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Ayurveda Index
Ayurveda

Taste

By the end of this section you will be able to:

1. Use the understanding of the six qualities and the six tastes to make informed decisions on the right interventions to help yourself or someone else.
   
2. Explore the nine paths of the journey.
   
3. Know what each of the tastes do for you.

TASTE

Taste according to Ayurveda:

   is the essence of the plant. 

   communicates feelings.

   directly affects the nervous system awakening the mind and senses.

   awakens Bio-Fire, enhancing our power of digestion.

   sets our digestive fluids in motion.

Lack of taste leads to:

   low Bio-Fire.                     r  excess Congestion.

To improve Bio-Fire and eliminate disease it is necessary to improve our sense of taste. If the tongue is heavily coated consider a short fast. Increase your consumption of zinc. Get more exercise.

Post Digestive Effect (Vipaka):

The effect that a taste has after it has been digested.

   Sweet\Salty = Sweet

   Sour =Sour

   Bitter\Astringent\ Pungent = PungentSweet\Salty = Sweet

Digestion

1st. Stage (Water) - Mouth and Stomach

   Moistening
   Sweet

2nd. Stage (Fire) - Stomach and Small Intestine

   Heating
   Sour

3rd. Stage (Wind) - Colon

   Drying
   Pungent

Taste Exercise 

Healing Journey Taste Class (Example)

The first taste we explored was sweet. I passed around some medjool dates and each student began their experiment. Some plunged the whole date in their mouth while others nibbled at the edges. Soon eyes were closing as students absorbed their attention into the sweetness. When I teach I usually do the exercises with my students so I will be in the experience with them. I bit off about half. The sweetness was intense and I allowed my taste buds to indulge in the orgy of sweetness. After sufficient time to explore sweetness in all the paths we came back together to share. 

Some students found the sweetness thick, heavy and sticky. All of us noted the lasting quality of the taste. We felt a sense of sustained energy especially with the natural sugars of the date. Most felt it satisfying. We tried white sugar later and found it to have an empty quality. In the relationship path some found sweetness to be little acts of kindness. While others thought of sexual intimacy. Some felt their relationships provided the sweetness they needed while others sensed a lack and needed more. One student later divorced her husband. These experiences can often tap into areas of denial or unawareness. In the world path students thought of sweetness as a good job, others as a happy home and for some freedom gave them that sense of sweetness. For me it was doing the work I love in a place I love to be. Spiritually sweetness was most represented by contentment.

Next we did salt. I handed out some fantastic kelp powder harvested, processed and distributed by my friend Ryan Drum. I love salt. The moment I put it in my mouth I felt good. I felt it pulled together all the fibres of my being. I could smell the salt in the air and feel the ocean in my cells. Visually it was crystalline. I remembered pictures of processing sea water through natural solar evaporation. 

Some of the students found the salty taste too intense. The experiences in the group were more polarized around salt than sweet. 

Next we did pungent. I used fresh Ginger root for the pungent taste. When we compared notes we found more of a consensus with this taste. We all found it stimulating but not lasting like sweet. In relationships it was passion or conflict. Many of us felt that a certain amount of conflict was necessary in a healthy relationship. If everyone is thinking the same thing, then someone isn't thinking. Pungent definitely encouraged more movement than sweet and salty. There was a sense that pungent could be nicely moderated with the addition of sweet. And of course sweet could be motivated with a little addition of pungent. In the world pungent was more associated with action. Pungent feelings exist closer to the edges of the things we want to do but are afraid of trying. The closer we move to the edge of doing them, the more our life heats up. Pungent is heating. Spiritually it was spirited action. 

Next I passed around slices of lemon. Another intense taste. I love lemons. I think they are one of the magic foods. I feel that everyone would benefit by discovering their magic foods. When they need a little magic in their life they can use them. Most of the students nibbled at the lemon. Almost everyone found it cleansing. Lemon cleans your mouth of the other tastes and leaves your tongue feeling clean. Sour was more complex, like salt, and brought out more differences in the students' response to it. This is why I encourage you to establish your own relationship to the tastes and not totally rely on some external system to tell you what they do for you.

Astringent was more of an experience than a taste. It was definitely contracting in all the paths. Bitter was surprising. We found it to be extremely centering and long lasting. Almost all agreed that a certain degree of bitter was beneficial in every path.

I hope you get a sense from this example of what I am asking you to do. I still use some of the insights that I learned on that day when I experience the different qualities of the tastes in my life and how they relate to the different paths. 

Do This! 

Do each taste separately and answer the questions below for each taste.

First smell it. Next place a small amount in your mouth and close your eyes. Allow the taste to penetrate you. Meditate on it for at least 5 minutes. You might want to try moving like it. Now answer the following questions.

SWEET: preferably use a medjool date. Another date will do. You can try other sweets to increase your knowledge of sweet. In one group we tried white sugar. Very revealing.

BITTER: Gentian, Dandelion, Endive etc.

SOUR: Lemon, Vitamin C etc.

SALTY: Salt, Kelp etc.

PUNGENT: Ginger, Garlic, Elecampane. etc.

ASTRINGENT: Black tea, Blackberry leaf, Oak bark etc.

• What kind of visions does this taste stimulate?
  
  
• What kind of sound do you associate with it?
  
  
• What feeling or body sensation does it evoke?
  
  
• How would you imagine it moving? 
  
  
• How would it manifest in your personal relationships?
  
  
• What kind of work would fit this taste?
  
  
• How do you imagine this flavour in your community?
  
  
• How would this taste manifest in the spirit?
  
  
• Are you attracted or repulsed by this taste?
  
  
• Do you feel you need more or less of this taste?

The Six Tastes According to Ayurveda

SWEET

       Wind\Fire-               Water+

       Elements: Earth and Water

       Qualities: Heavy\wet\cooling

       Post Digestive Effect (Vipaka): Sweet

Body Effects:

   Promotes the growth of all bodily tissues                   Increases semen

   Creates strength and longevity                                   Gives contentment

   Soothing to the mind and the five senses                    Rebuilds essential energy

Properties: 

   Rebuilds essential energy                                          Nutritive tonic 

   Rejuvenating                                                            Demulcent and Emollient

Emotions:

   Lack - Unfulfilled longing                                         Sufficient - Satisfaction

A person may have an unnatural craving for sweets if they are experiencing an excess of frustration and lack of satisfaction. If they learn to use the flow paradigm to regulate their life in a way that increases the amount of satisfaction they may crave less sweets. 

BITTER

       Elements: Wind and Ether

       Qualities: Cold\light\dry

       Post Digestive Effect (Vipaka): Pungent

Body Effects: 

   Restores sense of taste                             Cleansing to blood and all tissues

   Helps reduce tumours                              Enkindles the digestive fire

   Helps scrape away fat                              Drains and dries the tissues

Properties:

   Anti-inflammatory                                    Antibacterial

   Germicidal                                               Febrifuge

Emotions: 

   Excess - Grief                                         Sufficient - Joy

I had a client who had spent a number of years in a concentration camp. He was a wind constitution. He was very attracted to bitter dandelion greens. He felt that they kept him alive. Even though the dandelions were bitter they brought him a lot of joy.

SOUR: 

       Elements: Earth and Fire

       Qualities: Hot\wet\light

       Post Digestive Effect (Vipaka): Sour

Qualities:

   Promotes digestion                                             Increases appetite

   Nourishing to all tissues except reproductive       Awakens the mind

   Promotes metabolism and circulation                  Gives firmness to the senses

   Promotes salivation, aids swallowing                  Drains the liver 
      moistening and digestion of food

Properties: 

   Carminative                                                       Stimulant

Emotions: 

   Excess - Envy                                                   Sufficient-Contentment

There was a period of time in my life when I ate a lot of sour. I experienced very little contentment and my fire was constantly in excess. I was involved in a sour relationship at the time. That relationship was dissolved and new ones were begun. I now experience more contentment and less envy. When I am suffering from excess envy I take it as a clue to a possible new direction that I may want to go. 

PUNGENT 

       Elements: Wind and Fire

       Qualities: Hot\dry\light

       Post Digestive Effect (Vipaka): Pungent

Body Effects: 

  Stimulating: increasing circulation 
      and bodily functions 

  Removes waste material                            Dispersing and moving effect

  Increases appetite and promotes digestion

  Intensifies and prolongs the effects of the other herbs.

Properties:

  Diaphoretic - skin                                        Expectorant - lungs 

  Vermicide - digestive tract

Emotions: 

  Excess - Anger                                            Sufficient - Excitement

I often think of people as different herbs. One student I had was very pungent like Cayenne. Others found her difficult to take regularly or in large doses. I encouraged her to become more like Ginger. Anger is sometimes connected to a sense of loss. Figure out what you have lost and agree to let it go or make arrangements to try and get it back. This is more exciting than suffering from excess anger.

SALTY 

       Elements: Water and Fire

       Qualities: Wet\heavy\hot

       Post Digestive Effect (Vipaka): Sweet

Body Effects:

   Moistens and softens organs.                            Promotes digestion

  Creates salivation.                                              Liquifies congestion 

  Gives taste to food                                             Draws herbs to the kidneys

Properties:

  Sedative                                                          r  Laxative

Emotions: 

r  Excess - Greed                                            r  Sufficient - Zest

When we have too much greed in our lives we are weighted down by our possessions. Sometimes a give away is just the thing we need to put some zest back in our life. We also need a certain amount of desire to propel us forward.

ASTRINGENT 

       Elements: Earth and Wind

       Qualities: Cold\dry heavy

       Post Digestive Effect (Vipaka): Pungent

Body Effects:

r  Contracts the muscles helping to raise prolapsed organs 

r  Stops sweating

r  Stops diarrhoea                                           r  Promotes absorption of fluids

Properties: 

r  Haemostatic                                                r  Anti-inflammatory
     (stops bleeding) 

r  Vulnerary

Emotions: 

r  Excess - Fear                                              r  Sufficient - Courage

Excess fear is hard on our health. We are constantly on alert. We benefit by exercising our courage sometimes and facing our fears. Fear can cause us to live a constricted life. By facing them and overcoming them slowly our life expands.