Surrender Is Not Something You Do

A teaching on the nature of surrender, using vivid metaphors to illustrate that true surrender is not a voluntary act but something that happens to you, revealing the unreality of the one who surrenders.

You cannot do it. It is going to happen to you. Imagine you are surrounded by thirty SWAT-trained officers. You are not trained, you don't have a weapon, and they put you to the ground. That is when you surrender.

The one who surrenders isn't real

What happens in that moment is that you get to see that the one who surrenders, or who is surrendered, isn't real.

There are many metaphors for this. In The Matrix, it is depicted very clearly. Neo decides to stop running. He turns to face the agents. The agents represent fear. You think he is going to defeat them, and he does manage to fight one of them off, but he is still trying to get away. Then he loses. He fails. They catch up to him and put three bullets through his chest. That is when he surrenders.

Yes.