Salt in Water — Taste It from the Middle
The Teaching
‘Place this salt in water, and then wait on me in the morning.’ The son did as he was commanded. The father said to him: ‘Bring me the salt, which you placed in the water last night.’ The son having looked for it, found it not, for, of course, it was melted.
The father said: ‘Taste it from the surface of the water. How is it?’ The son replied: ‘It is salt.’ ‘Taste it from the middle. How is it?’ The son replied: ‘It is salt.’ ‘Taste it from the bottom. How is it?’ The son replied: ‘It is salt.’ … He did so; but salt exists for ever. Then the father said: ‘Here also, in this body, forsooth, you do not perceive the True (Sat), my son; but there indeed it is.
‘That which is the subtile essence, in it all that exists has its self. It is the True. It is the Self, and thou, O Svetaketu, art it.’
— Chāndogya Upanishad 6.13
Commentary
This is the same father and son as Tat Tvam Asi, one lesson later. In the earlier lesson, Uddālaka has his son break open a seed from the banyan tree and look inside. There’s nothing there to see, and that nothing is the point. Here he tries the opposite approach. He doesn’t ask the boy to see anything. He has him taste.
You can’t point at dissolved salt or hold it up to the light. It’s gone, and it’s also everywhere in the water, at every depth, in every sip. So the father doesn’t explain it. He gives the boy an experience first, and says what it means only once the boy has had it. Every teaching in this set depends on that order: the experience comes first, and the words come after to name it.
The line it all leads to is the famous one, thou art it. By the time the son hears it, he has already tasted it.
Themes
Connections 6
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Judaism while these teachings took shape.
Travelled
Hinduism reached Buddhism by 500 BCE. The same Indian world. The Buddha taught among Brahmanical and ascetic schools, and the two argued and borrowed for centuries.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Taoism while these teachings took shape.