Every tradition that centers a path eventually runs into the problem: the path cannot carry one across the final gap. No amount of effort produces the opening. What opens is given.
In Christianity this is grace. In Sufism it is rahma — mercy. In Bhakti it is kripa — the saint’s compassionate glance. Even the non-devotional traditions acknowledge something like it: awakening in Zen is not something one does; it is permitted to happen.
The practical implication is that effort and surrender are not opposites. Effort prepares the ground; grace is the rain.