The board and its direction (if any)

Casual conversation between friends. Anything goes (almost).
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conebeckham
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by conebeckham »

A few new folks start posting about the occult, theosophy, and/or "dharma topics as filtered through "magical understanding," and people start talking about lock-downs and New Age Invasions?

It's just a wave in the ocean. It will pass when they lose interest.

I'm in agreement with Malcolm. Unless people post what is plainly Adharma, in which case those points should be corrected.
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
Malcolm
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Malcolm »

Image
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conebeckham
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by conebeckham »

Malcolm, is that the New Age Invasion, or the Dharma Police Lynch Mob?


:smile:
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
Malcolm
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Malcolm »

conebeckham wrote:Malcolm, is that the New Age Invasion, or the Dharma Police Lynch Mob?


:smile:

Lynch mob.
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conebeckham
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by conebeckham »

Ah...thanks! :smile: Friendly bunch, that....
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
DGA
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by DGA »

back to topic: does the board *need* a particular direction?

I'd prefer DW be a place for meaningful dialogue and learning. A consensus club would be constipated and boring. And small.
Nicholas Weeks
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Nicholas Weeks »

Jikan wrote:back to topic: does the board *need* a particular direction?

I'd prefer DW be a place for meaningful dialogue and learning. A consensus club would be constipated and boring. And small.
Me too.

Mods can just dump any threads they think anti- or non-Dharmic into the Lounge.
May all seek, find & follow the Path of Buddhas.
Jnana
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Jnana »

Me too. The Mahāyāna is a large vehicle.
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dharmagoat
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by dharmagoat »

Jikan wrote:I'd prefer DW be a place for meaningful dialogue and learning. A consensus club would be constipated and boring. And small.
I don't understand what you mean by "consensus club".
Blue Garuda wrote:
dharmagoat wrote:When it comes to the appropriateness of subject matter, I believe that the best form of moderation for a site like this is one that follows the consensus of its members. This means that it is the responsibility of each member to maintain the integrity and Buddhist identity of this forum by pointing out when they believe discussions cease to adequately represent the essence of what the Buddha taught. No action need be taken, as long as it remains clear what is considered by most to be authentic Buddhism and what is not.
Nobody knows what that consensus is.
By "consensus" I mean "general vibe", if that makes it any clearer. Being a Buddhist forum, it is our shared understanding of the Dharma that will be the common ground on which we can establish what is representative of this website and what is not. Maybe, as catmoon has suggested, we can make it clearer what this common ground actually is.

And what's all this about "lynch mobs"?

What I have suggested is that it is up to members to collectively preserve the Buddhist identity of this site by posting appropriate disclaimers when topics appear to obscure or confuse the message of the Buddhist teachings. I have stated that no intervention is required if this is maintained. When intervention is required it can be as benign as moving a thread to a more appropriate forum. I can't recall anyone on this thread seriously suggesting that topics be restricted, and certainly no mention of anyone being banned.
DGA
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by DGA »

I mean by "consensus club" a community predicated on consensus: you're here because you agree with us, you're one of us because you agree with us, &c. I'd rather be among those who share a common interest with me (in this instance, Buddha Dharma) but are not necessarily in the loyalty oath racket. That's what I mean and what I meant to imply with the phrase "consensus club."

"Without Contraries is No Progression."
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dharmagoat
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by dharmagoat »

Jikan wrote:I mean by "consensus club" a community predicated on consensus: you're here because you agree with us, you're one of us because you agree with us, &c. I'd rather be among those who share a common interest with me (in this instance, Buddha Dharma) but are not necessarily in the loyalty oath racket. That's what I mean and what I meant to imply with the phrase "consensus club."
Clearly this is not what I was advocating in my previous posts.
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catmoon
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by catmoon »

Malcolm wrote:
catmoon wrote:
Malcolm wrote:
Practiced distinterest is better than shrill denunciations.

M

"All that is required for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing."

That might be true of the Third Reich, but it hardly applies to the "new ager question".
Point taken. However, the principle does have broader applications than the Third Reich, all the same.
Sergeant Schultz knew everything there was to know.
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VlcImba
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by VlcImba »

Proud to participate In THe great protest of dharmawheel 2012:)
Form is emptiness,emptiness is form
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Nemo
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Nemo »

Malcolm wrote:
catmoon wrote:
Malcolm wrote:
Practiced distinterest is better than shrill denunciations.

M

"All that is required for evil to prosper is that good men do nothing."

That might be true of the Third Reich, but it hardly applies to the "new ager question".
I find New Agers about as dangerous as tofu. Unlike Nazis they are much too self abosorbed and lazy to be a threat to anything but themselves. Since this site does not generally cater to self aggrandizment and specialness I think they would lose interest. Forcing a direction on a site this new and small would probably kill it. Let it find it's own way. The other option is enjoying the silence.
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Josef
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Josef »

Jikan wrote:back to topic: does the board *need* a particular direction?

I'd prefer DW be a place for meaningful dialogue and learning. A consensus club would be constipated and boring. And small.
Seconded.
Especially the boring and constipated part.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
Blue Garuda
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Blue Garuda »

Josef wrote:
Jikan wrote:back to topic: does the board *need* a particular direction?

I'd prefer DW be a place for meaningful dialogue and learning. A consensus club would be constipated and boring. And small.
Seconded.
Especially the boring and constipated part.
No shit? LOL :)

If staff tried to control or stifle debate excessively the forum would shrink and I think the most useful and interesting members would not post.

Equally, if staff were to let anything go, people would leave through frustration and through an unwillingness to be part of something they perceived as negative.

So, staff can only act in a limited way, and members have access to them with any grievances re. ToS breaches etc.

If members have a particular desire for a school or view to become more prominent then they can start threads.

What I find unacceptable is for members to bleat about the dominance of discussions on a topic they dislike or find boring, and do nothing at all to give the forum something they would find positive or interesting.

I sometimes start threads. It's good to find out that people like what you say, disagree or find you boring or offensive - and in some threads you get all of those reactions - or none ! LOL :)

Bear in mind that we have some members and non-members who only read and never post - I hope they do post and find that this forum is a fair and open medium for their message.
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VlcImba
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by VlcImba »

A bit :offtopic: but don't ya think the forum is a little inactive compared to our sister dhammawheel.com? Just sayin ya know
Form is emptiness,emptiness is form
Huseng
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Huseng »

VlcImba wrote:A bit :offtopic: but don't ya think the forum is a little inactive compared to our sister dhammawheel.com? Just sayin ya know
That's because there are several other major forums for Mahāyāna discussions. Market share dictates we'll only get a certain portion of the available market. :coffee:


Dhammawheel is the chief forum for Theravada discussion in English I reckon.
Blue Garuda
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by Blue Garuda »

Huseng wrote:
VlcImba wrote:A bit :offtopic: but don't ya think the forum is a little inactive compared to our sister dhammawheel.com? Just sayin ya know
That's because there are several other major forums for Mahāyāna discussions. Market share dictates we'll only get a certain portion of the available market. :coffee:


Dhammawheel is the chief forum for Theravada discussion in English I reckon.
I think the statistics were posted by the Team recently. Numerically and in terms of 'active' membership, this is pretty much the top Mahayana forum, but seems less busy these days since some key members are not posting. In recent months, if Dzogchen posts were removed, it would appear very quiet. These things go in cycles, but where there are specialist forums such as Zen Forum International there is naturally less traffic here on Zen.
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VlcImba
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Re: The board and its direction (if any)

Post by VlcImba »

Blue Garuda wrote:
Huseng wrote:
VlcImba wrote:A bit :offtopic: but don't ya think the forum is a little inactive compared to our sister dhammawheel.com? Just sayin ya know
That's because there are several other major forums for Mahāyāna discussions. Market share dictates we'll only get a certain portion of the available market. :coffee:


Dhammawheel is the chief forum for Theravada discussion in English I reckon.
I think the statistics were posted by the Team recently. Numerically and in terms of 'active' membership, this is pretty much the top Mahayana forum, but seems less busy these days since some key members are not posting. In recent months, if Dzogchen posts were removed, it would appear very quiet. These things go in cycles, but where there are specialist forums such as Zen Forum International there is naturally less traffic here on Zen.
Thanks for pointing it out guys :) I love the forum and I do really hope that more people can enjoy discussions here like we do :)
Form is emptiness,emptiness is form
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