Yoga and taste – cultivating essence

रसोऽहमप्सु कौन्तेय प्रभास्मि शशिसूर्ययो: ।
प्रणव: सर्ववेदेषु शब्द: खे पौरुषं नृषु ॥ ८ ॥

raso ’ham apsu kaunteya, prabhāsmi śaśi-sūryayoḥ
praṇavaḥ sarva-vedeṣu, śabdaḥ khe pauruṣaṁ nṛṣu
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 7 Sloka 8

7.8: I am the essence of pure water, O Arjuna, the radiance of the sun and the moon. I am the sacred syllable Om among the Vedic mantras; I am the sound in ether, and the ability in humans. (Bhagavan Shri Krishna)

In this sloka from the Bhagavad Gita Krishna points out that divinity expresses as the essential quality of all things.

I’d like to add the “leap of the cat” to this list.  My cat Lakshmi has had number of serious physical challenges – she is 13 and continues to blossom thrive.  Over the years I’ve seen that the sign that she is truly on the mend is the return of the “leap”.  She’s been recovering from surgery and I was delighted the other day to see her leap up on a forbidden table and knock over a lamp – signs of life. 

In our exploration of the senses – taste has a big part of play as a portal to the tangible essence of purity in the physical realm. 

The journey of yoga is a journey of reclaiming the aspects of ourselves that are NOT physically based.  It’s a journey to understand and experience our essential nature  which is unlimited and  wholesome(which is more fun than it sounds).   As the reclaiming occurs we discover our essential nature is divine.  We come to know what that means, and through that we come to know the divinity all around us and beyond us.    

Sankhya, a classical philosophy of India, commonly taught alongside the practices of yoga, is represented by a chart of the journey from the densest physical experience to the essential sublime.  We have been exploring how the construction of the chart can be  used to hone and develop our practices in such a way that they have depth, sustainability and transformative potency.

With the sense of taste we delve into a further mining of the yogi’s jewel of discernment.  Though cultivating full awareness of the tastes we ingest we begin our journey to discern the pure, the nourishing, the essential.  Developing a taste for this in our food extends out into the development of the taste for that which is truly clear, supportive and essential in our lives.

The yogi’s journey is  very much about minimalism as ideal self-care. To hone simplicity, balance, nourishment and well-being in such a way that we can maintain it easily and leave time for practice.  The good life is an uncluttered life.    From this perspective an ideal is to learn to identify what is essential and detach from everything else.

To begin to taste pure food and pure water is to begin the journey of deep knowing about what we need – to care for our physical bodies, our relationships, our roles;  uncovering that which is essential for our well-being.  This isn’t good or bad – it’s practical.  Every facet of our lives take time.  By identifying that which is essential we can streamline. 

This is not to say that we don’t have fun from time to time. 

So how do we engage our sense of taste in a productive way?

Taste is a reflect of something – a reflection of qualities of a substance or an object.   Lettuce is light and juicy, potatoes are sweet and earthy, brown rice is also sweet and tomatoes are zingy and pungent.   Fresh food tastes vital and bright and stale  food tastes dull and  flat.  Our food is transformed into body tissue, and the more vital the body tissue, the more rapidly we will progress in our yoga practice. Imagine pouring red beets into your bloodstream, or cleansing the body with juiced fresh kale – dark robust and full of chlorophyll. 

Some general rules which can help with the development of yogic taste:

Think live instead of dead.  (fresh broccoli vs.  a hamburger)
Simple instead of processed.  (baked potato vs a potato chip)
Mother nature instead of the chemist (fresh herbs and spices vs. “natural flavoring”)
Nutritious instead of empty. (Butternut Squash vs. refined sugar)
Varietal instead of dull (Beets, cabbage, lettuce, lemon, seaweed vs. lettuce every
single day).
Satisfying instead of depriving (taco Tuesdays with fresh corn tortillas and tomatoes
vs. brown rice and broccoli every day)

The yogi develops deep awareness of the sense of the taste of freshness.  At first, it may not seem like the most fulfilling choice.  The experienced yogi may enjoy both steamed broccoli and store bought highly processed French fries – but recognizes clearly the fulfillment of the taste of freshness in in the steamed broccoli.  Divinely made -with discernment, the taste of fresh vegetables surpasses anything man made -without effort.  The more awareness we have around those choices – the more our sense of taste develops.

Remember, as hatha yogis we are transforming the lead of our bodies as they are into the alchemical body – withstanding of all disease processes, a body which can regenerate and heal itself.  We change on a molecular level through practice.  Nourishing the body with that which is pure and wholesome, comes from nature supports a practice through which the nature potency of the body mind spirit complex is brought forth. 

For every blog post (about once a month or less – there is an accompanying newsletter with a different perspective on the subject at hand. Yoga after all is experienced as trying things on from one perspective to another and another until the light goes on about the whole that encompasses the parts. You will not be subjected to marketing.