The way to happiness, therefore, is the way of ego death.
Which is why Jesus said, “Take up your cross, deny self, and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).
Taking up one’s cross is not enduring hardship,
while trying to “grin and bear it.” It isn’t feeling sorry for yourself because
you have a “cross to bear.” Not at all. The “self” Jesus is telling you to deny
is this illusory ego-self in you. As that self takes up a cross and dies to
its-self, then you are freer and freer to walk in the joy of life as God
intended. In other words, As the ego in you dies, you live. Until it dies, you
don’t.
