I've always been fascinated and drawn to Dipa Ma. A person living in the world as a househoulder but deeply spiritual. Dipa Ma preached a form of spirituality that is not different from our everyday life. Jack Kornfield in a book about Ma writes: "Talking, eating, working, thinking about her daughter, playing with her grandson—none of those activities hampered her practice because she did them all with mindfulness. “When I’m moving, shopping, everything, I’m always doing it with mindfulness. I know these are things I have to do, but they aren’t problems. On the other hand, I don’t spend time gossiping or visiting or doing anything which I don’t consider necessary in my life.” She encouraged me to live what I was teaching. The quality of her presence was like that in the Hasidic tales, where somebody asked, “Why did you go to see this rabbi? Did you go to hear him give a great lecture on the Torah, or see how he worked with his students?” And the person said, “No, I went to see how he tied his shoes.” Dipa Ma didn’t want people to come and live in India forever or be monks or join an ashram. She said, “Live your life. Do the dishes. Do the laundry. Take your kids to kindergarten. Raise your children or your grandchildren. Take care of the community in which you live. Make all of that your path, and follow your path with heart.”

Posted by Hanuman Dass at 2022-06-12 20:46:16 UTC