The necessity for remaining open and empty, and the need for surrender, also figure prominently in the religions of the world. The purpose of surrender, of letting go, in both religion and sport, is not to diminish one's self but to achieve a level of functioning otherwise impossible. The feeling of a greater self taking over, so graphically described by athletes, has its Western counterpart in St. Paul's " . . . not I live, but Christ liveth in me." According to the Tao Te Ching: "When once you are free from all seeming, from all craving and lusting, then will you move of your own impulse, without so much as knowing that you move."
— Michael Murphy, Rhea White, In the Zone