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A person can create differences in perception in anything they want. I can say that Catholic Priest is wearing a white robe and that Buddhist Bhikkhu is wearing an orange robe and conclude they are very different. I can also say they both are wearing robes and both have devoted themselves to their religions and so I can conclude or perceive they are exactly the same. This is the whole point. We are the creators of our perceptions because we chose how we will "color" whatever is present. We choose what we pay attention to. Do we pay attention to the thoughts they are the same or pay attention to the thoughts they are different?
Both the above are thoughts. Saying something is the same or different are just thoughts. The reality is both assertions are true. It depends how we are seeing things. It is also true that one does not have to pay attention to either thought as "truth" or "reality." One can look at whatever is without thoughts intruding at all.
Taking away thought what would one "see?" Well first of all, without thought, one is not concerned with things that are not present. So unless you are actually looking at a Priest or a Bhikkhu, unless they are right there physically before you, you would have no perception of them. Without conceptual thought which can imagine anything, one is only aware of what is present. But lets say you are at a religious conference and you are looking at both the priest and the bhikkhu. without thought can you perceive sameness or differences? No you cannot. Both those perceptions are things we overlay with thought onto whatever our senses are perceiving.
The perception itself has no conflict, no conclusions, no concepts. One is simply aware of what is as it exists apart from my conditioned and conceptual mind. Thoughts and concepts may be present as well, but one can put them to the side. Not give them any energy or attention.
Forget about all religion for a moment. Drop all of the ideas one has about Buddhism or Christianity or any religious idea or thought and all religious knowledge. Drop all of that for a moment. There is you and your experience. During all the years you have been alive you have been experiencing. This "you" has never changed. It is always "you" looking through the eyes. As a new born, you experienced your mother externally for the first time when you were born. Right now, you are experiencing peoples thoughts about various spiritual topics on this message board. The "you" is always the same. What is different is what you are perceiving or experiencing.
As we go though life, we become more and more conditioned. We also become much more habitual in our presence. Our "natural" state becomes to experience the now though our thinking and conditioning. So according to what our "thinking" is, our experience becomes colored by that. We think, is this good or bad? right or wrong? true or false? So we have pleasant or unpleasant experiences because our thoughts are paid attention to and allowed to be a part of what we experience and perceive.
The main point of all these religions is there is a better experience of now available. One without suffering and profound and different in nature. This better experience is always available though rarely experienced. The reason it is rarely experienced is not because it is not here or is not present. It is always here. The reason it is not experienced is because our attention is on other things that are producing our experience like thoughts and conditioning. Buddha and Jesus and all the other guru's and teachers who have found this thing offer the same path. Be here now without you. By "you" they mean your "coloring" of what is. All the stuff we have accumulated through thousands of incarnations. all of our thinking and personal bias, all of our conditioning. Put that all away then you perceive the other that was always there. Wipe the dust off of your mirror. Then, it will reflect the light. Then you perceive and experience the light. If the mirror is covered with dust, your ideas, your opinions, your thoughts, your beliefs, that is all you will perceive. If you want to perceive what is under all of that, the dust has to go. Become selfless, then discover what you have always been. A being full of goodness, without conflict, at peace within and without. Yes easier said than done!
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