Honouring Eminent Asian BuddhistWomen in the Modern Era
B. Pioneers in Dhamma Propagation - Scholars and Teachers5. Bangladesh - Dipa Ma (Mother of Light) (1911-1989), is a lay Theravada Buddhist from Chittagong who studied meditation in Myanmar under the Mahasi Sayadaw tradition. She practiced meditation diligently and reached very high spiritual attainment.
Her Teachings
Her
teaching was “to be aware and to be present and to bring in mindfulness to
daily activities. You cannot separate meditation from life.”
She
had hundreds of students including monks who sought her advice on her
meditation technique. Among them was Ven Dr Rastrapala, a bhikkhu who was ordained for eighteen years at the time when he met
her. In 1970, he established the well-known International Meditation Centre in
Bodhgaya.
Her
concentration was so deep that, once at a retreat, the need for sleep and food
vanished. At one point, a dog sank its teeth into her leg for a few hours
without her realising it and it had to be pulled away by the bhikkhus who then brought her to the hospital.
Dipa
Ma developed psychic abilities from an Indian master, Munindra, in the form of
mind-reading, visitations to heavenly and hell realms, dematerialization, time
travel and knowledge of past lives.
Spreading the Dhamma
She
spread the Dhamma, first in Myanmar,
Bangladesh, then in India and USA influencing the Vipassana movement there. She
was invited to teach meditation in USA by her students who are now renowned
Buddhists meditation teachers like Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg and Jack
Cornfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment