two mantras before tasting

Now I know that the term 'mantra' is over-used and misused so let's agree that mantras are phrases that, when repeated, help promote concentration. They aren't chants that dull you out, they're beacons that guide you in.

We know that we don't taste in a vacuum: we taste in a cacophony of senses, ideas and emotions. We also know that the minute you decide that you like something or not, you stop really tasting it and go off on a jag of self-congratulation about having figured this particular taste out.

Maybe it's possible that deliberately calibrating your attitude toward what you're tasting, even using a convenient mantra, could slow you down and allow you to taste more and more deeply. Let's try this:
prepare yourself for tasting with these two mantras:

• this is an unfamiliar taste and it puzzles me
• this is a familiar taste and it reassures me

Repeat them each a dozen times or so. Imagine feeling the puzzlement or the reassurance. Now taste your way through dinner or along the buffet line.

for more like this, see here.

What happened?