Many people are eager to convert others to their religion because they believe their religion is the "right" one -- the One True Religion. They think their doctrines are the true doctrines and their God the real God, and all others are wrong. Such a view makes two erroneous assumptions.
The first assumption is that an omnipotent and omnipresent God can be completely understood by human intellect and this perfect understanding of God can be expressed in words to form doctrines that transmit this perfect understanding to others with unfailing accuracy.
No doctrines of any religion are the complete truth. All fall short of perfect understanding. All are frequently misunderstood. The truest doctrines are just pointers, shadows on a wall, or a hand pointing to the moon.
At the same time, it may be most of the doctrines of most of the world's religions reflect some small part of a great and absolute truth, so they may not be necessarily false. All religions contain truth. All religions contain error. We simply have to sift the truth from the error.
The other false assumption is the one saying thinking the correct thoughts and believing the correct beliefs are what define religion. The historian Karen Armstrong says religion is not primarily about beliefs. Rather, "Religion is a search for transcendence."
Transcendence can be conceptualized many different ways. We might think of transcendence as the realization of Nirvana or union with God. But the conceptualizations are not all that important, since all are imperfect. Perhaps God is a metaphor for Nirvana. Maybe Nirvana is a metaphor for God. Maybe both are a metaphor for non-describable truth.
The Buddha taught his students that Nirvana cannot be conceptualized. In Exodus, God refused to be limited by a name or represented by a graven image. It may be hard for humans to accept, but there are places our almighty imaginations and intellects cannot go.
Beliefs and doctrines are not without value. Doctrines can be described as a flickering candle that keeps you from walking in total darkness. They can be compared to markers on a path, showing you a way others have already walked.
Buddhists judge the value of a doctrine not by its factual accuracy but by its skillfulness. A skillful doctrine opens the heart to compassion and the mind to wisdom.
Rigidly fixed beliefs are not skillful, however. Rigidly fixed beliefs seal us off from objective reality and from other people who don't share our beliefs. They render the mind hard and closed to whatever revelations or realizations may occur to us.
All the world's great religions have accumulated their share of both skillful and unskillful doctrines and practices.
A religion that's good for one person can be very wrong for someone else.
Ultimately, the One True Religion for you is the one that most completely engages your own heart and mind. It is that engagement that enables transcendence. And this religion may, in fact, be no religion at all.
The first of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings of the Vietnamese Zen tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh says, "…we are determined not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. Buddhist teachings are guiding means to help us learn to look deeply and to develop our understanding and compassion. They are not doctrines to fight, kill, or, die for.”
Buddhist teaching, Buddhist thought, are guiding means; they are not absolute truth, just as no religion‘s teaching is absolute truth.
Buddhism entered my heart and mind without leaving my critical thinking skills at the door. It's also why I feel no desire to convert anyone.
If a person is looking for a spiritual home, I'm happy to help them learn about Buddhism. But I can't give them any reasons to convert to Buddhism. They'll have to find those reasons for themselves.
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