User:Vmcphail/Church of Life

The Church of Life seeks to promote and nurture life, sentience, and understanding. It is an umbrella organisation for a variety of individual sects. This non-religious alternative is for those who do not follow the tenets of organised religion and faith-based teaching. The church was founded to represent the needs of post-Enlightenment man in a world dominated by religious institution. The Church does not make demands of its adherents, rather it provides a community to counter-balance the weight of traditional dogma.

There may be as many sects as there are individuals, as each sect caters to the spiritual needs and beliefs of its members. Each sect has its own source of spiritual strength. Spiritual enlightenment may have been reached through any number of means, including meditation, a process of reason (including atheism and deism), or organised religion.

Virtuous Sects
Some sects are known to practice various forms of virtue ethics as a means of fostering their goals and are thought to trace their lineages through the chivalry of the Middle Ages to the time of Alexander the Great and the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. One such sect espouses meditation on quality, integrity, commitment, honour, and energy as a means of honing the mind and creating a fertile ground for virtuous acts.

The Not Zen sect
A sect in the Church of Life. Adherents typically practice zazen and explore koan, although they are not Zen Buddhists and do not derive their lineage from one of the recognised Zen masters. This sect is for those who have reached some level of enlightenment and are masters of their own spiritual progress.

An example of Not Zen haiku. A golden leaf falls, A tear streaks down from my eye – You must seize the day