Bring awareness to the many subtle sounds of nature - The rustling of leaves in the wind, Raindrops falling, The humming of an insect, The first birdsong at dawn.
Eckhart TolleRead
The human condition: lost in thought.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the tendency of humans to be preoccupied with their thoughts rather than experiencing reality.
Eckhart Tolle's quote, 'The human condition: lost in thought,' highlights a fundamental aspect of human existence—the propensity to become absorbed in our thoughts, often losing touch with the present moment. This condition can lead to feelings of disconnection and dissatisfaction, as we frequently dwell on the past or worry about the future instead of fully engaging with our current experiences. Tolle invites us to recognize this pattern and encourages mindfulness as a means to reconnect with the here and now.
Themes
Human ConditionThoughtMindfulnessPresent MomentAwareness
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop about mindfulness, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of being present.
More from Eckhart Tolle
All quotes →Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body’s ability to heal itself.
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Whenever you become anxious or stressed, outer purpose has taken over, and you lost sight of your inner purpose. You have forgotten that your state of consciousness is primary, all else secondary.
Eckhart TolleRead
Nothing that was real ever died, only names, forms, and illusions.
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Suffering has a noble purpose: the evolution of consciousness and the burning up of the ego.
Eckhart TolleRead
Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and becoming comfortable with not knowing.
Eckhart TolleRead
Similar quotes
Stories hold power because they convey the illusion that life has purpose and direction. Where God is absent from the lives of all but the most blessed, the writer, of all people, replaces that ordering principle. Stories make sense when so much around us is senseless, and perhaps what makes them most comforting is that, while life goes on and pain goes on, stories do us the favor of ending.
John HodgmanRead
Mad; adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech, and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that they themselves are sane.
Ambrose BierceRead
If the purpose of the universe was to create humans then the cosmos was embarrassingly inefficient about it.
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I am sorry my life is so marred and maimed by extravagance. But I cannot live otherwise. I, at any rate, pay the penalty of suffering.
Oscar WildeRead
There is a lovely root to the word humiliation - from the latin word humus, meaning soil or ground. When we are humiliated, we are in effect returning to the ground of our being.
David WhyteRead
People first feel things without noticing them, then notice them with inner distress and disturbance, and finally reflect on them with a clear mind.
Giambattista VicoRead