Different problem with Averting

[Tirisilex]

I'm part of the Tulpa community and I am creating Thoughtforms. There is a thoughtform called a Servitor. This thoughtform is like a Robot that I can program to do what ever I like. So I made it's image as an Asian Dragon. I programmed it to Fly into my consciousness whenever Anxiety would fill my mind and it would breathe fire and destroy the anxiety so that I do not have to experience it. Now my question is.. Is this a good idea? I find that this is also a kind of aversion and as a Buddhist should I approach this differently? Should I maybe program the Dragon to help me identify the Anxiety and have it just let the anxiety pass by instead of destroying it??

[Vasana]

'Destroying anxiety' and destroying the causes of anxiety are too very different things. Maybe your method might work as some kind of self-hypnosis /NLP / jedi-mind trick on yourself but it won't help you overcome the reasons you feel anxious in the first place, will it?

It would be wiser and less time and energy consuming to actually recognize the causes and conditions that give rise to hope/fear/anxiety rather than simply destroying, numbing or masking the effect (mental and physical discomfort).

[Tirisilex]

oops

[jkarlins]

Have you learned shamatha or lojong? Have you learned any sadhana practice?

Do you practice with a sangha in person?

Jake

[Tirisilex]

NO, I don't have a Sangha. This is the closest thing I have to a Sangha. Yes I do Shamatha on a Daily Basis. I never heard of Lojong. Just Shamatha and Vipassana..

[jkarlins]

OK.

I asked because at least in the traditions I've been a part of, they emphasize shamatha and vipashayana (or just shamatha).

Good that you practice daily. That's surprisingly rare these days.

I benefitted from finding sanghas in the "real world." If you can't, you can't.

Hard to say where the whole thought form thing fits in. I haven't done stuff like that in a long time. I'm just speaking in terms of my Buddhist practice and what has worked, more or less. And what has helped me, more or less.

Jake

[Tirisilex]

I'm a vajrayana practitioner and there is a Zen group in my town but they don't have a teacher running the group. I kind of feel out of place there because I am a Vajrayana and they dont know anything about say Yidams and Sadhanas. I also find them on a different level than me. They're studying stuff like Thic Naht Han and Im studying Yogacara which I find to be far more deeper knowledge.

[Vasana]

If you think the Prajnaparamita teachings as per Thich Naht Hanh are inferior to Yogacara or Madhyamaka, you havn't reflected on them enough.

[Tirisilex]

I haven't really Read his Prajnaparamita teachings.. I'm talking about (while still valuable) Being Peace and Miracle of mindfulness, Peace is every step. That kind of stuff. This group doesn't cover the deeper things They just seem to be all into the meditation and not into the philosophy thats all.

[Jesse]

'Destroying anxiety' and destroying the causes of anxiety are too very different things. Maybe your method might work as some kind of self-hypnosis /NLP / jedi-mind trick on yourself but it won't help you overcome the reasons you feel anxious in the first place, will it?

It would be wiser and less time and energy consuming to actually recognize the causes and conditions that give rise to hope/fear/anxiety rather than simply destroying, numbing or masking the effect (mental and physical discomfort).

Pretty much, creating something like that might help to serve as some type of coping mechanism, but it will likely only end up exacerbating your anxiety. It will likely just become another defense mechanism, which almost always contributes to anxiety, rather than cure it.

If you are already taking other more traditional steps to curing your anxiety, then here's a few things that have helped me. (That came from Buddhist practice.)

1. Meditation, Mindfulness, Equanimity.

Without meditation, you will likely never gain the adequate understanding of what's actually causing your anxiety, to be able to deal with it effectively. The cause of anxiety is always a form of hyper-reactive response to some stimuli that you find aversive. The only solution is to learn to relax and to stop engaging these thoughts.

It happens something like this:

Begin:
Thought Arises that causes Anxiety. (Thought can be caused by something external, or internal such as social anxiety, or an obsessive thought)
Anxiety Arises
More thoughts arise to COMBAT(Run Away, Push Away) anxiety out of ignorance, and cause MORE anxiety.
Repeat Entire Process:

So the solution is to stop reacting to the initial cause. You learn to relax instead of having the fight or flight response.
This will reduce anxiety to some degree. With more suffering being overcome the more you gain an understanding(and practice) of equanimity, mindfulness, etc.

Tbh I'd stay away from the whole thought form thing, you'll likely only cause yourself more suffering.

[Vasana]

Mingyur Rinpoche : 'My Story ~ Using meditation to deal with panic attacks, stress & anxiety'

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I haven't really Read his Prajnaparamita teachings.. I'm talking about (while still valuable) Being Peace and Miracle of mindfulness, Peace is every step. That kind of stuff. This group doesn't cover the deeper things They just seem to be all into the meditation and not into the philosophy thats all.

Well, you should remember that Shamatha and Vipassana form the basis of all Yanas and all samadhis and contemplations so I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the seemingly basic material on calm abiding and mindfulness from Thich Naht Hahn. Shamatha alone and slow deep breathing can really help soothe and down-regulate the somatic causes and symptoms of anxiety and vippassana can help on the cognitive front. Lots of science to back that up too. Why not go for the methods that are tried and tested and that fulfil their function sooner?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for anxiety might also be worth looking in to. It's all very basic common sense stuff but it's the kind of material needs to be digested again and again for the rational part of the brain to light up more easily.

[Soma999]

If your group develop peace, mindfulness, support, i feel it's quiet a good remedee for anxiety.

I would prefer visualisation instead of thought form creation. Visualise yourself finding peace may help you, and release pain and tension. But visualisation does not do everything. There is a need for integration : a group can help and support, even if they are "different" in the practice tou are used to do. If they are sincere and beneficient it can be useful to share.

Though form creation, or creation of servitor, and everything around is a domain which can be useful, but also tricky. Some persons lose control of their creation. They can't or refuse to destroy it and in some case it can survive your death. It can rebels. And it came from you, so if you have some "issue" it can impact the creation and it's efficiency.

Creating a servitor is quiet demanding in energy and in my opinion not the easiet way to deal with this kind of situation, and can even be tricky.

Instead of giving energy to an artificial creation, give it to a rose or the blue sky you contemplate. That will tranmits her energy to you and awaken something in your consciousness.

[Jesse]

If your group develop peace, mindfulness, support, i feel it's quiet a good remedee for anxiety.

I would prefer visualisation instead of thought form creation. Visualise yourself finding peace may help you, and release pain and tension. But visualisation does not do everything. There is a need for integration : a group can help and support, even if they are "different" in the practice tou are used to do. If they are sincere and beneficient it can be useful to share.

Though form creation, or creation of servitor, and everything around is a domain which can be useful, but also tricky. Some persons lose control of their creation. They can't or refuse to destroy it and in some case it can survive your death. It can rebels. And it came from you, so if you have some "issue" it can impact the creation and it's efficiency.

Creating a servitor is quiet demanding in energy and in my opinion not the easiet way to deal with this kind of situation, and can even be tricky.

Instead of giving energy to an artificial creation, give it to a rose or the blue sky you contemplate. That will tranmits her energy to you and awaken something in your consciousness.

The above is good advice. I'm not sure about visualization (as a form of meditation) as I was never good at it. I always lose control of my visualizations. I've always been better at directed focus; shamatha with(and without) objects. They end up working out the same though. Two diff methods to achieve the same thing.

My favorite form of visualization is probably imagining myself at the beach, and really feeling everything. The sun on skin, wind on skin, and face. The water on your feet, and toes. The mist spraying from waves crashing, the sounds.. birds in the background, everything. It's a really beautiful place to build. Building something like this through concentration can be helpful as a relaxation tool.

Then again, I love the beach, you can really build any place you would find relaxing. Each time you are doing shamatha meditation, after you have finished, just use your concentrated mind to imagine someplace you would find relaxing. Add more sensory experiences each time you do it. Try to make everything the same each time, and eventually, it will be very simple to create this place in your mind with little effort.

The problem with thought-forms as the previous poster mentioned, is losing control over them. Honestly, I'm not sure there are many people out there who can 'control' their tulpas. Tulpas are as independent as you are. They are in every way that you are, a sentient being. A formless one, but still a sentient being. In some Buddhist Communities and Lineages, we are the tulpas of our Yidams. If that is accurate, which is likely is; you can infer what the means about creating a Tulpa. It's a bad idea. Yidams are manifestations of enlightened mind. We are ignorant sentient beings. As such we lack the capacity to practice thing's like this without causing ourselves harm.

[Tirisilex]

I have already made a Tulpa.. I had no problems with it. She was a fairy. She really enjoyed Disney films. I had a nightmare when I was a child about a female spirit was trying to kill me. I got worried that she might be that spirit. She said to me "I'm going to leave you because of your fear of me." So she left me and I haven't heard from her since. It really wasn't very taxingly to make and she was every bit as compassionate as I had made her to be.

[Tirisilex]

This is a video that a friend found for me and it illustrates what it is I would like to do. I've been trying to find ways to help me deal with my disease using Tulpas and Servitors. This is a video of a guy who has tried to help his anxiety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYMvNuLFKJU

[Vasana]

It seems you've already decided that you're going to commit to the tulpa thing regardless of what people suggest here but if in the near future, you've found it hasn't been 100% successful or genuine progression is taking longer than you anticipated, remember there are still tried and tested methods that have been passed down for 2500 years and that practicing the Dharma will it's self dissolve the conditions that give rise to fears.

[Tirisilex]

It seems you've already decided that you're going to commit to the tulpa thing regardless of what people suggest here but if in the near future, you've found it hasn't been 100% successful or genuine progression is taking longer than you anticipated, remember there are still tried and tested methods that have been passed down for 2500 years and that practicing the Dharma will it's self dissolve the conditions that give rise to fears.

Don't get me wrong I really value what has been said here.. It's just that I feel this is a different approach and it seems to work well. The biggest thing about this is ever since I learned about Tulpas is has how it has helped me with my Schizophrenia and I have been writing a book on it. I have been using some Tulpa (Thought form) techniques other than what I have listed so far and it has helped me.

I just really wanted to get a Buddhist perspective on this because well I'm Buddhist. I feel just because it's different doesn't mean it isn't effective. I'm still trying to take in what has been said into consideration.