I am a vegetarian and the dinner was primarily vegetarian with certain dishes explicitly identified as vegan. There were salads and casseroles and quiches and brussel sprouts and numerous other vegetarian options .... and there were also some turkey and chicken dishes. In addition, it was full of desserts afterwards.

In keeping with the Spirit of Christmas, there was a 1 1/2 talk on Jesus ---- the dialogue with Nicodemos (unless a man be born again .... ) and the Beatitudes. Afterwards, during the buffet dinner, there was a lot of singing and dancing.

I had the opportunity to meet with senior members of the community, and I plan to go back Tuesday evening for the overview of all their literature. The group leader seems quite knowledgeable.

When you spoke to the President of the National Spiritualist Association of Churches, what were her thoughts on birth and what happens after physical death?

Gosh it sounds like you had a lovely time, the food sounds yummy. I love the Beatitudes , I was only taught 8.
I also like the 6 Modern Beatitudes proposed by Pope Francis.
I hope the singing and dancing was all respectable :D

Well before I disappear can I throw a spanner into the works :icon_eek:

No birth... No death... Only transformation.

Spiritualist look at birth and death very similar as to how most Christians view birth and death.

We did not talk on those subjects because they were not controversial topics. The only controversial topic we talked on was reincarnation.

I suspect the real story is how and when reincarnation got introduced into the United States. There is much evidence this belief was introduced thru the Theosophical Society under Olcott's Presidency via Theravada Buddhism.

Buddhists don't believe in Reincarnation :biggrin:

Reincarnation refers to the idea that there is an eternal soul that gets reborn into body after body. Buddhist don't believe in a Soul.

What should we do with the writings by Henry Steele Olcott labeled Reincarnation?

Rebirth does not happen?

What about karma?

Rebirth not Reincarnation.
 

The Buddha doctrine of rebirth should be differentiated from the teachings of transmigration and reincarnation of other religions. Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent, god-created soul or an unchanging entity that transmigrates from one life to another.

Just as relative identity is made possible by causal continuity without a Self or Soul, so death can issue in rebirth without a transmigrating Soul. In a single life, each thought-moment flashes in and out of being, giving rise to its successor with its perishing. Strictly speaking, this momentary rise and fall of every thought is a birth and death. Thus even in a single life we undergo countless births and deaths every second. But because the mental process continues with the support of a single physical body, we regard the mind-body continuum as constituting a single life.


https://www.budsas.org/ebud/whatbudbeliev/96.htm

What are you debating about?

I suggested how reincarnation probably came thru Olcott's Theosophical Society to the West which was probably in the 1870's. If you look at most Eastern teachings that came thru that conduit, they did not come across correctly.