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 being 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.
As far as we know, God did not say "Make an order and follow its teaching to know life". The Prophets and Great Teachers did not establish orders for people to become Jews or Christians or Buddhists or Moslems.
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 Divine One has given guideposts and signs for It to return to this consciousness should creations of Itself lose its way and 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.
God did not say in the 10 Commandments to form religious orders. Buddha did not say the Pure Land is made up 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 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.