Returning to the wholeness of what we are - being intimate with the patterns of heart that we have rejected and have not yet been able to embrace, without being defined by them.
The Buddha teaches freedom as the heart/mind that no longer leans on anything at all. And he also teaches a path where we learn how to lean skilfully on things that lead onward towards letting go.
As we learn to trust the middle way, we find that everyone is right here with us. As notions of self and other drop away, we arrive home, belonging to the totality of all that is.