Dipa Ma taught that the mind is all stories, one after another like nesting dolls.  You open one, and another is inside.  Open that one, and there is another story emerging.  When you get to the last nesting doll, the smallest one, and open it, inside of it is – what? It’s empty, nothing there and all around you are the empty shells of the stories of your life. 

Because Dipa Ma was able literally to see through the stories of the mind, she did not acknowledge personal dramas of any kind.  She wanted her students to live from a deeper truth than their interpretations of, and identification with, the external events of their lives.  Dipa Ma knew all about life’s dramas.  She had personally suffered chronic illness; grief at the deaths of her parents, husband, and two children; and crushing despair.  Only when she had gone beyond identification with the stories and dramas in her life did she begin to live as a free person. 

From:  Dipa Ma The Life and Legacy of a Buddist Master by Amy Schmidt.