https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_form#Thoughtform
Tulpa (
Tibetan:
སྤྲུལ་པ,
Wylie:
sprul-pa;
Sanskrit: निर्मित nirmita[SUP]
[1][/SUP] and निर्माण nirmāṇa;[SUP]
[2][/SUP]
Japanese: タルパ tarupa;[SUP]
[3][/SUP] "to build" or "to construct") also translated as "magical emanation",[SUP]
[4][/SUP] "conjured thing" [SUP]
[5][/SUP] and "phantom" [SUP]
[6][/SUP] is a concept in
mysticism of a being or object which is created through sheer spiritual or mental
discipline alone. It is defined in Indian Buddhist texts as any unreal, illusory or mind created apparition. According to Alexandra David-Néel, tulpas are "magic formations generated by a powerful concentration of thought." It is a materialized thought that has taken physical form and is usually regarded as synonymous to a
thoughtform.
[
Indian Buddhism
One early Buddhist text, the
Samaññaphala Sutta lists the ability to create a “mind-made body” (
mano-maya-kaya) as one of the 'fruits of the contemplative life'. Commentarial tantric texts such as the
Patisambhidamagga and the
Visuddhimagga state that this mind-made body is how the Buddha and other Buddhists Arhats are able to travel into heavenly realms using the continuum of the mindtream ("Boddhi") and it is also used to explain the multiplication miracle of the Buddha as illustrated in the
Divyavadana, in which the Buddha multiplied his emanation body ("nirmita") into countless other bodies which filled the sky. A Buddha or other realized being is able to project many such "nirmitas" simultaneously in an infinite variety of forms, in different realms simultaneously.[SUP]
[8][/SUP] The Indian Buddhist philosopher
Vasubandhu defined
nirmita (tulpa) as a siddhi or psychic power (Pali:
iddhi, Skt:
ṛddhi) developed through Buddhist discipline, concentrative discipline and wisdom, (
samadhi) in his seminal work on Buddhist philosophy, the
Abhidharmakośa.
Asanga's Bodhisattvabhūmi, defines nirmāṇa as a magical illusion and “basically, something without a basis”.[SUP]
[9][/SUP] The Buddhist
Madhyamaka school of philosophy sees all reality as empty of essence, all reality is seen as a form of nirmita or magical illusion.
Tibetan Buddhism
Tulpa is a
spiritual discipline and teachings concept in
Tibetan Buddhism and
Bon. The term “thoughtform” is used as early as 1927 in
Evans-Wentz' translation of the
Tibetan Book of the Dead.
John Myrdhin Reynolds in a note to his English translation of the life story of
Garab Dorje defines a
tulpa as “an emanation or a manifestation.”[SUP]
[1][/SUP]
As the Tibetan use of the tulpa concept is described in the book
Magical Use of Thoughtforms, the student was expected to come to the understanding that the tulpa was just a hallucination. While they were told that the tulpa was a genuine deity, "The pupil who accepted this was deemed a failure – and set off to spend the rest of his life in an uncomfortable hallucination."[SUP]
[10][/SUP]
Alexandra David-Néel
The term is used in the works of
Alexandra David-Néel, a Belgian-French explorer, spiritualist and Buddhist, who observed these practices in 20th century Tibet. Alexandra wrote that “an accomplished
Bodhisattva is capable of effecting ten kinds of magic creations. The power of producing magic formations,
tulkus or less lasting and materialized tulpas, does not, however, belong exclusively to such mystic exalted beings. Any human, divine or demoniac being may be possessed of it. The only difference comes from the degree of power, and this depends on the strength of the concentration and the quality of the mind itself.”[SUP]
[11][/SUP] Alexandra also wrote of the tulpa's ability to develop a mind of its own: “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 maker's control. This, say Tibetan occultists, happens nearly mechanically, just as the child, when his body is completed and able to live apart, leaves its mother's womb.”[SUP]
[12][/SUP] Alexandra 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.[SUP]
[13][/SUP] Alexandra raised the possibility that her experience was illusory: “I may have created my own hallucination.”
Thoughtform
Thought-form of the
Music of Gounod, according to
Annie Besant and
C.W. Leadbeater in
Thought Forms (1901)
A
thoughtform is the equivalent concept to a
tulpa but within the
Western occult tradition. The Western understanding is believed by some to have originated as an interpretation of the Tibetan concept.[SUP]
[7][/SUP] Its concept is related to the Western philosophy and practice of
magic.[SUP]
[14][/SUP]
Modern perspective
Today, there are people who attempt to create what they call tulpas or
imaginary friends of their own. A number of web sites explain the methods people use to create tulpas of this sort.[SUP]
[15][/SUP] Chidambaram Ramesh, an Indian author and researchers, in his book "Thought Forms and Hallucinations" has mentioned that the creation of thought forms and other mental entities like Tulpa etc., is the result of holographic mind processing.
See also
