In that sense it is a giving up of ourselves, letting go of all our small-mind ideas of self and other, of comparisons, judgments, definitions. Suzuki Roshi, a distinguished Zen master, said, "When you forget all your dualistic ideas, everything becomes your teacher, and everything can become the object of worship." Thus in offering up our small selves as we bow, we surrender into the big self where everything is just as it is and everything is to be respected. This is the significance of the bow.
— Sandy Boucher, Opening the Lotus