THE DIFFERENCES between the Western Judeo-Christian traditions and their Oriental Hindu-Buddhist counterparts can be understood in part as the contrast between a straight line and a circle. In the West, the straight line represents the path we are to follow so we can improve ourselves, from a beginning point as a flawed human being, extending an awesome, infinite distance to the never-to-be-reached perfection.
In the circular way of the Orient, we need only to recognize that each of us is already the Buddha. In other words, we need only to surrender to our true nature. As we find ways to give up the struggle to change who we are, we free ourselves from the bondage of trying to be what we are not. All that separates us from the bliss of nirvana is the maya of illusion.
There is wisdom in both traditions, if we understand each to mean “How good am I at being myself?”
Victory lies in surrender to oneself.