February Meetings Topic

The Elevator Answer
Core Buddhist assumptions, teachings and practices

Following on the heels of January 2005's two meetings on Buddhist teachings concerning who and what should generally be believed, February's meetings topic will focus on articulating core Buddhist assumptions, teachings and practices.

Though the basic teachings may already be familiar to us in an academic or theoretical sense, these meetings will encourage us to accurately articulate those basic teachings when we find ourselves in the following situation: "Oh, you're interested in Buddhism. I've always been curious- what's it all about?..."

This situation is often referred to as "The Elevator Answer" - because it is framed as follows:

You are staying at a hotel for a conference on _________ (in our case Buddhism), on your way down to the first session, a stranger gets on the elevator with you and notices your nametag identifies you as participating in the Buddhist conference. The stranger turns to you and says, "So, Buddhism, what's that all about?" You then have until the elevator reaches the lobby to provide an answer that is accurate and meaningful.

As always, each meeting will begin with a thirty minute meditation session, followed by a presentation and group discussion. The first meeting of the month will draw on a primary text from Buddhist scripture and the second meeting will focus on a modern commentary. Please look for individual posts for each meeting subtitled "February 2005 - Meeting 1" and "February 2005 - Meeting 2" for details on meeting leader, date, time, location, and text resources.

This is an information-only post and cannot accept comments. The posts for the individual meetings will accept and, hopefully, encourage discussions through the postings.