Buddhism: The Goal or the Path?

In The Parable of the Burning House, to get his children out of the burning house the rich man promised them rare toys which are better than those they already had. In other words the man used a manipulation, a mind game, and children's attachment to toys in order to turn their attention to another desire.

The same idea with pure lands, nirvana, etc. Perhaps such 'pure places', or 'heavens' are promised in order to help people develop flexibility and let go of narrow mindedness. Therefore, from this perspective the promise of nirvana, or 'nirvana' itself could be used as the means, not the end. Therefore, the path itself is important and not as much the goal.

Evidently that what Mahayana view is about. It is not where you will end up later, but what you are now. Apparently that what the selfless compassion and unconditional love is.

Zoroastrian Anscient Texts

While reading the translation of an early Zoroastrian texts I came across some key terms which has analogies in other religions. For example the idea of the Cow, who seems to be representing something similar to the Holy Spirit in Christianity. The Cow in Zoroastrian ancient text is addressed from the capital letter; it is in the company of her fashioner and the Ahura Mazda, all of whom are conversing with each other; Zarathustra is considered to be the soul of the Cow. All signs points towards the spiritual nature of that Cow. Perhaps the roots of the idea of a spiritual cow in Hinduism at some point intersect with this Zoroastrian Cow.

Another example of interreligious interconnectedness is the writing about dewas and asuras. The asuras in Zoroastrianism is considered of a higher status than dewas, as oppose to their Buddhist status. Nevertheless, the qualities of Zoroastrian asuras, who considers gods, are very similar to the qualities of Buddhist asuras, where they are sort of demons, or sometimes called semi-gods. For instance, the asura's qualities described in Zoroastrian ancient texts depicted them as vindictive, revengeful, who often give a violent lessons to people in order to punish them for disobedience. In fact, in Buddhism asuras do exactly the same, that is why they are called semi-gods, as they are not in complete bliss or unity with themselves, from the Buddhist perspective that is why they are competitive, and tend to pick up fights with dewas, who are above them in the status of spiritual hierarchy. Dewas in Buddhism are simply feeling too good to be interested in punishments, controlling other beings, etc. Unfortunately, there was no clear description of dewas' qualities in that Zoroastrian text, which would indicate what Zoroastrian dewas tend to do, how they like to appear, and why they considered as demons in Zoroastrianism. I am sure there is a parallel between the opposing views of two religions, which can be understood deeper with farther research on this topic.