What is the purpose of The Order?
The Order of The Way is an organisation that acts as a medium to explain, expand on and promote the precepts of a school of philosophical thought known as The Way. The primary charter and aims of the Order is explained further on the About page.
Firstly: The Order is a Society….
In the simplest and widest possible description, the Order is a society, a fellowship and alliance of individuals who wish to gain understanding about the condition of life, its purpose, its design and the shape of its possible future, by basing their thinking on the founding principles of truth, knowledge, logic and reason. Our members come from all walks of life, with no class or other artificial social divisions amongst them, and are naturally inclined to favour reasoned and logical thinking rather than those of other chosen outlooks, and therefore find the philosophy in general fits in with their natural disposition.
…based on self-responsibility
In The Way, each individual is responsible for their own choices, benefiting from living according to reasoned thinking, or suffering from the lack of it. The structure of the Order is such that people can come and go about their everyday business and tend to their needs and the needs of their dependants, while still having a wide network of contacts whom they can discuss what is important to them.
…whose members are Sovereign Beings
As individual followers of this particular philosophy and also as members of this organisation, we regard ourselves to be sovereign individuals or beings, being owned by no one and subject to no forceful thing or influence, living our lives according to the precepts of truth, knowledge, logic and reason.
The term Sovereign Being relates to the precept of self-ownership, self-responsibility, and self-determination. Therefore, we do not claim or accept ownership of or by anyone for any reason, as slavery, in all its guises, is forbidden for good reason, be that slavery by way of State, Church or other belief systems. However, being a pragmatic people, we also recognise that as individuals we depend on the goodwill, companionship, advice and support of people of like mind; and for this reason the Order exists, so that those who wish to do so may benefit from and contribute to the collective strength that such association provides.
…with different Minds
Different minds contribute different ideas, and as The Way operates on using good ideas to benefit each other, we appreciate that everyone has something to contribute, so long as their thinking process is based on reasoned thinking. We all tend to think that we already act according to reason, but are often blind to our own limitations as to how that reasoning is applied, which often gives rise to problems in life.
Collective knowledge and experience, once it is applied and used in a reasoned manner, helps to solve or avoid such problems to the end that life is made made less wasteful, more smooth and more purposeful. For this reason, the Order sets out its fundamental rules or laws on this website for those who wish to clearly understand the philosophy, which, following further study, is quite extensive, but, like any elective society, we expect newcomers to take time to become familiar with the basics before moving on to becoming full members.
…and a common purpose
Our common purpose, known as The Purpose, or the Great Purpose, is to learn to improve our understanding on a day by day basis, doing no harm or injustice to anyone or anything, as this is good reason. As The Way itself is of truth, knowledge, logic and reason, we therefore live within that circle of life itself that is above and below all things.