On the road, it means to surrender, to give way. In nature, it means to give rise to, to bear fruit. 

 

On the spiritual path, one leads to the other. Once we give up our notion of how life “should be,” we free ourselves to experience the abundance of the lives we do have. What keeps many of us from experiencing joy is the illusion that the circumstances of our lives are not right. 

 

If only this thing changed, I could have the life I want, write the book I want to write, have the kind of marriage I desire.

 

We think if only something changed on the outside, our lives would improve. But that’s like being sick and asking the doctor to prescribe something for your neighbor. Nobody but us is responsible for our happiness. It is our natural state. If we are not happy, it’s not because somebody has taken something away from us.

 

It's because we have added something to reality—some illusion, some desire, some attachment to “how it should be.” And this is what we have to surrender, this notion that someone else is to blame for what our lives look like.