Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

Why Unhappiness Is an Alarm Clock for Awakening | Eckhart Tolle

5 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this excerpt, Eckhart Tolle explains that human awareness oscillates between two fundamental modes: object (ego) consciousness, which is identification with external forms, and space (presence) consciousness, which is the deeper dimension of being. Most people exist as hybrids, partially in each mode, and often slip back into ego identification. When unhappiness arises, it can serve as an alarm clock, alerting the individual to step out of ego identification and return to the present moment. This process is initially a conscious practice, but with repeated application it becomes the natural, default state, resulting in a sustained sense of connectedness with being.

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For a while, it's still a question of you're either in object consciousness or you're in space consciousness. And for a while, the tendency is for people to be hybrids, so to speak. You're partly in the deeper dimension, partly in the more external dimension. You're a hybrid. And often, initially, often, you lose yourself again in the outer in the object consciousness, in the ego consciousness, you lose yourself. And then, ah, any form of unhappiness that arises in you can become an alarm clock that says, wake up out of your identification with that and step back into the present moment. And so you go back and forth. It's a practice. And after a little while, it's no longer a practice. It becomes your normal state. You have then that connectedness with being.