bulmabriefs144
Member
Aiken, or "loving fist", was a religion typed up by me when I was about 18. It combines martial arts disciple with Eastern religion (Taoism, Shintoism, and folk animism) and with Christianity.
I made a link here.
Basically, very open beliefs. No formalized temple, so you attend any church or temple you want, which I do since I can't afford to build a monastery. If people there creep you out (I was in a cult for 3 days, people forcing religion is scary), you run for the hills, otherwise you stay and listen and see if what they say jives up with you belief.
Monastic living, ideally, but no vows of abstinence. Things like rape, murder, and such are not good, mainly because it is viewed as wrong to force other people to do things (murder is basically forcing another person to die), and because life is sacred. Aside from that, very few moral judgements, or rather everything is highly personal (you don't have to take a vow of abstinence, you take a vow of abstinence if you wanna prove yourself or something, likewise optional for any vow). The core teaching is that all have souls and thus unless someone is rude or insulting, personal beliefs are just that, a possession one has, that isn't to be stolen. For that reason, even two members of a monastery could have wildly different beliefs.
The monastery has services on Sunday, like a regular church, and daily routine of worship (little mini-services Mon-Fri). People can visit for the service, come and stay, or stay awhile and then leave. Saturday is an off-day to go out and spend time with friends/family or do shopping. The monastery is semi-collective (more like anarchy than a communist place though), books and movies get put on a shelf for anyone to watch, and you can have one possession, besides your clothes and maybe a walking stick. (A full backpack does count as a possession) You can have a bank account, and are not expected to give to sustain the community. Money is taken to run the place, and the excess is kept in a public pool for anyone to take (the belief is that stealing is due to need, any money to run run things is kept in a bank, and any other money is left out for poor people). Besides temple services, there is worship time (which means many different things, since everyone's worship style is different, including reading books, meditation, or martial arts), chores (mostly gardening and building things), and private time (usually 9 or 10pm onward). On Sunday, there are community events (where you try to help out the nearby town), and social time (which can also fall under worship other days, since as said above, the sacredness of the soul means conversations with other people are intrinsically spiritual, even if the conversation is outright gossip).
I made a link here.
Basically, very open beliefs. No formalized temple, so you attend any church or temple you want, which I do since I can't afford to build a monastery. If people there creep you out (I was in a cult for 3 days, people forcing religion is scary), you run for the hills, otherwise you stay and listen and see if what they say jives up with you belief.
Monastic living, ideally, but no vows of abstinence. Things like rape, murder, and such are not good, mainly because it is viewed as wrong to force other people to do things (murder is basically forcing another person to die), and because life is sacred. Aside from that, very few moral judgements, or rather everything is highly personal (you don't have to take a vow of abstinence, you take a vow of abstinence if you wanna prove yourself or something, likewise optional for any vow). The core teaching is that all have souls and thus unless someone is rude or insulting, personal beliefs are just that, a possession one has, that isn't to be stolen. For that reason, even two members of a monastery could have wildly different beliefs.
The monastery has services on Sunday, like a regular church, and daily routine of worship (little mini-services Mon-Fri). People can visit for the service, come and stay, or stay awhile and then leave. Saturday is an off-day to go out and spend time with friends/family or do shopping. The monastery is semi-collective (more like anarchy than a communist place though), books and movies get put on a shelf for anyone to watch, and you can have one possession, besides your clothes and maybe a walking stick. (A full backpack does count as a possession) You can have a bank account, and are not expected to give to sustain the community. Money is taken to run the place, and the excess is kept in a public pool for anyone to take (the belief is that stealing is due to need, any money to run run things is kept in a bank, and any other money is left out for poor people). Besides temple services, there is worship time (which means many different things, since everyone's worship style is different, including reading books, meditation, or martial arts), chores (mostly gardening and building things), and private time (usually 9 or 10pm onward). On Sunday, there are community events (where you try to help out the nearby town), and social time (which can also fall under worship other days, since as said above, the sacredness of the soul means conversations with other people are intrinsically spiritual, even if the conversation is outright gossip).
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