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| Dipa Ma |
Weekly Dipa Ma: Dipa Ma emphasized having some commitment to mindfulness and meditation every day. This, along with retreats, is how she progressed in insight.
“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.”
Besides formal sitting on the cushion, Dipa Ma urged students to make every moment of their lives a meditation. Many of them were busy people who found it difficult to set aside any time at all. Dipak Chowdhury told Dipa Ma that it was impossible for him to practice because he had a very full schedule at the bank where he worked. He explained that he spent his workdays doing calculations, and that his job required him to be continually on the move, too busy and too restless even to think about meditation. Dipa Ma wouldn’t hear of this; she insisted that meditation is always possible, that it is not separate from life. “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.’ When you are eating, putting on your shoes, your socks, your clothes, you must be mindful. It is all meditation! Even when you are cutting your nails, put your mind there. Know that you are cutting your nails.”
For Dipa Ma, mindfulness wasn’t something she did, it was who she was—all the time. The best attitude with which to approach this practice, she said, is with "trust and willingness" and "when your mind wanders, simply begin again."
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