dorjeshugden.com
About Dorje Shugden => General Discussion => Topic started by: iloveds on October 20, 2011, 11:28:49 PM
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Though I do not claim to see the unseen, the thought stuck out.
There are countless beings dying everyday, yet not as many as those who are being reborn.
These beings maybe stuck in the intermediary for a very long time.
Hence the population of living / seen, and the unseen is hugely disproportionate.
We are the minority, yet many do not believe this to be the case.
Some food for thought.
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I didnt grow up with this tradition of spirits but the way I see it, if Dorje Shugden / God / Allah / Jesus can exist and I cant see them, why cant other unseen beings exist...? Theyre only unseen relative to me; theyre not unseen relative to other people.
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In many sutras it is mentioned that during Buddha's Dharma talk, there were many non-human beings attending the talk, for example gods, demi-gods, nagas etc. In fact nagas were said to be keeping the Perfection of Wisdom scriptures until they returned it to Nagarjuna.
Therefore, we are the minority, the Dharma is also not exclusively ours, just that the human realm is the most conducive to practise Dharma.
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Many of my friends had some sort of supernatural experience, some of them being disturbed by unseen spirit for many years until they found their Guru to help them to stop the disturbance.
I agree with Mana, human is so precious to practice Dharma. We always hold on to permanent and attach to what we thought will be good for us. There are many spirits attached to their house, their properties when they were alive, maybe for 50 to 60 years, but because of their attachment, they became a spirit of that area for thousands and thousands of years.
On top of that, If spirit exist, for sure Tara, Manjushri, Tsongkhapa, Dorje Shugden exist, then enlightenment is possible too.
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Perhaps it would be a good idea if people would study Buddhist cosmology before promoting an unseen Shugden, yes? ;D
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Many of my friends had some sort of supernatural experience, some of them being disturbed by unseen spirit for many years until they found their Guru to help them to stop the disturbance.
I agree with Mana, human is so precious to practice Dharma. We always hold on to permanent and attach to what we thought will be good for us. There are many spirits attached to their house, their properties when they were alive, maybe for 50 to 60 years, but because of their attachment, they became a spirit of that area for thousands and thousands of years.
On top of that, If spirit exist, for sure Tara, Manjushri, Tsongkhapa, Dorje Shugden exist, then enlightenment is possible too.
Good example and good logic. Spirits do exist. Since they can exist, then many other unseen beings could exist whether we understand them or not.
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Perhaps it would be a good idea if people would study Buddhist cosmology before promoting an unseen Shugden, yes? ;D
What is Buddhist cosmology? How does it relate to unseen beings and their existence?
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Perhaps it would be a good idea if people would study Buddhist cosmology before promoting an unseen Shugden, yes? ;D
What is Buddhist cosmology? How does it relate to unseen beings and their existence?
The six (or five) realms of kama-loka, and the six (or five) types of possible becoming: hell-beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demi gods, and gods. (Sometimes the two types of gods are lumped together, making in total five possible modes of existence.)
That is a basic tenet of Buddhism. All traditions agree on that teaching, so the existence of various spirits is not in doubt, or even debatable. (Only some modern teachers of Soto Zen and "Western Buddhism" deny the realms outside of humans and animals, but they tend to deny rebirth altogether.)
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I believe in Buddhism and thus the 6 realms so i definitely believe in the spiritworld... i do know some Buddhists who say they don't believe in ghosts.. i find that very weird. How can you be a Buddhist and not believe in the 6 realms?! I have a few non-buddhist friends (one is a pagan and one is a Christian) who see spirits and one confirms what the other is seeing so it's pretty conclusive proof to me. I wonder if they could see Dorje Shugden...
Can people only see spirits - i.e. what about Gods and demi-Gods? Dakas and Dakinis? And the Buddhas?
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That is a basic tenet of Buddhism. All traditions agree on that teaching, so the existence of various spirits is not in doubt, or even debatable. (Only some modern teachers of Soto Zen and "Western Buddhism" deny the realms outside of humans and animals, but they tend to deny rebirth altogether.)
Thats very surprising to hear the sects mentioned above deny the existence of realms besides what they can perceive. There is so much Buddhist literature out there about Buddha speaking about the six realms, it almost hints at Buddha was lying and not telling the truth about the true nature of the existence. Very surprising to read this.
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I agree with you, Dharmaspace - I do find it very contrary to the core of Buddhism. Those who don't believe in the spirits would most likely not believe in reincarnation either. I don't know about these Soto Zen or Western Buddhist sects mentioned here - the Western Buddhists i have met do believe in reincarnation.
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We humans like to think we are logical when in fact we are not. Or rather we do not apply logic equally. We have always assumed many things to be real or exist when in fact we had never established it. We swear by science when in fact science itself is based on assumptions. How many of us have proven the existence of gravity or has seen it? Why then do we believe there is such a phenomenon?Just because scientists told us? How reliable are scientists' experiments when they are all based on assumptions , certain parameters and the observer's interpretation ? They were the ones who told us the world was flat, that the earth was the centre of the universe, that there was no particle smaller than an atom, that thalidomide was a miracle drug , that a person is considered dead if their pulse stopped. All these turned out to be wrong and their findings continue to be subjected to revision. Yet we have the words of someone whom no one including scientists had ever said had lied for 2500 years and we doubt him more than the people and their methods who have a long proven record of being unreliable. Granted, for gross objects, empirical methods are useful. However for establishing subtle objects which are beyond our sensory perceptions or measuring instruments, we need to employ other methods like inferential logic and observations of things as they are to establish them.
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I agree with you, Dharmaspace - I do find it very contrary to the core of Buddhism. Those who don't believe in the spirits would most likely not believe in reincarnation either. I don't know about these Soto Zen or Western Buddhist sects mentioned here - the Western Buddhists i have met do believe in reincarnation.
That seems totally contrary to what Shakyamuni taught... and I thought all schools of thought go back to him?
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I used to see many spirits until I met my Guru who helped me stop seeing them. I would cross check with my friends who see spirits as well to ensure that I'm not hallucinating. This used to be a daily affair. Sometimes I'd see at least a hundred of them at a time. They appear in many shapes and sizes.
Sometimes I can't see them but I can feel their strong presence around me. Sometimes they will even create paranormal experiences like moving things around my room or short circuit my electrical equipments. I know they exist and there are countless numbers of them.
Look at the insect world alone. There are hundreds of millions in the forests that we're not even aware of. But do they exist? Definitely.
We're obviously not alone regardless of whether we sense them or not.
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Seeing is believing. Does it mean that those that we couldn’t perceive with our naked eyes do not exist?
According to Buddha, there are basically three forms of beings – the desire beings, form beings and formless beings. Hence the bardo beings, gods, demi-gods, spirits, hungry ghosts and hell beings are example of formless beings. Buddhas are also formless. Due to the throwing karma at the last moment of death, a sentient being will take rebirth as a desire being or form being or formless being in his or her next life. A Buddha does not lie. Hence, unseen beings do exist.
Some people are born gifted with the ability to perceive these unseen beings. They had the clairvoyance or third eye to perceive them. Ordinary humans cannot see these beings. However yogis or meditators who have highly developed their minds will have the abilities to perceive these unseen beings.
The ability to see these formless beings may or may not be a blessing. Sometimes these gifted persons are not trained or educated about their abilities to perceive the unseen world. It becomes a liability rather than a gift to them.
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According to Buddha, there are basically three forms of beings – the desire beings, form beings and formless beings. Hence the bardo beings, gods, demi-gods, spirits, hungry ghosts and hell beings are example of formless beings. Buddhas are also formless.
Well, the bardo beings, gods, demi-gods, spirits, hungry ghosts and hell beings are actually either desire realm or form-realm beings, posessing the rupa-skandha, or aggregate of form. Only the Formless Brahmas are formless, posessing only four aggregates. All the other gods and spirits have form.
As for the Buddhas, whether they can be said to posess a form depends on whether we are talking about nirmanakaya or dharmakaya, manifest body or truth-body.
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Spirits do exist, the reason why is because many people has experienced them before and they can communicate with them. Sometimes we may not be able to see them but we can definitely feel them around when they come near us but most of the time we brush that feeling off as our imagination and thus develop "resistance" against them. This is why we cannot sense them anymore.
In Buddhism, spirits are usually refer to the preta class. They are basically hungry ghost, and the sutras give a generic description of them of ghosts that take form due to their attachment to food. However there are many other forms and shapes, each taking the form of the affliction that they are unable to let go of. For example, a lady who committed suicide due to unrequited love will appear as a pretty woman who would keep trying to "find" her lover again and again but she will never find it. It is a non stop repetitious cycle that repeats itself over and over again.
With that said, sometimes human mentalities mirror those of the hungry ghosts. There are people who can never let go of the hurt that people have done towards them, and repeat that in their minds and eventually act on them as in inflict the same exact pain that they've been inflicted with onto others that they can get their hands on. It is pretty fascinating to see the similarities of people and hungry ghosts, as everything is literally in the mind..it is just different forms.
The fact that most ghosts have the similar mental blueprint of people who are heavily traumatized, or maybe reflect the inner emotions of people whom they have suppressed for a very long time and the state of a hungry ghost hits a very high note in them as they see what they will be..thus the fear. Its like how rich men with no ethics are very fearful of seeing beggars…they know it subconsciously.
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Iloveds, you are so right!
Even to compare with the realm one lower frm human, such as insects, ants, and flies….so many of them! Yet some of the human still didn’t realize of the precious being in the human realm.
Further thought of the huge no. of unseen being, just show how much negative karma collected. It’s scary to think about it but it’s good to mediate on it, so we would appreciate our precious live and do something beneficial to other by learning dharma and put into practice to help others and collect more merits to support and continue our spiritual journey.
I also feel so blessed and grateful to my guru who introduces me to Lord Shugden practice. By counting to this protector I’m rest assure that my spiritual journey will definitely fruitful and I’ll strongly promote and introduce to more people on this holy protector practice. Lord Shugden is protector at current time and would be able to help lot of people to fulfill their samsaric needs that eventually is to assist them to support their spiritual practice. Wonderful!
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Jambudvipa, the terrestrial world, ix envisioned in the cosmologies of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, which is the realm where ordinary human beings live. There must be so many other realms too. So many other living entities. Lets think with an open mind. Just think of how many other planets there are with living so called "aliens". How many parallel Universes with living entities. There are just so many including the spirit world.
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Dear iloveds,
Further thoughts from me :
1. Follow the theory of reincarnation into 6 realms, we should sum up the number for ALL sentient beings in order to know how many souls or mindstreams there are in existence. This is in theory, it is impossible to know the exact amount as it is astronomical !
Hence, to say the population is in decline just by looking at the population of human being is incomplete.
2. The above sum should also take into consideration mindstreams that are in existence in another planets and even another milky ways!
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In many sutras it is mentioned that during Buddha's Dharma talk, there were many non-human beings attending the talk, for example gods, demi-gods, nagas etc. In fact nagas were said to be keeping the Perfection of Wisdom scriptures until they returned it to Nagarjuna.
Therefore, we are the minority, the Dharma is also not exclusively ours, just that the human realm is the most conducive to practise Dharma.
Yes, I read somewhere that on the occasion that the Buddha taught the Sutras of Prajnaparamita (the Perfection of Wisdom) not only were human beings present, but also present were Devas, Gods, Nagas, and other powerful beings from other realms who received these teachings.
Those beings took the teachings back to their own regions... the Sutra in 10 Million Verses was taken by the Devas to their realm, the Sutra in 2 Million Verses was taken to the realm of the Gandarvas, and the Sutra in 100-Thousand verses was taken to the realm of the Nagas.
Those beings could remember what was expounded by Buddha, and brought it back to their realms. Apparently, those teachings did not spread in the human realm on that occasion.
Before Buddha entered clear light he prophesized that someone who bears the name "Naga" in his name would enter the human realm and spread the teachings on the Perfection of Wisdom... "one who has conquered, tamed, and gained mastery over the Nagas".
Of course that was Nagajurna :)
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Hmm...what about tulpas? they seem to be spirits that are created from the mind. But once created, it can break free of its creator's will. Odd concept which I am still trying to grasp, but what do you guys think of it?
On the Creation of Tulpas
However interested we may feel in the other strange accomplishments with which Tibetan adepts of the secret lore are credited, the creation of thought forms seems by far the most puzzling.
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Phantoms, as Tibetans describe them, and those that I have myself seen do not resemble the apparitions, which are said to occur during spiritualist séances.
As I have said, some apparitions are created on purpose either by a lengthy process resembling that described in the former chapter on the visualization of Ydam or, in the case of proficient adepts, instantaneously or almost instantaneously. In other cases, apparently the author of the phenomenon generates it unconsciously, and is not even in the least aware of the apparition being seen by others.
However, the practice is considered as fraught with danger for every one who has not reached a high mental and spiritual degree of enlightenment and is not fully aware of the nature of the psychic forces at work in the process.
Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker¹s control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother¹s womb. Sometimes the phantom becomes a rebellious son and one hears of uncanny struggles that have taken place between magicians and their creatures, the former being severely hurt or even killed by the latter.
Tibetan magicians also relate cases in which the tulpa is sent to fulfill a mission, but does not come back and pursues its peregrinations as a half-conscious, dangerously mischievous puppet. The same thing, it is said, may happen when the maker of the tulpa dies before having dissolved it. Yet as a rule the phantom either disappears suddenly at the death of the magician or gradually vanishes like a body that perishes for want of food. On the other hand, some tulpas are expressly intended to survive their creator and are specially formed for that purpose.
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Must we credit these strange accounts of rebellious "materializations", phantoms which have become real beings, or must we reject them all as mere fantastic tales and wild products of imagination?
Perhaps the latter course is the wisest. I affirm nothing. I only relate what I have heard from people whom, in other circumstances, I had found trustworthy, but they may have deluded themselves in all sincerity.
Nevertheless, allowing for a great deal of exaggeration and sensational addition, I could hardly deny the possibility of visualizing and animating a tulpa. Besides having had few opportunities of seeing thought-forms, my habitual incredulity led me to make experiments for myself, and my efforts were attended with some success. In order to avoid being influenced by the forms of the lamaist deities, which I saw daily around me in paintings and images, I chose for my experiment a most insignificant character: a Monk, short and fat, of an innocent and jolly type.
I shut myself in tsams and proceeded to perform the prescribed concentration of thought and other rites. After a few months the phantom Monk was formed. His form grew gradually fixed and lifelike looking. He became a kind of guest, living in my apartment. I then broke my seclusion and started for a tour, with my servants and tents.
The Monk included himself in the party. Though I lived in the open, riding on horseback for miles each day, the illusion persisted. I saw the fat tulpa; now and then it was not necessary for me to think of him to make him appear. The phantom performed various actions of the kind that are natural to travelers and that I had not commanded. For instance, he walked, stopped, looked around him. The illusion was mostly visual, but sometimes I felt as if a robe was lightly rubbing against me, and once a hand seemed to touch my shoulder.
The features which I had imagined, when building my phantom, gradually underwent a change. The fat, chubby-cheeked fellow grew leaner, his face assumed a vaguely mocking, sly, malignant look. He became more troublesome and bold. In brief, he escaped my control. Once, a herdsman who brought me a present of butter saw the tulpa in my tent and took it for a living lama.
I ought to have let the phenomenon follow its course, but the presence of that unwanted companion began to prove trying to my nerves; it turned into a "day-nightmare". Moreover, I was beginning to plan my journey to Lhasa and needed a quiet brain devoid of other preoccupations, so I decided to dissolve the phantom. I succeeded, but only after six months of hard struggle. My mind-creature was tenacious of life.
There is nothing strange in the fact that I may have created my own hallucination. The interesting point is that in these cases of materialization, others see the thought-forms that have been created.
Alexandra David-Neel
Magic and Mystery in Tibet.
University Books Inc., 1965
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I found an explanation on Tulpa on Wikipedia. I am still not entirely sure what it is but I think it belongs to the realm of black magic and superstition. Having said that, I believe spirits are not made up but are very real. The Buddha has talked about them and have even described their existence so they must be real. All human cultures talk about ghosts and the unseen. So, it cannot be just a figment of everybody's imagination.
Tulpa (Wylie: sprul-pa; Sanskrit: nirmita and nirm??a; "to build" or "to construct") is an upaya concept in Tibetan Buddhism and Bon, discipline and teaching tool. The term was first rendered into English as 'Thoughtform' by Evans-Wentz (1954: p. 29):
In as much as the mind creates the world of appearances, it can create any particular object desired. The process consists of giving palpable being to a visualization, in very much the same manner as an architect gives concrete expression in three dimensions to his abstract concepts after first having given them expression in the two-dimensions of his blue-print. The Tibetans call the One Mind's concretized visualization the Khorva (Hkhorva), equivalent to the Sanskrit Sangsara; that of an incarnate deity, like the Dalai or Tashi Lama, they call a Tul-ku (Sprul-sku), and that of a magician a Tul-pa (Sprul-pa), meaning a magically produced illusion or creation. A master of yoga can dissolve a Tul-pa as readily as he can create it; and his own illusory human body, or Tul-ku, he can likewise dissolve, and thus outwit Death. Sometimes, by means of this magic, one human form can be amalgamated with another, as in the instance of the wife of Marpa, guru of Milarepa, who ended her life by incorporating herself in the body of Marpa."
The mindstream communion affected by the wife of Marpa in the abovementioned quotation, is an ancient mode of mind transmission (Tibetan: dgongs brgyud) or empowerment (Tibetan: dbang bskur) in the Himalayan traditions, documented in the folklore and anthropological studies of Himalayan and Siberian Shamanism. The Russian Psychiatrist Olga Kharitidi published her direct experience of this phenomenon in the Altay Mountains, where a shaman merged a stream of his consciousness continuum or 'spirit' with hers. This phenomenon is a variation of the spiritual discipline of phowa (Tibetan: 'pho ba) and is often rendered as "spirit possession" within English anthropological discourse.
In mysticism, a tulpa is the concept of a being or object which is created through sheer discipline alone. It is a materialized thought that has taken physical form and is usually regarded as synonymous to a thoughtform.
The term comes from the works of Alexandra David-Néel, who claimed to have created a tulpa in the image of a jolly Friar Tuck-like monk which later developed a life of its own and had to be destroyed.
The tulpa phenomenon is assumed by the consciousness-only doctrine first propounded within the Yog?c?ra school and is part of the Mahayoga discipline of the generation Stage (Wylie:kye rim; Sanskrit: utpattikrama) , Anuyoga discipline of the completion stage (Wylie:dzog rim; Sanskrit:sa?pannakrama) and the Dzogchen perfection of effortless "unification of the generation and completion stages" (Wylie: bskyed rdzogs zung 'jug).
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i do not believe in unseen beings when i was still very young till i heard more and more people testifying that they have seen such beings. Some were even my own pals and i don't suppose they want to make up some story to make a joke out of me.
Soon after i met the Dharma and by then i fully understood that there are other unseen beings in this world and come to think about it, we are really the minority! Just look around, there must be a lot of beings floating around that most of us can't see.
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The spirit realm is quite real based on the teachings of Lord Buddha as well as existing evidence in the form of captured photo/film images and living witnesses. Thanks to the comments and sharing of researched information about the spirit realm.
Since childhood, I believe in the realm of spirits and was, sure as hell, completely frightened of meeting a ghost. However, as I study a little bit of Dharma, I learn that hungry ghosts are, in some ways, just like us: they suffer the uncontrollable cycle of continuous rebirth in samsara. Thus, I agree with what Ensapa said that we sometimes see the “human version” of spirit suffering within our realm. In understanding and relating a bit more to them, I was taught by my Guru to overcome my fear of ghosts because 1) it is a reflection of my self-cherishing mind and 2) it is a powerful way to practice compassion (by realizing that they suffer greatly and instead of fearing them, we should dedicate our merits to them).
In addition to slowly developing a different view on spirits, I also learn that the possibility (in most cases) of being disturbed by the spirit realm is dependant on our own karma as well, i.e do we have the karma to be disturbed by these beings? This is the reason why some people see, hear and are obstructed by beings from this realm while others do not.
This reveals again the power of pure Dharma whereby the principals are applicable with no contradictions for all beings regardless of the realm they exist within.
Thus, may our practice be strong so that we develop the ability to benefit all sentient beings from all 6 realms of samsara.
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While on this subject, when it comes to exorcisms on Buddhist terms, it is also important to remember that Buddhism does not destroy the spirit or send them to hell or something like that, but usually to educate that spirit that it is doing harm to people and that it should stop before it harms more people. For the more stubborn ones, the Lama will manifest as a Yidam to wake the spirit up from their delusions so that they will not harm anymore and bound them under oath to not harm others. For the hardcore cases where the spirit's mind is too damaged to actually perceive kindness due to their negative karma, they would be sent directly to the pureland to rehabilitate their mind.
Harmful spirits are not harmful by nature, but they are just very damaged beings mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Even in our realm, people who are very damaged psychologically would end up being harmful to others or lose their ability to care and be considerate. Someone who is in deep emotional pain would not think twice to harm kittens, for example, even when logically, the kittens are harmless and helpless and no one should harm them. That is why we hear many stories of psychopaths that became the way they were due to the fact that they have been abused or subjected to harm when they were young. If this can happen to these people, why is it not possible that it happens to ghosts and spirits who has been tormented and abused all their lives due to the power of their negative karma? Therefore we should have compassion towards them, but best is that we do not get involved as some can be quite manipulative and deceptive and seek the assistance of a Lama for example on dealing with them.
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i guess based on the fact that some people can see spirits and even some can perceive the enlightened ones are the basis that other beings beyond our naked eyes proved that there are other beings exist. However, in today's society not all of us are able to see hence the saying seeing is believing. Even sighting of an alien remains a myth because it is not our own self seeing it so we don't 100% trust in their existence.
What we can see is what we can relate to, hence we only believe that animals have feelings but we still choose to believe that insects do not have as much feelings compared to a larger animal. It is harder for us to believe as long as you are a being in this very world, you'll have feelings just like human even though they came in a different form and appearances.
But if these beings have feelings and emotion like we do, wouldn't it prove that all beings are the same? They just come in different forms and appearances. If we are the same then what resulted in them coming back and reborn in that particular forms and appearances? Hence, so far only the logic in Buddhism gave that explanation if we only we believe.
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Hmm...what about tulpas? they seem to be spirits that are created from the mind. But once created, it can break free of its creator's will. Odd concept which I am still trying to grasp, but what do you guys think of it?
On the Creation of Tulpas
However interested we may feel in the other strange accomplishments with which Tibetan adepts of the secret lore are credited, the creation of thought forms seems by far the most puzzling.
...
Phantoms, as Tibetans describe them, and those that I have myself seen do not resemble the apparitions, which are said to occur during spiritualist séances.
As I have said, some apparitions are created on purpose either by a lengthy process resembling that described in the former chapter on the visualization of Ydam or, in the case of proficient adepts, instantaneously or almost instantaneously. In other cases, apparently the author of the phenomenon generates it unconsciously, and is not even in the least aware of the apparition being seen by others.
However, the practice is considered as fraught with danger for every one who has not reached a high mental and spiritual degree of enlightenment and is not fully aware of the nature of the psychic forces at work in the process.
Once the tulpa is endowed with enough vitality to be capable of playing the part of a real being, it tends to free itself from its maker¹s control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother¹s womb. Sometimes the phantom becomes a rebellious son and one hears of uncanny struggles that have taken place between magicians and their creatures, the former being severely hurt or even killed by the latter.
Tibetan magicians also relate cases in which the tulpa is sent to fulfill a mission, but does not come back and pursues its peregrinations as a half-conscious, dangerously mischievous puppet. The same thing, it is said, may happen when the maker of the tulpa dies before having dissolved it. Yet as a rule the phantom either disappears suddenly at the death of the magician or gradually vanishes like a body that perishes for want of food. On the other hand, some tulpas are expressly intended to survive their creator and are specially formed for that purpose.
...
Must we credit these strange accounts of rebellious "materializations", phantoms which have become real beings, or must we reject them all as mere fantastic tales and wild products of imagination?
Perhaps the latter course is the wisest. I affirm nothing. I only relate what I have heard from people whom, in other circumstances, I had found trustworthy, but they may have deluded themselves in all sincerity.
Nevertheless, allowing for a great deal of exaggeration and sensational addition, I could hardly deny the possibility of visualizing and animating a tulpa. Besides having had few opportunities of seeing thought-forms, my habitual incredulity led me to make experiments for myself, and my efforts were attended with some success. In order to avoid being influenced by the forms of the lamaist deities, which I saw daily around me in paintings and images, I chose for my experiment a most insignificant character: a Monk, short and fat, of an innocent and jolly type.
I shut myself in tsams and proceeded to perform the prescribed concentration of thought and other rites. After a few months the phantom Monk was formed. His form grew gradually fixed and lifelike looking. He became a kind of guest, living in my apartment. I then broke my seclusion and started for a tour, with my servants and tents.
The Monk included himself in the party. Though I lived in the open, riding on horseback for miles each day, the illusion persisted. I saw the fat tulpa; now and then it was not necessary for me to think of him to make him appear. The phantom performed various actions of the kind that are natural to travelers and that I had not commanded. For instance, he walked, stopped, looked around him. The illusion was mostly visual, but sometimes I felt as if a robe was lightly rubbing against me, and once a hand seemed to touch my shoulder.
The features which I had imagined, when building my phantom, gradually underwent a change. The fat, chubby-cheeked fellow grew leaner, his face assumed a vaguely mocking, sly, malignant look. He became more troublesome and bold. In brief, he escaped my control. Once, a herdsman who brought me a present of butter saw the tulpa in my tent and took it for a living lama.
I ought to have let the phenomenon follow its course, but the presence of that unwanted companion began to prove trying to my nerves; it turned into a "day-nightmare". Moreover, I was beginning to plan my journey to Lhasa and needed a quiet brain devoid of other preoccupations, so I decided to dissolve the phantom. I succeeded, but only after six months of hard struggle. My mind-creature was tenacious of life.
There is nothing strange in the fact that I may have created my own hallucination. The interesting point is that in these cases of materialization, others see the thought-forms that have been created.
Alexandra David-Neel
Magic and Mystery in Tibet.
University Books Inc., 1965
In certain Buddhist sects, including the Tibetan tradition, a tulpa is the concrete physical manifestation of a thought-form. All conscious beings - from the One Mind of the Universe to the deities to human beings - are capable of giving physical form to their thoughts. When a person / magician manifests a thought-form in reality, that thought-form is called a tulpa.
The analogy most commonly given for creating a tulpa is that of the architect: first he creates the form of the building he is designing, and then he makes that form manifest in three dimensional reality - albeit with the help of construction crews and building inspectors and site supervisors.
The magician who brings forth a tulpa, however, does so with pure mental focus, and by giving energy to the form.
One of the first westerners to work with the tulpa concept was Alexandra David-Néel. This remarkable woman was among the first Europeans to travel to Tibet, long before it was open to outsiders, in the early 1900s.
Here is another account with regards to the tulpa story above. Interesting to note how, the "creation" almost got out of hand. It goes to show that we should not dabble in some aspects of the other worlds without first fully understanding and practicing it under the guidance of someone who knows.
David-Néel studied Tibetan Buddhism deeply, and wrote many books on the subject. She received tulpa training, and decided to give it a try. The results were more than a bit creepy:
The method involved was essentially intense concentration and visualization. David-Neel's tulpa began its existence as a plump, benign little monk, similar to Friar Tuck. It was at first entirely subjective, but gradually, with practice, she was able to visualize the tulpa out there, like an imaginary ghost flitting about the real world.
In time the vision grew in clarity and substance until it was indistinguishable from physical reality-a sort of self-induced hallucination. But the day came when the hallucination slipped from her conscious control. She discovered that the monk would appear from time to time when she had not willed it. Furthermore her friendly little figure was slimming down and taking on a distinctly sinister aspect.
Eventually her companions, who where unaware of the mental disciplines she was practicing, began to ask about the "stranger" who had turned up in their camp-a clear indication that a creature which was no more that solidified imagination had definite objective reality.
At this point, David-Neel decided things had gone too far and applied different lamaist techniques to reabsorb the creature into her own mind. The tulpa proved very unwillling to face destruction in this way so that the process took several weeks and left its creator exhausted.
In Western circles, other tulpa-like experiments include The Philip Experiment performed by the Toronto branch of the Society for Psychical Research in the early 1970s. This group of experimenters created a totally fictional character, a 17th century nobleman called Philip, for whom they concocted an elaborate and tragic story. They then tried to conjure Philip, to see if they could give their fictional creation a life of its own. Several attempts at séance style contact failed. The group resorted to just sitting around and discussing Philip, or even just hanging out together with Philip in mind.
After a little while, Philip started to make his presence known through standard ghostly techniques: knocking and scratching on the table, moving furniture, and other creepy signs. (Go here for a more detailed discussion of the Philip Experiment: http://www.mapit.kk5.org/#/the-philip-experiment/4535363269 (http://www.mapit.kk5.org/#/the-philip-experiment/4535363269) and below to watch a video about Philip.)
When we create fictional characters, we take one giant step toward creating a tulpa. We give physical and emotional and intellectual traits to these people. Many writers experience the phenomenon whereby their characters do things unexpectedly, or insist on a course of action that the writer himself would never choose. They are becoming their own people.
Pic 1: Alexandra David-Neel adopted a young Tibetan, Aphur Yongden, pictured with her here.
Video: Watch a video about "Philip".
http://youtu.be/X2lGPT2J1cc (http://youtu.be/X2lGPT2J1cc)
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i guess based on the fact that some people can see spirits and even some can perceive the enlightened ones are the basis that other beings beyond our naked eyes proved that there are other beings exist. However, in today's society not all of us are able to see hence the saying seeing is believing. Even sighting of an alien remains a myth because it is not our own self seeing it so we don't 100% trust in their existence.
What we can see is what we can relate to, hence we only believe that animals have feelings but we still choose to believe that insects do not have as much feelings compared to a larger animal. It is harder for us to believe as long as you are a being in this very world, you'll have feelings just like human even though they came in a different form and appearances.
But if these beings have feelings and emotion like we do, wouldn't it prove that all beings are the same? They just come in different forms and appearances. If we are the same then what resulted in them coming back and reborn in that particular forms and appearances? Hence, so far only the logic in Buddhism gave that explanation if we only we believe.
Actually, this does raise another question in me that I find it hard to find an answer for. I am aware that ghosts are just like us except that they are subjected to suffering every day and that could cause their minds to a bit warped, and in such we should be compassionate towards them as they do not mean to harm people but they do is because of their mental and emotional wounds. Even though I am fully aware of these, I do not understand why am I still afraid of them? Personally, I am quite fearful of them as I do not know what to do and whether or not they will harm me and cause me to be in trouble as well that nobody can help me out with.
For my own reasoning on this, it is because at the moment i lack the skill to help them, therefore I should not get involved in matters that is really beyond my skill and help. It would not help one bit but make things worse at the end. I may have pity for some of the spirits, or maybe all, but that does not mean that I am able to help them or that they are just lying so that they can have the chance to control me as I have heard of cases of spirits taking the sympathy of others for their own means, or harm and take advantage of people who show them compassion. Definitely for sure i do not want such things to happen to myself and end up needing my lama's help to remove the influence and problems. that would mean more work for my lama which in reality, it could have been mitigated if i did not busy myself with such things.
My Lama also warned that since spirits move at the speed of though and they can be clairvoyant, which is why we should not say things about them or even think of getting rid of them when we are not at that level. They might come and harm us instead. That is why it is actually quite dangerous to mess around with spirits in all the ways.
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My Lama also warned that since spirits move at the speed of though and they can be clairvoyant, which is why we should not say things about them or even think of getting rid of them when we are not at that level. They might come and harm us instead. That is why it is actually quite dangerous to mess around with spirits in all the ways.
Spirits are lives without physical body form like ours. When i relate to them on this note, I have compassion and not fear. Plus what Ensapa said here about what his Lama told him I think is very true. One more thing that I have learnt is that the form we think spirits appear is very much influence by books, pictures by man, movies, etc... I have read in many of these topic related videos, that they may appear in the form of light or energy like smoke...
Just one precaution, we must never tamper nor play with spirits as it is not right. When we do prayers we should make dedication to them to have a good rebirth... It must literally be like hell living in this realm.
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My Lama also warned that since spirits move at the speed of though and they can be clairvoyant, which is why we should not say things about them or even think of getting rid of them when we are not at that level. They might come and harm us instead. That is why it is actually quite dangerous to mess around with spirits in all the ways.
Spirits are lives without physical body form like ours. When i relate to them on this note, I have compassion and not fear. Plus what Ensapa said here about what his Lama told him I think is very true. One more thing that I have learnt is that the form we think spirits appear is very much influence by books, pictures by man, movies, etc... I have read in many of these topic related videos, that they may appear in the form of light or energy like smoke...
Just one precaution, we must never tamper nor play with spirits as it is not right. When we do prayers we should make dedication to them to have a good rebirth... It must literally be like hell living in this realm.
Just to echo your message, I dont feel it's right for anyone to play with or tamper with other sentient beings who are different from us, be it animal or spirit. Over the centuries certain cultures have develop methods to subjugate spirits and make them do work for their 'masters', but i find that a very cruel thing to do. I am wondering if the Dharma protector can release these spirits from being controlled by certain individuals who practice the dark arts?
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Good debate on the existence of the spirit world. I personally believe that even if all of us do not have the merits to see the divine beings like Buddhas, God, Jesus, many of us have seen the unseen which did not give us good experience.
Let us not deny the existence of the other realm. If not careful, we may be there one day.