Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle: Why Your Dog Has No Problems

5 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:21

In this short monologue, Eckhart Tolle examines why many humans are unhappy with their bodies, attributing the dissatisfaction to cultural influences and the presence of an egoic self that creates a mental image of the body. He contrasts this with dogs, which lack a self‑concept and ego, and therefore do not judge or feel discontent about their physical form regardless of size or appearance. Tolle suggests that the root of body‑related suffering lies in the mind’s identification with the body, not in the body itself.

Chapters

my body, which I— in probably in more cases than not, it makes people unhappy. Because people who think they have perfect bodies, they're not that many. But there are more people who are not happy with their bodies. The popular culture has something to do with it. So they have a problem with their self-image. So their sense of self feels Deficient in some way. Of course, you can compensate for that with other things, and that's what people tend to do. Now, if you look at it, look at your dog. The difference between you and the dog is the dog does not have a self. The dog does not have an ego. The dog does not have a problem with his or her body, no matter whether the body is beautiful or ugly or overweight or not. The body, the dog doesn't mind. It's just no image in the mind of the body. Just okay, overweight. It doesn't even know that it's overweight. What's the problem? There's no problem because there's no self.