Growing Zen

Drawing on religious faith to promote basic human values is something very positive. The major world religions all teach love, compassion, and forgiveness. The way each religious tradition promotes there is different, of course, but since they aim at more or less the same goals--having a happier life, becoming a more compassionate person, and creating a more compassionate world--their different methods do not present an inherent problem. The ultimate achievement of love, compassion, and forgiveness is what is important. All the major world religions have the same potential to help humanity. Some people have a disposition suited to religious faith, and because of the variety of dispositions among humans, it logically follows that we need different religions. The variety is beneficial.
-Tenzig Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, The Compassionate Life, 47-48

[A]s there is a difference in the degree of receptivity on the part of individual sentient beings, spiritual growth will also differ from individual to individual. ... [T]here is a diversity of mental dispositions and receptivity, interests, and spiritual inclinations existing among humanity. ... All these various teachings [he's talking about different teachings in Buddhism, I used snippets that will work for different religions in general] are aimed toward sentient beings' diverse mental dispositions, needs, and spiritual inclinations.
...
Therefore, it is crucial that religious teachers teach according to the receptivity, the spiritual inclination, and the mental disposition of each person. One cannot eat a particular food and then say, "Because it is nutritious for me, everyone must eat it"; each person must eat foods that are suitable for the best physical health according to his or her own physical constitution. One must maintain a diet that is most suited to one's individual health because the very purpose of eating food is to seek bodily nourishment. It would be stupid or foolish for someone to insist upon eating a specific dish, when it is not suitable or may be harmful, merely because it is highly prized or the most expensive.

Similarly, religion is like nourishment for your spirit and your mind. When embarking upon a spiritual path, it is important that you engage in a practice that is most suited to your mental development, your dispositions, and your spiritual inclinations. It is crucial that each individual seek a form of spiritual practice and belief that is most effective for that individual's specific needs. Through this, one can bring about inner transformation, the inner tranquility that will make that individual spiritually mature and a warm-hearted, whole, and good and kind person. That is the consideration one must use in seeking spiritual nourishment.
-Tenzig Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, The Good Heart: A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus, page 72 and 74.

I love these passages. I've had this conviction since middle school, when I thought about all the many different religions in the world. It's beautiful to see it so wonderfully communicate in someone else's words.

In joining or evaluating your existing membership in your religion, I think the point is to be honest with yourself. You need to be where you feel God. You need to do what brings you closer to God. It's not the label that matters...it's the person you become.

"It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn't get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man." -Richard Feynman

That is a hearty "amen" to Nephi, and to Elder Andersen in conference on Sunday: "And I said unto him: I know that he [God] loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things." (1 Nephi 11:17)

Another excellent quote from Mr. Feynman, this one from the documentary The Lottery of Birth:

“We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions and pass them on. It is our responsibility to leave the men of the future a free hand. In the impetuous youth of humanity, we can make grave errors that can stunt our growth for a long time. This we will do if we say we have the answers now, so young and ignorant; if we suppress all discussion, all criticism, saying, ‘This is it, boys, man is saved!’ and thus doom man for a long time to the chains of authority, confined to the limits of our present imagination. It has been done so many times before.”