Fellow upāsaka/upāsikā,

To make our [online] experience better, we request that you read the guidelines below before requesting to join this subreddit. By submitting a request to join, you are agreeing to abide by these guidelines as the baseline for one’s conduct while engaging with the rest of the community.

Guidelines

1. r/upasaka is not an alternative to a proper, real-life community under the auspices of a particular tradition/sect/school and qualified teachers.

2. Take everything said here with a grain of salt. To quote the common adage, “Trust, but verify.”

3. Actions of the moderation team, such as post/comment deletion, account muting/ban, and removal from the community, can be appealed through modmail.

4. When requesting to join, please indicate if you have taken refuge and [any of] the precepts and, if so, with what lineage, tradition, sect, or school. To qualify for membership, you have to be an upāsaka/upāsikā. New or old, feel free to join!

5. This is not the correct forum for debating established Buddhist beliefs, doctrines, and metaphysics, such as karma, rebirth, the six realms, and so on.

6. Be patient with one another. We are aiming for a culture of collaboration, understanding, and mutual development in our community.

7. Cite scriptural, commentarial, or textual sources when making claims. While we understand that not all statements have authoritative references, we expect that we all do so whenever possible. Otherwise, please be clear when sharing one’s own opinion.

8. Abide by the Eightfold Path as much as one can, especially right speech. False speech, harsh speech, divisive speech, and the like should be avoided to the best of one’s abilities.

9. Follow the community rules (check the sidebar) at all times. They can be subject to changes at any time. The moderation team will do its best to communicate any major change or addition, but we advise everyone to review them from time to time to stay up to date.