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up vote 16 down vote

added by THelper Oct 24 '12 at 7:27

<comments removed> @Drux Please do not use comments to answer these questions. This proposal is not part of a Q&A site, and the task at hand is to help define what is on and off topic for a site. Comments are here to help improve the questions; not to answer them. See What is the rationale for deleting answers? Thank you. – Robert Cartaino Apr 19 '13 at 13:49

up vote 16 down vote

added by Crab Bucket Oct 30 '12 at 12:54

please don't upvote this question anymore, it already has 10 votes, and we need other questions to reach that threshold too so that this proposal can move to the beta stage. – Hamlet Dec 22 '12 at 19:20

Please vote whatever you consider a good question, regardless of its current score. "Optimizing" your votes against a threshold of 10 upvotes is a false friend and may harm the proposed site in the future phases. – bytebuster Jan 2 '13 at 23:34

@Christofian I agree with bytebuster. Votes are intended to signify the quality of the question, not to game the site into the next stage. – Ataraxia Jul 13 '13 at 14:32

While I respect and understand the viewpoint expressed by @bytebuster, I ask people to review ALL questions before voting. IMO, many questions deserve up votes. Also, a previous proposal for this failed once already; IIRC, it had no time to gather committers once it got through definition. As I type this, the proposal is only 3 questions short of completing the definition phase. So, if you see more questions deserving up votes than you have up votes to give, please use your votes on questions which have not yet gotten a score of 10 . – GreenMatt Jul 18 '13 at 14:19

Let me amend that previous comment to ask people to distribute their votes to choose to vote for worthy questions that have a score of LESS than 10. – GreenMatt Jul 21 '13 at 17:08

show 5 more improvement suggestions

up vote 14 down vote

added by Nalaka526 Oct 15 '12 at 2:34

In the context of Buddhism it might be better to refer to wrong or unskillful action instead of sin. – Drux Oct 15 '12 at 18:31

@Drux Of cource, I too think so... – Nalaka526 Oct 16 '12 at 3:15

No, if it is unintentional. But it still may be accounted as heedless action. – catpnosis Oct 23 '12 at 23:04

@durex, @alex Updated the question... :) – Nalaka526 Jan 12 '13 at 5:24

up vote 13 down vote

added by Nalaka526 Oct 8 '12 at 16:42

Guys, don't answer the questions - comments here are for expressing opinion on their suitability for the proposal. Read the faq. – yuttadhammo Nov 18 '12 at 11:32

up vote 12 down vote

added by Nalaka526, edited by yuttadhammo Nov 18 '12 at 11:32

<comments removed> @catpnosis Please do not use comments to answer these questions. This proposal is not part of a Q&A site, and the task at hand is to help define what is on and off topic for a site. Comments are here to help improve the questions; not to answer them. See What is the rationale for deleting answers? Thank you. – Robert Cartaino Apr 19 '13 at 13:50

@Robert Cartaino. Should I take your opinion (or linked answer) as the final Truth? Becasue you are omniscient like Buddha? I have different opinion of what should be in comments. And I believe my answers improved questions. – catpnosis Apr 19 '13 at 17:17

@catpnosis Yes, basically. You're working against the purpose for which these features were added. I can appreciate your enthusiasm for getting started with your "pre-answers" (a term which made us chuckle over here), but this is not a Q&A site, and we're not going to start hosting answers to these hypothetical questions like an old-style free-for-all discussion forum. These features all serve a very specific purpose and we can't really allow them to be re-purposed like that without actively disrupting the process for which they were created. Give it time. You'll have your site soon enough. – Robert Cartaino Apr 19 '13 at 18:45

I'm not sure if this proposal is still active, but I would like to say that I think this question is not good. It looks like the author refers to the Christian concepts of heaven and hell and asks how Buddhism explains these. Better to ask if there is some Buddhist version of heaven at all rather than asking 'where it is located' as it implicitly assumes that the Christian definition of heaven is the right one. – Rabbit Jun 3 '13 at 19:11

@Rabbit I agree. At the risk of getting vilified by everyone here for potentially impeding the progression to the next stage, it gets a minus 1 from me. – Ataraxia Jul 21 '13 at 19:12

show 6 more improvement suggestions

up vote 12 down vote

added by user246 Nov 30 '12 at 18:15

<comments removed> Please do not use comments to answer these questions. This proposal is not part of a Q&A site, and the task at hand is to help define what is on and off topic for a site. Comments are here to help improve the questions; not to answer them. See What is the rationale for deleting answers? Thank you. – Robert Cartaino Apr 19 '13 at 13:53

up vote 11 down vote

added by CRoshanLG Nov 16 '12 at 5:09

Yup. Probably easier than ever for those of us with enough resources to sit in front of a computer screen in our spare time. I would prefer to see more detail in the question. It seems to imply the modern world poses challenges, please explicitly state those beliefs. – alex Jan 12 '13 at 4:09

up vote 11 down vote

added by yuttadhammo Nov 18 '12 at 11:35

up vote 11 down vote

added by Jordan Rothstein Nov 18 '12 at 18:14

up vote 11 down vote

added by raukodraug Jan 15 '13 at 19:45

<comments removed> @alex Please do not use comments to answer these questions. This proposal is not part of a Q&A site, and the task at hand is to help define what is on and off topic for a site. Comments are here to help improve the questions; not to answer them. See What is the rationale for deleting answers? Thank you. – Robert Cartaino Apr 19 '13 at 13:56

up vote 10 down vote

added by Eric.Void Oct 19 '12 at 23:46

<comments removed> @Suminda Please do not use comments to answer these questions. This proposal is not part of a Q&A site, and the task at hand is to help define what is on and off topic for a site. Comments are here to help improve the questions; not to answer them. See What is the rationale for deleting answers? Thank you. – Robert Cartaino Apr 19 '13 at 13:54

up vote 10 down vote

added by Nalaka526 Oct 24 '12 at 4:27

up vote 10 down vote

added by Drux Oct 24 '12 at 20:45

up vote 10 down vote

added by catpnosis Oct 27 '12 at 11:40

up vote 10 down vote

added by Crab Bucket Oct 31 '12 at 11:41

This was a question I was asked by some youngish students when I was presenting at a school. They meant the question sincerely. I appreciate that the question looks simplistic but to become a Christian it might be said that one accept Jesus Christ as ones saviour (or another criteria). What about Buddhism. I welcome suggestions to rephrase or I will happily delete as appropriate – Crab Bucket Feb 14 '13 at 16:17

The question only seems simply because the answer is simple. However, this could lead into requirements of monks, recommended lay practice and precepts, etc. I wonder if one would be satisfied knowing the Buddha discourages practitioners from becoming or that ritual is a hindrance to the path. – alex Feb 14 '13 at 22:10

up vote 10 down vote

added by catpnosis Nov 3 '12 at 13:38

	Second line of what article of Wikipedia? And this is not yes/no question, and I don't care about yanas in this question either. What I want to see is arguments how much modern Theravada is similar or dissimilar to ancient Theravada. (Not about name change.) What if modern Theravada is not Theravada school at all? For example, Milindapanha is non-theravadin text in theravadin canon. Also note, that I ask about modern Theravada (tradition), not about some particular theravadin text (like pali nikaya only). Include all that is authoritative today. – catpnosis Jan 14 '13 at 12:53
	I can't say the comment clears up what answer is desired. Do the practitioners of a certain school consider themselves descended from another school? Do scholars? Do other schools agree? By what criteria is a modern school the same or similar to an ancient school? Practice, language, teachings, life styles, beliefs, hair styles? Unbroken ordination chain? Unaltered preservation of oral and text tradition? – alex Feb 14 '13 at 22:02
	@alex Probably scholars opinion is most interesting for me. – catpnosis Feb 15 '13 at 1:35

up vote 10 down vote

added by maple_shaft Nov 6 '12 at 20:42

up vote 10 down vote

added by CRoshanLG Nov 8 '12 at 4:44

I've always difficulties with questions, which ask two different things at the same time. And also, as a buddhist, I wouldn't involve myself in a question "...goes beyond other religions..." other than at most ironic, because it is in a way comparative and -in my view and my experience- introduces much too lightheartedly (and needlessly) diminuishing feelings if the reader incidentally is "in" the other religion. – Gottfried Helms Nov 8 '12 at 6:29

@Gottfried Helms Thank you for your views sir. I've edit the question. – CRoshanLG Nov 8 '12 at 6:34

@Gottfried Helms Thank you for your views sir. I can't understand what you've meant by "diminuishing". I guess it's just a typo. But I think I got the general idea & edited the question. – CRoshanLG Nov 8 '12 at 6:41

Hello CRoshan - nice to see your efforts! Thanks! Well, perhaps it is also time to look deeper at the second part of your original question, and whether one can make some better formulation for what was -possibly- a constructive idea behind it. Sometimes it is just a job of more mindful precision? – Gottfried Helms Nov 8 '12 at 6:51

I suspect we'll see variations of this question many times. We should agree on a FAQ entry. I have two issues with it as it stands. First, "just another" is loaded with implication. Second the "or" implies a polar duality which does not exist. This would be better as two separate simple questions: "is b a religion?" and "Is b a philosophy?" – alex Jan 13 '13 at 15:12

show 1 more improvement suggestion

up vote 10 down vote

added by Nalaka526, edited by yuttadhammo Nov 18 '12 at 11:34

up vote 10 down vote

added by CRoshanLG Nov 14 '12 at 5:00

<comments removed> @Gottfried Helms Please do not use comments to answer these questions. This proposal is not part of a Q&A site, and the task at hand is to help define what is on and off topic for a site. Comments are here to help improve the questions; not to answer them. See What is the rationale for deleting answers? Thank you. – Robert Cartaino Apr 19 '13 at 13:57

up vote 10 down vote

added by yuttadhammo Nov 18 '12 at 11:35

up vote 10 down vote

added by Jordan Rothstein Nov 18 '12 at 20:04

up vote 10 down vote

added by Drux Nov 24 '12 at 21:27

I'm asking this from a Western perspective, because I noticed that there are e.g. all this Theravada-inspired podcasts out for free (e.g. Audiodharma), whereas one usually seems to have to pay for Tibetan-inspired material (e.g. Pema Chödrön's CDs). – Drux Nov 24 '12 at 21:30

up vote 10 down vote

added by user246 Nov 30 '12 at 18:13

I hope everyone understands that we are not actually asking questions right now; we are posing questions hat might be typical of what would appear in the proposed forum. Your comments should describe your reaction to the question as an exemplar. If you attempt to answer the question , you are hindering the process. – user246 Dec 2 '12 at 4:54

You probably not completely understand the process you trying to explain. We not "proposing typical questions". Quote from the FAQ: "Propose questions you might ask or want to see answered on the site." – catpnosis Dec 5 '12 at 5:23

up vote 10 down vote

added by user246 Nov 30 '12 at 18:17

I feel that this type of question should be called something like "lazy question" (a term which I came across sometimes recently in related discussions), and I don't like it that way: it gives the impression, that the asker not even took the most simple impulse to get information in something already written, like wikipedia. It attempts to make the formum members do and do again the same job of explaining the same thing ... Hmm: just an emotion when reading that question-title; maybe in the text of such a question the asker would be more specific and it would catch my couriosity then... – Gottfried Helms Dec 3 '12 at 9:43

@Gottfried Fair point. I think what distinguishes this question is that karma is one of the few Buddhist terms that appears commonly in popular culture, where it is often cast as a sort of spiritual bank account or a synonym for "if you do something bad/good to someone, eventually something bad/good will happen to you". – user246 Dec 3 '12 at 14:13

:-) - yes, that's what I meant with"..maybe in the text of such a question..."... I've read the "Spirituellen Materialismus durchschneiden" (cut spiritual materialism, Chöguam Trungpa) and so there actually exists a certain inner-buddhistic contemplation of that problem. That question would attract more of my positive interest, if such focusing on certain aspects of -for instance- "the reception of the idea of the karma and its potential of mislead and measures in some traditions against such mislead" were visible in the question header. – Gottfried Helms Dec 3 '12 at 15:03

We should expect a basic Wikipedia knowledge but not expect people to have connected the dots. I would like to see a FAQ that includes basic concepts like "the buddha claims to have taught only dukkha and the cessation of dukkha" such that the above "lazy" question might at least be "how is karma significant with regard to nibbana?" – alex Jan 13 '13 at 2:09

Too unspecific. There's way too many different ways to answer this question. – Ataraxia Mar 1 '13 at 13:08

up vote 10 down vote

added by azev Dec 25 '12 at 0:33

up vote 10 down vote

added by raukodraug Jan 15 '13 at 19:45

	Quiet topical, but not clear. Is the question asking about the meditation object as silence rather than a sound; or is the question about absorption versus insight? It's the article 'the' that throws me off: "Concentrate in THE silence" (between sounds or focused on silence) vs. "Concentrate in silence" (as opposed to while watching television). – alex Feb 13 '13 at 5:36
	@alex I can see the ambiguity, the question is referred to the silence between sounds and the sounds that arise from silence. – raukodraug Apr 29 '13 at 14:02

up vote 10 down vote

added by Prair Jan 27 '13 at 11:19

up vote 10 down vote

added by Eyal Apr 7 '13 at 20:02

up vote 10 down vote

added by eug Apr 28 '13 at 9:58

Duplicate: area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/45110/buddhism/… – Rabbit Jun 2 '13 at 18:52

up vote 9 down vote

added by THelper Oct 23 '12 at 20:59

What is difference between you and other person? That is very broad question. – catpnosis Oct 23 '12 at 23:09

@catpnosis Ok, I'll rephrase. – THelper Oct 24 '12 at 7:12

IMO answers to such basic questions are best looked up in existing Wikipedia articles or in a FAQ, say. They perhaps don't warrant a new Q&A site. – Drux Oct 24 '12 at 20:15

up vote 9 down vote

added by BenjaLim Oct 24 '12 at 2:32

up vote 9 down vote

added by maple_shaft Nov 6 '12 at 20:36

up vote 9 down vote

added by CRoshanLG Nov 16 '12 at 5:15

up vote 9 down vote

added by yuttadhammo Nov 18 '12 at 11:36

up vote 9 down vote

added by azev Jan 11 '13 at 13:44

up vote 9 down vote

added by Alejandro Bastidas Feb 5 '13 at 19:34

up vote 9 down vote

added by MatthewMartin Apr 24 '13 at 19:28

up vote 8 down vote

added by azev Jan 7 '13 at 2:51

I think this is an excellent question with (in theory) a yes or no answer (I just don't know what the answer is). However, a question like "If I kill Hitler before he kills 30 million people...?" should lead to a fascinating discussion but may be inappropriate for SE where we should expect a single 'best' answer. – alex Jan 13 '13 at 3:23