# Quote — Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks

> The human condition: Lost in thought Most people spend their entire life imprisoned within the confines of their own thoughts. They never go beyond a narrow, mind-made, personalized sense of self that is conditioned by the past. In you, as in each human being, there is a dimension of consciousness far deeper than thought. It is the very essence of who you are. We may call it presence, awareness, the unconditioned consciousness. In the ancient teachings, it is the Christ within, or your Buddha nature.

- Author: [Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md)
- Book: [Stillness Speaks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eckhart_Tolle#Stillness_Speaks_(2003)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/the-human-condition

## More from this book

> By knowing yourself as the awareness in which phenomenal existence happens, you become free of dependency on phenomena and free of self seeking in situations, places, and conditions. In other words, what happens or doesn't happen is not that important anymore. Things lose their heaviness, their seriousness. A playfulness comes into your life. You recognize this world as a cosmic dance, the dance of form. (Ch 5)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/by-knowing-yourself.md)

> The habitual and reactive “no” strengthens the ego. “Yes” weakens it. Your form identity, the ego, cannot survive surrender. (Ch 6)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/the-habitual-and.md)

> Most people's lives are run by desire and fear. Desire is the need to add something to yourself in order to be yourself more fully. All fear is the fear of losing something, and thereby become diminished and be less. These two movements obscure the fact that being cannot be given or taken away. Being in its fullness is already within you, now. (Ch 5)

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/stillness-speaks/most-peoples-lives.md)