A lot of people say, “Well, I like to have a religion because it gives me something to hold onto.” Buddhists would say, “Ah, cut that stuff!” So long as you hold on to something, you don’t have religion. You’re only really there when you let go of everything, and you don’t depend on any fixed idea, any belief, for your sanity or happiness.
Buddhism is saying: you don’t need any gizmos to be in the know. You don’t need a religion. You don’t need any, even, Buddha statues. You don’t need any temples. You don’t need any Buddhist bondieuserie: rosaries and all that jazz. But when you get to the point that you know you don’t need any of those things, that you don’t need a religion at all, then it’s fun to have one. Then, as it were, you can be trusted to use rosaries and ring bells and clappers and chant sutras, you see? But those things won’t help you a bit. They’ll just tie you up in knots if you use them as methods of catching hold of something.
A person who is escaping from reality will always feel the terror of it.