I am quite a foodie. If there are only few things I feel quite attached with, the taste of my daily oral intakes, must be one of them. Until few months ago the joy I used to derive from those gastronomic adventures through the by lanes of my old city could only be compared with the bliss of experiencing my mother’s extra special delicacies. In everyday life I strictly follow my biological food-clock as a little irregularity in that makes me feel pain in stomach and headache.
Before going to my first ten days course the greatest apprehension was how would I survive with ‘no-evening snacks-followed by-no dinner’! However, dhamma made me overcome that hurdle. I can guess in the temperate weather of the dhamma–retreat with minimum physical exhortation and continuous meditation, the habitual bodily need of food becomes less. But hey!! It has done something wonderful with my demanding taste buds, too! Going through my daily meal with long-known and even most boring foods has become quite an adventure in its own way!
The apple in the breakfast gives me a kick in the morning when with every bite my teeth cuts down through its flesh and my gums becomes drenched with cold juice. And the tongue feels surprised by the sweetness of it. The sweetness changes with time, slowly, as it gets diluted with the saliva. I munch the flesh once and again the sweetness gets intense. This process continues till the bite disappears into the esophagus. As I keep on observing I find that even after that, my mouth looks for the remnants of the bite in the form of tiny particles full of sweetness hiding here and there. The milk brings the bliss of wholesomeness. It appears to be a soothing and kind grandfather like entity. The mouth feels full of gratitude. How enormously silly this thought is!! But I can’t help it. And then during lunch, did I ever get this warm and slightly pungent aroma of one of the spices used in the old-acquainted ‘stuffed paratha’ that I am taking for last so many years! It comes suddenly and only if I don’t look for it. Generally, twice or thrice in the whole meal and with attentive observation I find that it stays just for few seconds. I don’t know what spice is this, since all these years I never recognized it. Even the spice-less and boiled foods are having their own boxes of amazements!! I keep on observing the ‘tasteless’ sensation felt by the mouth. And the apathy towards ‘tasteless-ness’ disappears. It becomes another journey full of gratitude. Equally true and transient as of the ‘tasty’ one.
I am not sure whether I am practicing some kind of attachment unknowingly but these happenings inside my mouth seem to be far more adventurous than those took place in the restaurants and road side eateries of different places. Now every meal seems to be distinguished in terms of sensation, but this ‘speciality’ remains only if I observe them. The moment I start craving for the taste, it loses its subtlety. The apple becomes boring. The spicy and tasty paratha loses its unique magic spice. I fall into the cycle of denying the beauty of truth.
