The Jesus of the Gospel of Thomas, a Gospel that did not make the cut for obvious reasons said:
Nag Hammadi Coptic Text
Oxyrhynchus Greek Fragment
1 [2]. Jesus says: "Let him who seeks cease not to seek until he finds: when he finds he will be astonished; and when he is astonished he will wonder, and will reign over the universe!"
1 [2]. Jesus says: "Let him who seeks cease not to seek until he finds: when he finds he will be astonished; and when he is astonished he will wonder, and will reign over the universe!"
Jesus said, "If those who lead you say to you, 'See, the kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."
For the United Church of God rebuttal to the Gospel of Thomas and to understand why it did not make the cut see:
Continuing...
"Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) is a popular phrase and initialism used to self-identify a life stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth.
"Spirituality begins with a reverence for the ordinary that can lead us to insights and experiences that are anything but ordinary."
Sam Harris
Mark Vernon author of How To Be an Agnostic notes...
"People associate religious institutions with constraining doctrines, and bad things that are done in the world. That may be outright fundamentalism, the oppression of women or some kind of conflict with liberal values."
Science has replaced God for many today, Vernon suggests.
But while science may be able to explain the world, it doesn't evoke how many people feel about their place in the universe.
Awe and wonder is how spiritual people often describe their relationship with the world. There's a sense that life is more than pounds and pence, of work, childcare and the rest of the daily grind.
A typical Portland sunrise along the Willamette River from the beach where I spend a few minutes each day before work.
There are moments that seem transcendent in their lives - a beautiful sunset, a football crowd filling a stadium with noise, or a moving piece of music.
Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote, says the phrase "spiritual but not religious" has become a bit of a joke. But the concept is worth defending. "Spirituality I take to refer to things that are not expressible in words. There's an aspect of human experience that is non-conceptual."
It's about more than belief, Burkeman says. Just as for Christians and other religions, it is the practice of worship that is as important as the belief, he argues.
It doesn't mean the nonsense of "3-5, 10 at the most, 20 tops" and the endless game of thinking anyone knows or can know the future. Prophecy is the hook and insanity of the Churches of God. Without it, they would have no way of trying to turn the spiritually minded into religious followers.
Buyer beware...regrets to follow
"Gaetan Louis de Canonville practices mindfulness meditation in Richmond, south London. "We're not worshipping a God or paying homage to something in the sky. It's about learning to accept things like impermanence and living in the moment. If you get a glimpse of how happy you can be by embracing the moment, all the chattering of your thoughts stops."
Mike Stygal, is a secondary school teacher who practices paganism in his private life. He believes in a divine force in nature. "I believe everything is connected, I feel very in touch with nature and the changing seasons. Awe is a very good word for how I feel. It's a sense of deep respect for nature. I can communicate with the deity."
Bridget McKenzie, a cultural learning consultant, does daily walking meditations. "It's about making time to contemplate the awesomeness of life on earth, the extraordinary luck this planet has in sustaining life."
With trillions of galaxies in the Universe, which may only be one of many universes, the God of the Bible can seem too small, too jealous, too petty and too exclusive and cultic for the spiritually minded
She is not a pagan but for the summer solstice organizes a Garlic Man Parade in south east London to reconnect with ancient traditions. "We all sense changes in the light as the seasons change. It's important to mark the occasion."
Colin Beckley, director of the Meditation Trust, says the only true spiritual experience is silence. "Transcendence is often triggered by nature like being on a mountainside. But by learning to meditate you can bring that mountain experience to your flat in London."
Humanism is about the belief "that human beings find value in the here and now rather than in something above and beyond". "People have social instincts and as a humanist it's about reinforcing those instincts," he explains.
The search for meaning can be exhausting. Philosopher Julian Baggini writes in The Shrink & the Sage that there is a yearning for something more. "My short reply is that you can yearn for higher as much as you like, but what you're yearning for ain't there. But the desire won't go away."
That doesn't make it a bad thing, Vernon says. But it may lead to awkward questions. And that may explain why the research finds that spiritual people have more mental health problems.
"You're going on an interior mental journey. It's risky to go and try and see things from a bigger perspective. The promise is tremendous but the journey can be very painful."
