The purpose of life is found through living. It is neither found nor fulfilled through the creation, perpetuation, or membership in an order or organization. Nor is it found through following a person's teaching or by following rituals that one can claim to be a Muslim, Jew, Hindu, Christian, or other religious person. These religions and teachings are however fulfilled when one completes the reattachment, reassimilation, and re-memberance of being what is one's own birthright - a member of All, an expression of All, and as one with All. It is fulfilled in daily life through and by Love and Awareness. For there is already an existing Order, Organization, and Teaching - and no more is needed to either supplement or support it. That is you in your greatness, and it is yours to be realized and lived. The inner teaching of each path point toward that; and the ones who Know in each organization are aware of this.
As far as we know, what some people call "God" did not reach down into the world and decree that someone should "make an order for everyone to follow its teaching as the only way to know life". The Prophets and Great Teachers did not establish orders for people to only become Jews or Christians or Buddhists or Moslems. There is however a spiritual impulse and guiding spirit that is continuing taking place. There are times in which an individual is guided by and through this to form a teaching or organization. Sometimes the person so guided is aware of the limitations inherent in it or aware a greater purpose for bringing something like this into the world. Sometimes the whole framework is apparent. But sometimes the person is not aware and follows faith only. And sometimes there is a blending of the two. The only real problems that takes place is when an order or organization has fulfilled its purpose and is then continued, or it is needed to change and grow into something else. At that point there may be clinging to the original form(s) or purpose(s), when they are no longer needed and are superceded.
There have also been times or situations in which a someones guide or Teacher instructs that person to bring a teaching into another area. According to Inayat Khan this is what happened to him. While he does not specifically state his reaction to this guidance, he does speak to some of his own interests and guidance and how these meshed with the instruction. He was then left with the difficulty of how to do that. He worked to bring Sufi teachings to the West. Today there are several branches of that work. It now is left to those who follow and guide through them to ensure they are vibrant, living, and appropriate for the current people and time.
The way of life is to experience and know the fullness of oneself; and it is in doing so consciously that the fulfillment takes place. Yet the Real, The One has given guideposts and signs for It to return to this consciousness should creations of Itself lose its way or sense of being. It is found in the innermost rememberance and continuous Presence Which Never Forgets, is always unwavering, and is part of and in all at all times. It is there, and rememberance takes place. It is natural through evolution that this continues, and by this process all is known.
There is no instruction in the 10 Commandments to form religious orders. Buddha did not say the Pure Land is made up solely of Buddhists and to be a member of a Sangha. Jesus did not say that all people should be Christians and attend churches. Mohammed did not say that everyone should always do all the ritual and activities of Islamic law. The Law and the Prophets are fulfilled through living in awareness of our own true nature and being, and orders are nothing more than tools to do so.
They are part of - some - of the vehicles used to assist people to rememberance, reconnection, and expression. They are not made to last forever, nor are they necessarily the only ways or means. They need to be viewed as temporary constructions to achieve intermediate goals or ends.
The Great Teaching is that which percolates and makes itself known through all of life. It raises and leads all things to the next higher stage. It is present, existing, and ever dynamic, and extends through all. As progression takes place through the various stages of mineral, vegetable, animal, and finds its culmination in human; so too does the expression of that from which the Teaching stems and its parts become known. Known, Knowing, and Knower - Together.
It would be a very strange world indeed if in order to function properly, all people would have to live in spiritual or religious communities. It would be odd for everyone to have to attend the same kind of services every day or week or month; or wear the same clothes, or think the same thoughts. But it is not too much to say that all can progress and express themselves as being a part of the True One. For it is the nature of being to do so.
The forms will vary. The teachings will vary. They will go away. What is needed at one time is no longer of value or need at another. Like a school for living, all any order or teaching does is to bring forward a step for living. It does not need to be continued after its usefulness is done.
The teaching, orders, forms, organizations, structures, by-laws, tenets, decrees, inviolable laws, patterns, buildings, methods, approaches, practices, sayings, and hierarchy are limited in time and usefulness. They are only good to be used to make the next step, and are both temporarily applicable and changing. Only under the right conditions are they useful.
They are for the right people, the right time, and the right place. They are changeable - only valid until they need to be replaced. It is the clinging to these outer forms, methods, and means that causes many problems and keeps people from advancing as quickly or cleanly as they might - toward the One realizing itself and living and expressing Itself that way. Fortunately, behind and through it all, no matter how much people get in the way or muddle it up, or cling to the unusable and dead; the living Word and Being always bubbles to its surface.
That is the Real Teaching. That is through the True Ordering. It is from That basis that the transitory orders and teaching springs.
