How Can Practitioners Reduce Their Attachment to Worldly Dharmas

Question: There was a scientist who was so focused and diligent in reading a book that he ate steamed buns dipped in ink without noticing. His consciousness was entirely concentrated on the book. Did he have tongue consciousness at that time? If he had tongue consciousness, he would surely have known that ink does not taste good—so why did he not know?

Answer: Eating always involves the participation of tongue consciousness; the mind consciousness cannot taste food on its own. When he was absorbed in reading and ate the steamed buns dipped in ink without noticing, this was because his mind consciousness was focused on reading and paid no attention to what he was eating. There was still discrimination, only that the discrimination was rather vague. The tongue consciousness did exist and was still discriminating the food, but only the coarse aspects of the food. The subtle aspects are discriminated by the mind consciousness—for example, what kind of food it is, and what its specific flavor and texture are like; the tongue consciousness cannot discriminate in such fine detail. Since the mind consciousness was focused on reading, and the tongue consciousness could not discriminate very finely, the scientist ate the ink without noticing, without being aware of it. This example also demonstrates that as long as a practitioner does not care for the enjoyments of worldly dharmas, he can reduce his attachment to worldly matters.