That's really a good way to speak about part of what I was saying. The goal however isn't to draw "close" of God, but rather to become like God. This is what we are called to be, actually. We increasingly focus our beings, body and soul on God through ascetical practices and the sacraments. That is why for us, our Faith is all consuming and defines us absolutely. Everything we do is or ought to be done in an "Orthodox manner". I can't explain this except to say that its like our Faith is part of every fiber of our beings, body and soul. After a trip to Greece one time, my formerly Congregationalist wife marveled that "The people walk Orthodox here!" For the layperson, we try to live in the world without being of the world.
St. Gregory Palamas, one of the greatest of the Eastern Fathers who expanded upon the apophatic theology of the Cappadocian Fathers and struggled mightily and successfully against the Neoplatonic theologians of the West, wrote this on grace and theosis which may further explain how we understand salvation:
"The grace of deification thus transcends nature, virtue and knowledge, and (as St. Maximus says) `all these things are inferior to it.' Every virtue and imitation of God on our part indeed prepares those who practice them for divine union, but the mysterious union itself is effected by grace. It is through grace that `the entire Divinity comes to dwell in fullness in those deemed worthy,' and all the saints in their entire being dwell in God, receiving God in His wholeness, and gaining no other reward for their ascent to Him than God Himself." The Triads
I practice hatha yoga (the physical postures portion of yoga) and have read a bit about Buddhism. Without equating Christianity and Buddhism, let me say that the eastern mind does lend itself more gracefully to the mystical idea of becoming like God. Of course, in Buddhism, one doesn't become like God, but one does live every aspect of spirituality in an effort to not be "attached" to this world. Obviously, Buddhism fails because of a lack of God and grace, but the ideas are not dissimiliar, I think.