會議地點：越南胡志明市；時間：2009.12.18 - 2010.01.03；大會主題：傑出的女性修行者與典範=Eminent Buddhist Women
摘要
Dipa Ma, known as the Mother of Light, was a truly accomplished master in the Theravada tradition. She is remembered not only for her seamless mindfulness and her direct method of instruction, but also for transmitting Dharma through blessings. Lay practitioners often feel torn between spiritual practice and the requirements of family, work, and social life. Perhaps the image of Dipa Ma can abide in our hearts as a reminder that we do not have to choose. No matter who showed up or what state they were in, Dipa Ma reached out to all with love and affection.
Dipa Ma was born Nani Bala Barua in 1911 in Chittagong, Bangladesh. A few years after her husband’s death, she resolved to learn meditation. Munindra, a family friend, introduced Dipa Ma, then fifty-three years old, to the renowned meditation teacher, Mahasi Sayadaw. She patiently started meditating, committing herself diligently to the practice of awareness.
In 1967, Dipa Ma came to India and settled down in Calcutta where she started teaching meditation. For her, the practice was simply being present, being fully awake, all the time, in every situation. She was a living demonstration that the real nature of mind is presence. She had a very distinctive style as she urged her students to make every moment count and emphasized bringing mindfulness even to the daily chores of a householder. She often said that the whole path of mindfulness is simply awareness of whatever you are doing. “Always know what you are doing,” she would say, “You cannot separate meditation from life.”
By the time she died in 1989, Dipa Ma had hundreds of students in India and the West, including the now renowned Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg, Michele Mc Donald and Jack Engler. Her profound wisdom and compassion continue to inspire millions of spiritual seekers around the world in the practice of meditation and living mindfulness.
