The West tends to place authenticity inside the individual — some true self waiting to be excavated from social rubble. Other traditions locate it differently: in right relationship, in the fulfillment of one's role, in alignment with dharma or the Tao. Juana's own authenticity was forged in the gap between what she was permitted to be and what she could not stop herself from becoming — which suggests that the truest self sometimes only emerges under pressure.
Juana