28/05/2026
While practicing Vipassana meditation with Sayadaw U Pandita in Myanmar in 2011, I met Dipa Ma’s sister who was at the centre looking after Yogis during this retreat.
I inquired about Dipa Ma. She said Dipa Ma was quite ill when she first went to practise meditation at the Mahasi Centre. The sister looked after her niece while the mother was away. Hence Dipa Ma became known by this name. It means mother of Dipa which was the daughters name.
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Inspiring sayings of Dipa Ma: “Bless those around you. If you bless those around you, this will inspire you to be attentive in every moment.”
“I feel loving thoughts and lovingkindness towards everyone. I don’t discriminate.”
“The first thing is to love yourself. You cannot progress by self doubt and self hatred. You can only progress by self love.”
“Your heart knows everything.”
“You are all my dharma children.”
“Whatever comes in life, I embrace.”
“Your mind is your friend.”
‘If your life is in trouble, do metta (lovingkindness practices).’
"Human beings will never solve all their problems.”
“Thoughts of the past and the future spoil your time.”
“Your mind is all stories. Let go of thinking.”
“This problem you are facing is no problem at all. It is because you think, “this is mine,’ or ‘there is something for me to solve.’ Don’t think in this way, and then there will be no trouble.”
☸️🪷☸️🪷☸️🪷☸️🪷☸️
Dipa Ma was born in Bangladesh, she married at age 12 and moved to Rangoon, Burma, at 14. She faced profound personal losses, including the deaths of two children and her husband, leading to intense grief before she turned to meditation.
She studied under Mahasi Sayadaw, a teacher in the Burmese Theravada tradition, and achieved rapid, deep concentration, gaining a reputation as an accomplished yogi with alleged psychic powers, such as clairvoyance and deep concentration.
Dipa Ma taught that being a mother and wife was her first teacher, proving that Buddhist meditation and practice is for laypeople as well as monastics.
She became a crucial influence on the American Vipassana movement, teaching at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in the 1980s. Her teachings focused on mindfulness in daily life, loving-kindness, and non-attachment.
- Summary by Google AI.
