If you are properly aware you will notice that every moment has a flavor. Every moment without exception has a flavor. Some are like water, and it must be admitted that some water taste better than others. Some are like high cheese; one must develop a taste for them. Some are sweet and some are bitter. Some are retched. Some sweet moments are poisonous, and some bitter moments are nourishing. Through meditation we develop the ability to become truly aware. It is obvious to those who are truly aware that we taste our way through life the same way a salmon finds it's way to the stream in which it was born.
The ordinary state of being is one in which the creature is wholly identified with it's affective states. An awareness wholly identified with the nature of the animal has no separation from instinct or impulse or the flavor of inner state. The ancients referred to this as Maya: illusion: awareness believes its self to be its states. Enlightenment is the spiritual equivalent to awakening from a hypnotic trance.
Many years ago discussing such matters with a friend he said "Well, enlightenment won't help you pick out a head of lettuce." This is not true. The awakened awareness is acutely conscious of the flavor of its state. It is by induced states that we know anything, and the very flow of thought is a self induce state.
