Talk:Joseph Goldstein

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[edit] Notability Concern

On 04:52, 5 July 2006, Brookie flagged this article for lack of identified notability. I'd like to try to address this concern. If I fail to, please let me know in what ways I can be of more use.

Motivation for Article: The major motivation for this article is that I saw in articles on Sharon Salzberg and Jack Kornfield that they had unresolved internal links to "Joseph Goldstein." So, I thought it was better to put out this stub than to leave those internal links unresolved. I would like to point out that I'm not particularly knowledgeable about Goldstein and have never met the man or seen him teach; however, I do have a number of his books, a tape and a CD set, and I have repeatedly come across accounts of his seminal contribution to American Buddhism. (In all sincerity, might it be that you think "American Buddhism" is a non-notable subject?) To give you a rough analogy, as Lama Surya Das is to American Tibetan Buddhism, Joseph Goldstein is to American Theravada Buddhism. So, if you keep the articles on Salzberg and Kornfield and Surya Das, I think it is only appropriate to keep a "stub" article on Goldstein.

Lack of Citations: The majority of the information in this "stub" article is well-known and thus does not need citation. Each statement (with the exception of his growing up in the Catskills and his graduating from Columbia with a major in Philosophy -- although this information is identified in one or more of the article's bibliography's sources) has multiple sources, including those indicated at the bottom of the article under "Bibliography." The Bibliography is a small smattering of articles on Goldstein that I could just quickly access off the web or from "One Dharma" which is currently by my bedside.

Wikipedia Notability Policy (WP:BIO): If I'm reading it right (1:15 a.m. where I am, blurry eyes), current biographic notability policy identifies the following reasons for meriting a Wikipedia biography:

• "The person made a widely recognized contribution that is part of the enduring historical record in their specific field." While the historical record of American Buddhism is relatively young, anyone familiar with American Buddhism over the last 20 years will know of Joseph Goldstein and recognize him as a seminal author and leader. Is there a Wikipedia Buddhism guru we can query about this? It should be that simple.

• "Published authors, editors and photographers who received multiple independent reviews of or awards for their work." Reviews of Goldstein's works and interviews with Goldstein are published regularly in magazines such as Tricycle. A google search should verify this for you.

• "The person has been the primary subject of multiple non-trivial published works whose source is independent of the person. (Multiple similar stories describing a single day's news event only count as one coverage.)" In the bibliography section are a few articles/books I pulled off the web and my nightstand that reference Goldstein's semininal contribution to American Buddhism. Please check them out. Let me know if you need more (though please give me time to find them).

In addition, WP:BIO lists an alternative test of:

• "Google Test -- Does the subject get lots of distinguishable hits on Google or another well known search mechanism?" A google search of "'Joseph Goldstein' +Buddhism" results in 37,100 hits.

I hope this might address some concerns. Please let me know if there are specific things I can do to better address any on-going concerns. Thanks, LarryR 05:34, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

Many thanks - have removed the tag Brookie :) - a will o' the wisp ! ^(Whisper...) 08:37, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

And thank you! Thank you too for inserting the "stub" tag as much expansion obvioiusly needed :-) LarryR 11:43, 5 July 2006 (UTC)

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Agree completely. Joseph Goldstein is a major figure in American Buddhism.—Nat Krause^(Talk!) 01:01, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Straight from Tusita heaven — a fine place for a wikibreak — deus ex machina, my favorite Wikipedia Buddhism guru! Thanks for weighing in, Nat! – LarryR 16:40, 17 July 2006 (UTC)