Speaking of the “flavor” of an idea, situation, or perception is probably based on the reality of inner taste. Essence literally has a flavor. When we refer to subtle perceptions of essence as taste, we are not only speaking metaphorically. The metaphor is valid, but the literal and actual reality exists as well.  

Take for example the quality of personal love, whose affect is that of liking and appreciation, of recognizing what we love as wonderful and precious. This love is a manifestation of pure consciousness. It is a medium of consciousness conscious of itself. Its experience is the experience of a conscious presence, a presence that knows itself by being itself. Its knowingness is not discursive representational knowing; yet this presence is not only aware of itself as presence, but is also aware of itself as love. Love is a differentiation out of pure conscious presence, where presence now possesses a quality that distinguishes it from other essential differentiations. It is analogous to the differentiation of colored light from white light; it remains light, but manifests as one quality from a spectrum that is implicit and nondifferentiated in white light. Presence is now not only aware of its beingness and hereness, but also of the quality of love. Our consciousness is now manifesting itself, or a region of its expanse, with a quality that appears in all the dimensions of the soul’s manifold. It appears in the inner touch sense as a soft and caressing texture, almost like baby skin or talcum powder. It appears in the inner visual sense as a beautiful and luminous pink, either as a shapeless medium or with a shape like a flowing pink stream, a pink cloud, or cotton candy, or a pink rose. It appears in the inner taste sense as a heavenly kind of sweetness, an uplifting taste that makes us realize why we associate love with sweetness. It appears in the inner olfactory sense as a the scent of rose or jasmine, delicate and so transporting. It appears in the inner auditory sense as the gentle delicate buzzing of bees, tinkling of bells, or a melodious enchanting sound.  

We can see very clearly that refinement of perception cannot be restricted to the mental. The mind, as we ordinarily understand it, cannot reach essence. The body must be sensitized so that the subtle organs of perception can be awakened. Sensitizing the body will also awaken the capacity for taste, centered in the heart in the chest. “The heart (qalb) is the organ which produces true knowledge. . . . It is the organ of a perception which is both experience and intimate taste (dhowq).” This organ of perception (dhowq) is different and distinct from the organ of sensing, although it operates similarly to it. Just like the tongue, it can touch, and it also tastes in the same act of touching. It gives us information about the important physical characteristic of taste, needed for the appreciation of the essence and the fulfillment of the heart. The popular feeling that love is sweet is based on the essential aspect of love, which has a sweet taste. There are many kinds of love on the essential dimension, and each has its distinct sweetness. This capacity for inner taste is important also for appreciation and enjoyment, for discriminating and understanding the various kinds of love, and for the other essential aspects, which also have different kinds of tastes. 

Another important subtle sensitivity is the capacity for inner taste. When you experience your inner taste, it is as if your soul had a tongue. It can taste the personality states. So, for example, resistance tastes like bitter rubber. If you experience the state of the false ego—what I call the false pearl—it often tastes like snot. Everyone knows what snot is like—you need a tissue to get rid of it. Ego-personality states exist in our consciousness as waste products that we hold on to. When a person, for instance, feels he is full of shit, with subtle perception he can actually sense the texture, the taste, and the smell of his own state: pure shit. It is not just a metaphor. But you can also taste the qualities of Essence. You can taste the sweetness of Love; the minty, cool quality of Compassion; the metallic, warm, gold quality of Truth; the licorice quality of the Black Essence. Differentiating the qualities with taste adds another enchantment to the soul—taste intensifies the experience in a different way than texture.