Gluttony sounds old-fashioned, like a feast in an old painting. But it is one of the most modern selves there is.

It is the self that wants more. One more bite after the body has said enough. One more episode, one more video, one more glass. It is not hunger. Hunger stops when it is fed. Gluttony keeps going after the need is met, because it is not feeding the body. It is filling a gap.

The tradition teaches that we take in three kinds of food: what we eat, the air we breathe, and the impressions that come through the senses. Everything you see and hear is taken in, and it has to be digested. A person who takes in news, noise and images all day is overfed, even if they have hardly eaten.

Gluttony often hides another self. Boredom, loneliness or worry come first, and the extra food, or the extra screen, is how you avoid feeling them. That is worth seeing. It means the craving is not really for what it seems to want.

You do not need to diet or fast to see this self. You only need to stop a little before it wants you to, and watch what happens in the small gap that opens.