Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

Your Pain Is a Portal. Here's How

7 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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In this excerpt from Eckhart Tolle’s teaching, he explains that the primary drivers that push most people toward spiritual awakening are experiences of suffering and the awareness of mortality. He argues that confronting impermanence—often triggered by the sudden death or serious illness of someone close—creates a powerful incentive to awaken. Tolle frames these painful moments as potential “portals,” urging listeners to use whatever life presents in the present moment as an opening to deeper awareness rather than resisting it.

Chapters

So the incentive for awakening for most people is really some form of suffering and the fact of mortality. Perhaps those two, one could say, are the most powerful incentives for spiritual awakening. To be aware of impermanence, and to some people that happens when somebody Close to them suddenly dies. Might even be a young person or not, but in an accident or some illness suddenly, and suddenly, oh God. So you take whatever life gives you in this moment and use that. That becomes your potential opening, your potential portal.