Use the menu to taste the meal
Right now, you’re once again reading a menu.
There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not a problem.
However …
This is yet another invitation to — at the end of this sentence — notice what is already present and aware.
This presence is what we’re looking for.
We’re looking for what is looking.
THIS aware presence is the meal — the real thing.
The words, the description — those are the menu.
The menu can’t give you anything.
So notice it again, NOW.
Taste it.
THIS — the aware presence reading the word “word.”
We can use any menu — anything read, heard, or perceived — to taste the meal.
Notice what is registering the reading of this sentence.
What is aware of the reading has no form or content.
It is not a something, it’s a palpable aliveness.
It is the taste of being alive.
But this is not the next project, the next thing to practice.
It’s just noticing, NOW, that everything is always pointing back to YOU.
It’s using this menu right now as a reminder to taste the meal.
At first, you must trust that the meal is more satisfying than the menu, even though it seems bland and tasteless to the mind.
Freedom and joy emerge from tasting, tasting, tasting the meal.
This is fantastic. I once did an exercise for my work team that related to tasting. I gave them a piece of pear to taste after explaining (in words) the concept of awareness. The trick was that I told them it was a piece of apple! None of them liked it, and they all said afterwards that they like pears! I did that to show them that eating (the menu) expectations affected their reality and that common awareness is to “taste something in the mind” first and then eat. To practice awareness they should eat without “tasting it” in their minds first.
“Oh waiter…I’ll have what she’s having” 🙏