever senses you possess.
A lifetime journey with your companions.
Wherever.
Whenever you feel carried away,
Rejoicing in every breath.
There.
There is your meditation hall.
Cherish these times of absorption.
Listening to music in the silence of the night.
The sound of water filling a glass.
The sound of water dripping from your roof.
Tending the logs in a crackling fire.
Feeling the heat in your hands and forearms.
Sharing a meal with a circle of friends.
Brushing your forearm lightly with your fingertips.
Hearing the nuance in a voice.
Noticing a slight chill in the air.
Staring at waves on a shoreline.
Feeling the nudge of an animal companion's head against your leg.
So much to partake of.
So much to indulge.
Embrace these pleasures and know this is my true body.
Nowhere is more holy than this.
Right here is the sacred pilgrimage.
Live in alertness for such a moment to come.
Embrace these pleasures and know this is my true body.
Nowhere is more holy than this.
Right here is the sacred pilgrimage.
Live in alertness for such a moment to come.
The tread of the indriya create desire lines in our minds and on our bodies.
Pathways to knowledge.
Doorways to perception.
We owe it to ourselves to indulge.
Right now,
Can you imagine one indulgence you will give yourself this evening?
Simple or elaborate,
Doesn't matter.
Just an indulgence for you.
How do you want to be indulged?
You might begin to journey now towards your indulgence with a slow return from your meditation.
It's self an indulgence.
Take your time,
As much time as you need,
And allow for a slow awakening.
An awakening in anticipation of indulgence.
Welcome back.
