Knee Deep in Grace

Book excerpt: A tiny Indian woman leading an inconspicuous life in Calcutta profoundly influenced the evolution and teaching of Buddhist meditation practice in America. Knee Deep in Grace presents the life story of Dipa Ma Barua, along with the essential spiritual teachings that make her a towering figure in contemporary Buddhism. While she experienced fame in her lifetime and had a following of many Burmese, Indian, and American students, she was like the women saints of the Vedas, remarkable women...from the dawn of history...who achieved realization while cleaning their homes and raising their children (Daughters of the Goddess: Women Saints of India).Dipa Ma was a primary teacher of Sharon Salzberg Jack Kornfield, and Joseph Goldstein, who have been among the most influential importers of Buddhism to America. Through the centers they founded and the teachers trained in them (the author among them), the example and teaching of Dipa Ma reach multitudes. Jack Kornfield described the power of Ma's influence: Without anything said or done, just the impact of meeting a person so developed can be enough to change one's whole way of life.Knee Deep in Grace is filled with intimate stories collected over a period of ten years, not only from prominent meditation teachers in the West but from Dipa Ma's daughter and grandson and her Calcutta students. Dipa Ma addressed her teaching to ordinary people in her apartment complex and her extended family, and her iconoclastic style of daily life immersion practice brought many of her students to awakening.