If you only hold your religion, your idea, then you have a problem. Clear direction and try mind are most important. Zen mind means put down any idea, any form. If your direction is clear and you completely put down everything, then you will attain something. When you attain something, you connect with everything else.
All religions are like different paths to the mountaintop.
Having clear direction and try mind means just going up, going up, one step after another. Then you can reach the mountaintop. The different paths to the mountaintop are made by our mind. If you try to understand it intellectually, you will not find it. Our mind is very big, but it's also small.