Nani Bala Barua (March 25, 1911 - September 1, 1989), better known as Dipa Ma, was an Indian meditation teacher of
Theravada
''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school ...
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
and was of
Barua
Barua (also spelt as ''Baruah'', ''Barooah'', ''Baruwa'', ''Baroova'', ''Barooa'', ''Baroowa'', ''Borooah'', ''Boruah'', or ''Baroa'') is a common Assamese surname.
In Assam Valley History
Originally, the ''Barua'' surname was used as a milit ...
descent.
She was a prominent Buddhist master in Asia and also taught in the United States where she influenced the American branch of the
Vipassana movement
The Vipassanā movement, also called (in the United States) the Insight Meditation Movement and American vipassana movement, refers to a branch of modern Burmese Theravāda Buddhism that promotes "bare insight" (''sukha-vipassana'') to attain ...
.
Early life
Nani Bala Barua was born in on March 25, 1911 in a small village in
Chittagong,
East Bengal
ur,
, common_name = East Bengal
, status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan
, p1 = Bengal Presidency
, flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg
, s1 = Ea ...
, then in
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
but now part of
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mo ...
.
In her childhood she showed an exceptional interest in
Buddhist
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
rituals and preferred to study rather than play.
She very much wanted to attend school but in 1923 at the age of twelve she was married and later went to live with her husband, an engineer, in
Rangoon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
.
He soon left to work in
Burma
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
, leaving her with her in-laws. Eventually she moved to Burma to join her husband. In 1929 when Nani was 18 her mother died unexpectedly, leaving behind a baby boy named Bijoy which Nani and her husband took to raise in Burma, as they had not yet had a child.
At the age of 35 Nani conceived and gave birth to her first child, a baby girl, who fell ill and died at three months of age. Four years later, in 1950, Nani gave birth to a daughter, Dipa, whereupon Nani began to be called Dipa Ma "Mother of Dipa"
as her daughter's survival was a momentous event. This was followed by yet another loss of a child (her first son) at birth, the sudden death of her husband in 1957, and subsequent extreme grief and physical pains.
Meditation
After her husband died, Dipa Ma was extremely unhappy. One day a doctor suggested that she learn how to meditate. She attended her first meditation retreat at the Kamayut Meditation Center in Rangoon.
She soon after attended her second retreat, at the Thathana Yeiktha center, where the Venerable
Mahasi Sayadaw was teacher-in-residence.
There she experienced the first stage of
enlightenment.
In 1963 she was chosen to study the
siddhi
In Indian religions, (Sanskrit: '; fulfillment, accomplishment) are material, paranormal, supernatural, or otherwise magical powers, abilities, and attainments that are the products of yogic advancement through sādhanās such as meditati ...
s or spiritual powers with the Indian master
Anagarika Munindra, a senior student of
Mahasi Sayadaw. According to scholars, the ''
Visuddhimagga'' is one of the extremely rare texts within the enormous literatures of various forms of
Jainism
Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle bein ...
, Buddhism, and
Hinduism
Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...
to give explicit details about how spiritual masters were thought to actually manifest supernormal abilities. Abilities such as flying through the air, walking through solid obstructions, diving into the ground, walking on water and so forth are performed by changing one
element, such as earth, into another element, such as air.
The individual must master ''
kasina'' meditation before this is possible.
Dipa Ma, who trained via the ''
Visuddhimagga'', was said to demonstrate these abilities.
Teaching career
In 1967, she returned to India, moving to
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...
where she taught meditation.
Her first formal student was her neighbor, Malati Barua, a widow trying to raise six young children alone. Believing that enlightenment was possible in any environment, Dipa Ma devised practices that her new student could carry out at home.
In the 1970s, she was a teacher of
Sylvia Boorstein,
Joseph Goldstein,
Jack Kornfield, Michelle Levey, and
Sharon Salzberg, who later became prominent teachers in the United States. In the early 1980s Dipa Ma taught at the
Insight Meditation Society in
Barre, Massachusetts.
Death
She died at the age of 78, in 1989 in
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
, India,
while bowing before a statue of the Buddha. She was survived by her daughter Dipa, an employee of the Indian government, and her grandson Rishi.
References
Sources
*
* Knaster, Mirka Ph.D., "Living this Life Fully: The Stories and Teachings of Munindra". (2010) Shambhala Publications, Boston.
* Amy Schmidt, ''Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master''. (USA); (Europe)
External links
Dipa Ma talks, videos and biography*
Dipa Ma's dharma talks at Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center, 1984
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Dipa
1911 births
1989 deaths
People from Chittagong
American Buddhists
Indian Buddhists
People from Kolkata
Indian expatriates in the United States
Theravada Buddhist spiritual teachers
Indian Theravada Buddhists
Buddhism in the United States
Students of Mahasi Sayadaw
Scholars from Kolkata