Insight Meditation 32

Learning to observe awareness of taste creates a grounding for mindfulness within daily life and also the ability to observe attraction or aversion as they arise towards what is tasted. 

This sensitivity allows you to soften your relationship towards what is tasted, deconditioning any habitual pattern of attraction or aversion through mindful non-participation.

• Develop understanding of the relationship between the mind and the tongue.
• Decondition habitual attraction & aversion towards taste.
• Disentangle awareness from the six sense fields – tasting & mind.

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• Length: 60 min, 1-2 times daily.
• Developing Insight: Become familiar with the experience of awareness of awareness of tasting and how to soften the effort of habitual grasping towards it.

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Conditions: Pick a piece of fruit to mindfully eat, either one that you tend to like or dislike, depending on what you want to observe.

Step 1: Sit in meditation, gently closing your eyes.

Step 2: Establish mindfulness of your body as you sit in meditation.

Step 3: Bring to mind a food that you find pleasant.

• Observe the relationship to the tongue, other senses and your mind triggered by that thought.
• Apply GOSS, using awareness as your grounding point, to disentangle awareness from the any experience or attraction stimulated by that thought.

Step 4: Bring to mind a food that you find unpleasant.

• Observe the relationship to the tongue, other senses and your mind triggered by that thought.
• Apply GOSS, using awareness as your grounding point, to disentangle awareness from the any experience or attraction stimulated by that thought.

Step 5: Open your eyes and mindfully eat some pre-chosen food. Chew each bit of food at least 20 times while mindfully observing. Swallow only after flavour has dissolved. Mindfully swallow and experience the food move down your throat, into your belly before taking the next bite.

• Observe how attraction for the food fades in relationship to the fading of the flavour of the food.
• Apply GOSS, using awareness as your grounding point, to disentangle awareness from the taste.

• Be curious about habitual movements within the focus of awareness towards taste. 
• Observe and soften any attraction or aversion. 
• Notice the relationship towards tasting and commentary, also between tasting and the speeding / slowing up of the functions of the mind. 
• Be curious in regard to your mind aligning the experience of all senses as one known world. 
• Observe all your senses interact with food and the relationship between attraction / aversion and the presence of taste. 

Step 6: Disentangle your awareness from the sensory world by developing nirvikalpa samadhi (stillness) as in Meditation 43 for the rest of your meditation session, continuing to incline your mind towards letting go of sensory experiencing. 

You are ready to progress to Insight 33: Mindfulness of Touching when:

You can clearly experience:

1. The autonomous nature of taste in regard to contact, the tongue, the taste field, and mind created images and perceptions.
2. You can observe awareness of awareness of taste, and you understand what it means to disentangle awareness from it.

• SoundCloud: Guided Meditation.
• Insight Timer App: Guided Meditation.