Lama Zopa Rinpoche

the damaru incorrectly. You should hold the bell at your heart to actualize clear light and
play the damaru at your navel.
Once when I was at a long life puja for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, I was
watching to see who did all this as His Holiness Zong Rinpoche explained. Only Samdhong
Rinpoche, the previous Tibetan prime minister, was doing it correctly.
The current prime minister is Lobsang Sangay, who seems to have much more recognition
and respect from the Indian government, which is very good. I think it’s important that
people in the Tibetan government know Dharma well, and as a former principal of the
Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, Samdhong Rinpoche was an expert in
sutra and tantra. But of course, Lobsang Sangay is an expert in politics and other things,
having a law degree from Harvard University. One of the FPMT’s major benefactors was
asked by His Holiness’s Private Office to help fund his studies there and it seems that the
Private Office might have planned for him to run for office for a long time, so it seems very
good, excellent.
So I was watching all these lamas using the damaru at the puja and only Samdhong Rinpoche
was doing it correctly, holding it at his navel. Of course he knows; the rest were holding
theirs up like you do in chöd practice. So you should not do that, but play it at the navel in
order to persuade, or hook or attract, the dakinis into your navel chakra to bless it.
To succeed in the tum-mo practice of the Six Yogas of Naropa in order to attain clear light and
great bliss and achieve the state of Vajradhara as quickly as possible in this life for the sake
of sentient beings you need to persuade the dakinis to pay attention to you, to hook them to
abide in and bless your navel chakra. So this is not like playing the big chöd damaru. If
you’re doing chöd, that’s different, but even then, there are various ways of playing it. I
learned to do it one way; His Holiness Khalkha Rinpoche, 118 who is kind of like the Dalai
Lama of Mongolia, does it another. But holding the small damaru like a chöd damaru has no
meaning. The bell, too, has many explanations.
My suggestion is that generally, always dedicate any practice or puja you do for sentient
beings, not just yourself. I’m sorry to say this but even my Mickey Mouse gek-tor practice is
done for all sentient beings. In the world there are so many sick people, so many people
facing difficulties, numberless people experiencing great suffering, and they all need gek-tor
done for them. So we do it here not just for those of us taking the initiation but for all
sentient beings.
For example, if you are doing a Four Mandala Offerings to Tara puja, dedicate it for all
sentient beings. Generate bodhicitta not only at the beginning but also, during the puja,
remind yourself that you are doing it for all the sentient beings who need that Tara puja.
There is so much suffering in the world. There are numberless sentient beings who are sick
or who have difficulties in business or other things, so while you can dedicate the puja for
whatever problems you have personally, you should also dedicate it to all the numberless
sentient beings who also need it.
Whatever puja you do, dedicate it to all sentient beings. If you do a Medicine Buddha puja,
dedicate it for them. Of course you can think of yourself, but there are numberless sentient
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