Drop ego, pick up bliss

If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.

- Deepak Chopra

My interpretation

Bestselling author and a leader in the field of mind-body medicine, Deepak Chopra has had a profound influence on millions of spiritual seekers around the world.

Here, he offers us a recipe for personal bliss. He says that the first and foremost ingredient of bliss is to attain mental quietude. Our mind, when governed by ego, is always indulging in an endless chatter filled with judgements and analysis of everyone and everything that surrounds us. Chopra refers to this as the “internal dialogue” that we must transcend.

According to Chopra, ego is anti-bliss. So if we wish to be blissful, we must ignore our ego and its mischief.

Whether we want to dominate and manipulate others, seek their approval or judge them, Chopra is convinced that it is all the doing of our ego. He says that ego thrives on attention and approval of others. It also loves to dominate others. If you observe carefully, the three things Chopra mentions are all external to us — over which we really have no control. Therefore, if we let our ego have its way, we set ourselves up for sure-shot disappointment. Chopra urges us to make a conscious decision to give up our need to control others, let go of our desire for the approval of others and also the compulsion to judge ourselves and others at all times.

He says that we must be aware of each time when we are tempted to act in the self-defeating ways of the ego. He seems to be implying that awareness helps us to resist yielding to the three detrimental forces and consequently enables us to reach the state of bliss that we are all after.