Books for those of no fixed religion but want 'life guidance'

I've been a Pagan for many years now, I started with Wicca, but my spirituality has grown a bit now, or Wicca has narrowed, I'm not sure which, although it does seem to be becoming more codified something I don't feel it was ever intended to be. To quote Sir Terry Pratchet, '.. witches [Wiccans] believe in their gods like they believe in the postman', this is very much how I feel, it's beyond belief or faith, it just is. 

I notice all the faiths you mentions are basically Christian, have you ever moved outside of Christianity or montheism? For me a multiplicity of Gods and Goddesses is obvious and I can't get my head around montheism anymore, it's taken me a while to reach this point having been brought up with the idea if not the practice of montheism. I dont' find myself with a lack of morals although I sometimes find myself with moral conumdrums and sometimes my moral compas is like that of Cpt Jack Sparrow, in that it points to what I want rather than whats a particularly "good" thing. But then one of the things about following a path such as Wicca is that it makes you conciously think about morality and what good and bad/evil actually mean.

Have your ever read The Tao of Pooh? Or Buddhism for Sheep? The Tao of Pooh, looks at Taoism via the medium of Winnie the Pooh, its a whimsically wise book. Buddhism for Sheep is a short book using the life of sheep as a metaphor for Zen Buddhism. Both of these books should be easy reading and a good way to start exploring spirituality.

I think an atheist religion is a contradiction, I get where de Boton is coming from, and it's been a conundrum for humanists and atheists for many many years, how do you have morality without a deity to enforce it? Personally I find it quite easy, our deities don't enforce in the way a monotheistic deity does, or at least what priests tell us pleases their god to punish or allow.

A lot of Christianity is based around Plato and Neo-Platonism, so you may find those interesting.

I like Rumi.

I am neither Christian, nor Jew, nor Magian, nor Muslim …

https://archive.blogs.harvard.edu/sulaymanibnqiddees/2012/11/06/rumi-i-do-not-recognize-myself/

I sort of get this but a bit beyond my intellect! [I wish I was super-clever like my brother but alas did not inherit that gene]. Is it, that knowing myself I can then be one with God? It's more about learning to love the self, and thus finding peace and joy in life.

Just to add: I think as an autistic person I’ve often struggled to feel ‘safe’, and to try to feel safe I’ve done things (such as withdrawing from life in various way) to try to feel safe. But now I see that it hasn’t made me feel more safe - this leaning towards withdrawal from life (mixed with a lot of ‘fight or flight’ tendencies) has often left me feeling less safe. The Buddhist teaching is that most of our suffering comes from attachment and aversion. Keeping this in my mind has helped me a lot and helped me look at the way I think (and how I behave as a result of my thinking). It’s helped me to find a bit of distance from my ‘self’ and I can see more clearly why I think the way I think, and the ways in which I often unwittingly make my life harder rather than easier. My son has ocd and it’s helped me to understand ocd more in the light of aversion and how we react to the things we’re uncomfortable with - and hopefully it will help me to support him better. Studying Buddhist philosophy has basically opened my mind and helped me to be more objective about my reactions to things. Before I just had my conditioning from my own upbringing (with very unenlightened and often angry parents) and my culture as a British person to try to understand things. British culture is……pretty basic. It often comes down to  ‘buy this and you’ll be happy’ - which is ridiculous. Capitalist countries are littered with angry and dissatisfied wealthy people. Eastern philosophy is streets ahead in terms of wisdom and ways to be truly happy. 

I really like your phrase ‘dissolving into the wyrd’ - I hadn’t heard that before. More and more I’m attracted to the idea of letting go of the self, of an attitude of surrender and acceptance towards life. My guess is that as an autistic child in a dysfunctional home with a lot of arguments I felt a deep need to protect myself by any method of control I could find - by ‘fight or flight’ and so on. Also I spent quite a lot of time in hospital as a very young child and again I think I would have been in fight or flight mode (and ‘flight’ was not an option for me as for a while I could not walk due to my condition/surgery. So I think that led me to be hyper vigilant and feeling I had to battle with life, or run from life. And I think western societies encourage this mentality of ‘sink or swim/survival of the fittest’ - and for an autistic person that creates lots of high stress situations and more fight or flight.

Ive found that most eastern spiritual traditions encourage an attitude of acceptance and surrender to what comes our way - as a way to find more peace in our lives. Again - in a western capitalist society this is challenging - because it’s hard to survive in a capitalist society without ‘playing the game’ - you often end up being trampled on. So it’s a challenge to combine living in a western society with a spiritual and truly ethical life. I think it’s possible though. I’m still working it out like many people are. How to find peace and happiness, how to reduce the anxiety that I’ve struggled with all my life, how to not have my peace of mind destroyed by some of the things I see happening around me, how to have enough money for my basic needs, how to find a way to live in a place that I find peaceful and spiritually nourishing. I may not have much time left to try to do these things, as I am not very young (though hopefully with luck I have a bit of time to continue on this path and to learn and to live a meaningful life). It’s an ongoing thing. It’s nice to read the comments here and see that others are also trying to explore these things. That’s encouraging:) 

I really like your phrase ‘dissolving into the wyrd’ - I hadn’t heard that before. More and more I’m attracted to the idea of letting go of the self, of an attitude of surrender and acceptance towards life. My guess is that as an autistic child in a dysfunctional home with a lot of arguments I felt a deep need to protect myself by any method of control I could find - by ‘fight or flight’ and so on. Also I spent quite a lot of time in hospital as a very young child and again I think I would have been in fight or flight mode (and ‘flight’ was not an option for me as for a while I could not walk due to my condition/surgery. So I think that led me to be hyper vigilant and feeling I had to battle with life, or run from life. And I think western societies encourage this mentality of ‘sink or swim/survival of the fittest’ - and for an autistic person that creates lots of high stress situations and more fight or flight.

Ive found that most eastern spiritual traditions encourage an attitude of acceptance and surrender to what comes our way - as a way to find more peace in our lives. Again - in a western capitalist society this is challenging - because it’s hard to survive in a capitalist society without ‘playing the game’ - you often end up being trampled on. So it’s a challenge to combine living in a western society with a spiritual and truly ethical life. I think it’s possible though. I’m still working it out like many people are. How to find peace and happiness, how to reduce the anxiety that I’ve struggled with all my life, how to not have my peace of mind destroyed by some of the things I see happening around me, how to have enough money for my basic needs, how to find a way to live in a place that I find peaceful and spiritually nourishing. I may not have much time left to try to do these things, as I am not very young (though hopefully with luck I have a bit of time to continue on this path and to learn and to live a meaningful life). It’s an ongoing thing. It’s nice to read the comments here and see that others are also trying to explore these things. That’s encouraging:) 

Just to add: I think as an autistic person I’ve often struggled to feel ‘safe’, and to try to feel safe I’ve done things (such as withdrawing from life in various way) to try to feel safe. But now I see that it hasn’t made me feel more safe - this leaning towards withdrawal from life (mixed with a lot of ‘fight or flight’ tendencies) has often left me feeling less safe. The Buddhist teaching is that most of our suffering comes from attachment and aversion. Keeping this in my mind has helped me a lot and helped me look at the way I think (and how I behave as a result of my thinking). It’s helped me to find a bit of distance from my ‘self’ and I can see more clearly why I think the way I think, and the ways in which I often unwittingly make my life harder rather than easier. My son has ocd and it’s helped me to understand ocd more in the light of aversion and how we react to the things we’re uncomfortable with - and hopefully it will help me to support him better. Studying Buddhist philosophy has basically opened my mind and helped me to be more objective about my reactions to things. Before I just had my conditioning from my own upbringing (with very unenlightened and often angry parents) and my culture as a British person to try to understand things. British culture is……pretty basic. It often comes down to  ‘buy this and you’ll be happy’ - which is ridiculous. Capitalist countries are littered with angry and dissatisfied wealthy people. Eastern philosophy is streets ahead in terms of wisdom and ways to be truly happy.