Chapter 2: Awakening
At this lowest point in her life, the Buddha appeared to her in a dream. A luminous presence, he softly chanted a verse from the Dhammapada, originally offered as consolation to a father grieving the death of his son:
Clinging to what is dear brings sorrow, Clinging to what is dear brings fear. To one who is entirely free from endearment, There is no sorrow or fear.
Chapter 3: Unshakeable Peace
Presenting tough but effective lessons for people who wanted to meditate in the midst of busy lives as householders, Dipa Ma taught her students to use every moment as an opportunity for practice. Mindfulness, she said, could be applied to every activity: speaking, ironing, cooking, shopping, caring for children. “The whole path of mindfulness,” she repeated tirelessly, “is this: ‘Whatever you are doing, be aware of it.‘” Dipa Ma had so much faith in the power of practice amid the hubbub of home life that one admirer dubbed her “The Patron Saint of Householders.” When asked about the difference between formal meditation practice and daily life, she adamantly insisted, “You cannot separate meditation from life.”
Chapter 4: To the Edge and Beyond
“If you are a householder, you have enough time,” Dipa Ma told me. “Very early in the morning, you can take two hours for meditation. Late in the evening you can take another two hours for meditation. Learn to sleep only four hours. There is no need for sleeping more than four hours.”
Chapter 8: Love Bowing to Love
Jacqueline Mandell once asked Dipa Ma whether she should be practicing mindfulness or lovingkindness. Dipa Ma answered, “From my own experience, there is no difference between mindfulness and lovingkindness.” For her, love and awareness were one.
Chapter 9: At Home in Strange Realms
Supernatural powers: the ability to transform one of the four basic elements of the physical world (earth, air, fire, and water) into another.
Divine ear: the ability to hear sounds near and far, on earth and in other realms.
Divine eye: The ability to see into the future, to see things near and far, on earth and in other realms.
Knowledge of one’s former births and the previous births of others.
Knowledge of the states of mind of other beings; that is, the ability to “read” or know the minds of others.
Chapter 11: Ten Lessons to Live by
LESSON ONE: Choose one meditation practice and stick with it
“If you want to progress in meditation, stay with one technique.”
LESSON TWO: Meditate every day
“Practice now. Don’t think you will do more later.”
Dipa Ma stated firmly that if you want peace, you must practice regularly. She insisted that students find time for formal meditation practice every day, even if only for five minutes. If that proved impossible, she advised, “At least when you are in bed at night, notice just one in-breath and one out-breath before you fall asleep.”
“If you are busy, then busyness is the meditation,” she told him. “When you do calculations, know that you are doing calculations. Meditation is to know what you are doing. If you are rushing to the office, then you should be mindful of ‘rushing.‘”
LESSON THREE: Any situation is workable
“Each of us has enormous power. It can be used to help ourselves and help others.”
LESSON FOUR: Practice patience
Patience is a lifetime practice, to be developed and refined over time. According to Dipa Ma, patience is essential in maturing the mind and therefore is one of the most important qualities to cultivate.
LESSON FIVE: Free your mind
“Your mind is all stories.”
LESSON SIX: Cool the fire of emotions
Aren’t there at least some situations when it’s justified? For Dipa Ma the answer was simple: no, anger is never justified. And she found ways to navigate through life without it.
LESSON SEVEN: Have fun along the way
“There is so much sameness in ordinary life. We are always experiencing everything through the same set of lenses. Once greed, hatred, and delusion are gone, you see everything fresh and new all the time. Every moment is new. Life was dull before. Now, every day, every moment is full of taste and zest.”
LESSON EIGHT: Simplify
In every way, Dipa Ma lived in the greatest simplicity. She refrained from socializing. She did not engage in unnecessary talk. She didn’t involve herself in other people’s concerns, especially complaints. Her guideline for herself and her students was to live honestly and never blame others.
LESSON NINE: Cultivate the spirit of blessing
“If you bless those around you, this will inspire you to be attentive in every moment.”
LESSON TEN: It’s a circular journey
Seeing into your true nature means realizing that you are inextricably bound to everyone and everything that lives, that you are, indeed, responsible for all that takes place in the world.
Chapter 12: In the Presence of a Master: Questions and Answers
The Five Stages of Lovingkindness Practice
First stage: The first stage is to love yourself, to be a best friend to yourself. Begin by extending lovingkindness to yourself.
Second stage: Using the same phrases as before, direct the lovingkindness to a good friend or teacher who has been kind to you.
Third stage: The next category of beings to send lovingkindness to are called “the sufferers”—any beings or groups of beings who are suffering.
Fourth stage: In the fourth stage, lovingkindness and equanimity blend together. The practice is to hold a vast sense of all living beings in one’s mind and to send metta to them all equally—friends, people who suffer, people for whom your feelings are neutral, those with whom you have difficulty, all beings everywhere.
Fifth stage: The crowning stage of metta meditation is to combine all the stages and focus for a while on each of the stages in one meditation session. Practiced in this way, the meditation becomes like a symphony of lovingkindness in which you start with yourself, and open, open, open, until you finally come to rest in equanimity.