Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle on Why 90% of Suffering Is Thought

1 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:56

In this brief teaching, Eckhart Tolle explains that roughly ninety percent of human unhappiness originates from the mind’s thoughts rather than external events. He distinguishes between surface-level unhappiness—such as grief over a loved one’s death—and a deeper, ever‑present state of Being that remains untouched by those fleeting emotions. Tolle emphasizes that accepting whatever is being felt in the present moment, without resistance, is the quickest way to move beyond suffering. He further describes awareness as the spacious “space around” the experience, a non‑identifying presence that allows one to observe thoughts and feelings without being taken over by them.

Chapters

First of all, when you are being made unhappy by your thoughts, and that's about 90% of unhappiness, is you're being made unhappy by your thoughts. Somebody might have— a loved one may just have died. Of course you feel unhappy, you're not happy. But there can be a deeper connectedness with being that in relation to which unhappiness is only a surface movement, so you're no longer Being completely taken over by unhappiness. Accepting it for what it is is usually the quickest way beyond it, but you don't even— you don't even want to go beyond it. You're okay with whatever it is you're experiencing at this moment. And then there is what you're experiencing at this moment, and there is an awareness of what it is that you're experiencing. The awareness of what it is you're experiencing is the space around the thing that you're experiencing.