“Your heart knows everything” – Dipa Ma

“I was doing the 2-month spring retreat as a metta intensive at Spirit Rock. I had hoped that that would mean that I would spend two months being blissful and openhearted. What actually happened was that I spent a good chunk of that time angry. I was in despair one day over the sheer number and intensity of my angry thoughts. I was sitting in the little “gratitude hut” in front of the picture of Dipa Ma, weeping in an abject fashion. I finally said to her, “Dipa Ma, tell me–how many angry thoughts can I have before I just write myself off as an angry person? When can I give up?”

“It was as if I heard her voice saying very kindly but firmly, ‘Never.'”

“Oh. All right then, I thought. I guess I just keep practicing. And eventually things started shifting.”

– Rachel Lewis