Living Through Experiencing

There are different kinds of knowledge that could help a tulpa to secure its place in the mind. Some of it come as host-owned knowledge, but it's way more beneficial to provide the tulpa with conditions where it can attain new knowledge on its own.

Any kind of mental activity produces some results. Here are a few things that a host can do.

Chanting

Chanting is a common meditation practice to get the mind focused easily. While it's not fitted for observational practices like Vipassana, it works quite good for tulpamancy. Chanting the tulpa's name lets the mind to focus on the proto-tulpa. It is advisable to check the point of focus every so often, the sound of the name should not be the thing you're focusing on. Focus on your determination as explained in the first practice and use chanting as a driving guide to it.

Visualization

Imagining your tulpa's form in a mind's eye is often used as a starting point in many guides. While it allows to bootstrap the process slightly easier, there are a few concerns that you should be aware about.

Visualization is a complex exercise for some people and focusing on it might drive your effort from your tulpa to imagining it. Just imagining how a tulpa might look is not enough to progress with tulpamancy and there is a better way to spend the effort. Additionally, visualization is something that limits tulpa's own expression of will, as its looks, clothing, maybe gender would be defined. It is never a problem and tulpa will change (also known as deviate) from what you have planned, unless you will force a tulpa into the bounds of your wishes.

If you want to incorporate the visualization into your practice, you must be sure to use it as an auxiliary means of expressing your intent. Think "this is how you might look like", not "this is how you should look like". Observe your determination. How do you feel about tulpa looking different? Why would you feel that way? You should not react to the looks of a tulpa as those are, ultimately, just the mental imagination. While it might be popular for a male tulpamancer to create a tulpa looking like an attractive female, it must never be the goal of the practice.

Do not set yourself any goals that would force you to crave for some particular looks. Craving would set your progress back. Observe the options and observe your reactions to them. Observe your determination and see if that determination starts to observe you.

Personality Traits

Giving your tulpa a basic personality is said to be a great way to shape it in a way you want it to grow, although this topic is controversial. Some tulpas are created with no specific personality, others have a huge list of traits.

Not all traits can even be useful, e.g. it's useless to say a tulpa must be wise. Wisdom is not something that could be achieved just by wanting it. The best way to shape the personality is by providing proper experiences. This of it as a process similar to teaching a child. A child is uttermost curious, they want to learn all kinds of things. Explaining the moral norms, how to behave in society, what things are acceptable is the key to shaping their personality. It is pretty similar process with tulpas, the only concern is that tulpas can get the knowledge what is there already in the brain. If you are not social and are scared about being social, explain your tulpa the exact reasons of your fears. It is a new consciousness, it is not aware of those fears and might not develop them. Let it experience the social aspects by talking to it (even if it can't reply), or getting them to visit a chat with another tulpamancers.

Talks

"Just talk about whatever" --- this advice is actually dangerous, as it promotes a bored mind. Boredom is a bit concern and a problem with any meditation practice, and it's in your interest to keep the practice interesting and curious. Don't forget that the early tulpamancy is about observing your tulpa as it appears in the mind, and that determination is the driving force. Talking to tulpa is a way to share your own experiences with it, which is often enough to give it some soul to grow and root itself in the mind. Talking though, is limited to experiences already in your head. What would you prefer if you had some time to spend with your friend: to have them recite a plot of a movie you've seen ages ago in great detail or to go see some new movie together? Getting new experiences with tulpa in mind is more effective, although hard. Thus, talking could be used to discuss experiences that happened since you started the practice, by examining them. Think to yourself --- how exactly you reacted to things happening? Would a tulpa react in a similar way? Why is it impossible for a different person to react in exactly the same way? Focus on your determination and think: "what would you do?"