Some phrases are oddly triggering in spiritual circles, not because they’re wrong, but because they threaten a hidden contract.
“It’s already here” is one of those phrases. People hear it and feel something get taken away—like the future they were leaning on just collapsed.
And then the opposite trigger appears: someone loves “already here” so much they don’t want to hear that awakening involves a real shift—something that actually happens, changes lives, and exposes what the mind can’t manage.
This talk is about why both reactions happen. Not to judge them, but to make them useful: as information about where the mind is still clinging—either to seeking or to having.
Why People Get Triggered by This Channel
I say a lot of things on this channel that annoy people.
I get a lot of good feedback, but I do occasionally get people leaving comments that suggest they’re triggered—or pissed off—because the way I’m saying something isn’t landing, or it contradicts their experience, or they think I’m contradicting myself.
That’s part of the deal when you talk about what I’m talking about.
It’s nuanced. And it’s so close that talking about it can feel absurd.
And yet there’s value to doing this, apparently, because people seem to have shifts and clarify insights.
So I’ll keep doing it as long as I see evidence it’s helping.
The Most Annoying Thing I Say: “It’s Already Here”
One of the most annoying things I say, based on feedback, is when I say it’s already here.
When I say: what you’re looking for is already here. Realization is already here. Enlightenment is here.
It is this very moment. It is this very experience you’re having right now that is enlightenment.
And I know it can be frustrating because I also talk about awakening as something that can be realized—something that happens, achieved—something later.
Even though it’s not happening later. It’s happening now, because everything is happening now.
Language is inherently flawed here when talking about time, events, awakening, non-duality—things so close you can’t talk about them.
So yes, language is tricky.
But I want to point out something specific: it’s critical for me to talk about realization in both of these ways.
Why I Have to Say “Already Here”
Talking about it as “already this” matters because it’s true.
Realization reveals that.
When I talk about awakening and clarity, what’s revealed is what I just said.
It’s totally true: you are already Buddha nature.
Nobody has a self. There isn’t a self embodied in an apparent body anywhere. It’s not really like that.
It seems like it. It seems like selfing is occurring, but it’s just not.
But if I were to say that as a blanket statement and never speak in any other way, that would deny the relative.
It would deny people’s subjective experience.
I don’t need to do that.
Why I Also Have to Say “Awakening Happens”
The other side is to talk from people’s subjective experience and say: awakening is something that can happen. Awakening is available to you. It’s available to everyone.
That’s also true.
I wouldn’t be telling the truth if I didn’t say awakening can happen.
It does happen. It changes lives—significantly, fundamentally.
It changes experience of self, of world, of separation. It changes experience of consciousness. It changes experience of suffering.
It changes everything.
And it’s the beginning of the true path to liberation—to being free of suffering.
So both are true.
Do they sound contradictory? Yes.
Is the issue mostly time and separation—illusions of thought? Absolutely.
The mind says: it has to be either this or this.
In reality, there is no either/or. It’s all simultaneously.
You don’t have to take my word for it. You can’t really. You need to realize this yourself to get what I’m saying.
But people I know who have deep insight get it. They see it. They don’t disagree.
It’s seamless.
And what I’m saying isn’t revolutionary. It’s not something I made up. It’s the same conclusion you come to in direct experience when realization is clear.
It’s not different than what the Buddha talked about. Not different than Nagarjuna. Not different than other sages.
They point using different language, different cultural contexts, but they’re saying the same thing.
In a way, this is the Two Truths doctrine.
What I Really Want to Point Out: The Two Different Fixations
But that’s not even the main point of this video.
I try to make things practical and useful.
What I want to point out is: the fixation where someone really doesn’t want me to say it’s already here is very different from the fixation that wants me to say it’s already here, but doesn’t want me to say you can have an awakening.
Both exist in people.
Both get triggered.
They’re not different in the sense that a fixation is operating, but they’re different in what the fixation is.
When “Contradiction” Isn’t the Real Trigger
Sometimes people say they’re annoyed because I’m contradicting myself.
But if someone gets really upset—“This is bullshit, I’m leaving, I’m never watching you again”—that’s a bit much just because I said something contradictory.
If you like the other things I say, you’d normally overlook it and focus on what works.
But that’s not what happens.
The trigger really happens: anger, frustration, deep frustration, then behavior.
If it’s that intense, it’s not about me.
It’s about something in you that got triggered—something that doesn’t want to be seen clearly in that moment.
And of course it’s a process. None of it is the end of the world.
Someone can sit with it and come back later and see what was triggering them.
But I want to name what I think is actually getting triggered.
The Seeking Fantasy: “Later, Then I’ll Be Happy”
When I say it’s already here, I’m taking something away from you—if you believe what I’m saying.
I’m taking away the lie you tell yourself: “Oh, later, then I’ll be happy.”
It’s not even about spirituality.
It’s like buying lottery tickets and daydreaming: “I’m going to win. All my problems will be solved.”
And I come in and say: “No. It’s not true. You’re never going to win.” Statistically speaking, you’re never going to win.
It’s not impossible, but it’s not likely.
And that would piss you off too, because it feels like I’m taking something away.
We treat awakening like the spiritual lottery.
That’s not what it is.
When I say it’s not somewhere else—when I say it’s right here—it negates your ideas of what you think it is.
I’m telling you it’s not that.
And the trigger is: “No, but I want to seek it. I want to seek it though. Don’t take my seeking away.”
“Dedicated Not to Those Who Wish to Seek…”
There’s a dedication in one of Philip Kapleau’s books—either Three Pillars of Zen or the other one he wrote.
It says: “This book is dedicated not to those who wish to seek, but those who wish to find.”
I didn’t know what it meant by those who wish to seek. I just knew the second part was me: “That’s me. I want to find. I don’t care how I find it.”
But now I understand.
Some people want to find, but they also want to seek.
Seeking is fun.
It gives fantasy: “I could get this, I could get that. I could get the love and validation I deserve. Everyone’s going to think I’m enlightened and beautiful.”
Whatever you think is going to happen.
That’s seeking.
I didn’t come from that spiritually. I had plenty of flaws and seeking in other areas of life, but spiritually I didn’t.
I wanted the end result right now as fast as possible.
I wasn’t imagining what it would give me. I just knew I didn’t want to feel suffering.
I instinctually felt there was something about this.
I should be clear: seeking the end of suffering is true. It’s just not in the way you think, almost certainly.
Using awakening as a surrogate to represent what you think you’ll get out of it—that’s where disappointment often lies.
But the disappointment isn’t with awakening. It’s before awakening.
It’s when you have to let go of those things to start to really wake up.
And that letting-go is uncomfortable, but it’s the preliminary movement to awakening: seeing the mind can’t solve the problem.
It never has been able to.
That’s what drives people to awakening.
The way our minds put together reality is fundamentally unsatisfying, untrue, inaccurate, and causes suffering.
So part of seeing that is the fantasy.
The mind uses thought and imagination as a pacifier. That has to go. And it will.
The Other Fixation: “I Already Have It”
On the other side, occasionally I bump into someone who gets upset in the opposite way:
They say: “I get that it’s already here. I can vibe with it. But I don’t like when you suggest there’s an awakening that has to happen.”
And I say: if you don’t want that side, that’s a different fixation.
Instead of being attached to seeking, you’re attached to having.
You’re attached to the belief you already have it.
Sometimes people use that as spiritual currency. They want to teach. They want to put it on a resume. They want endorsement of “no-self realization,” but they just cognized it. They didn’t have a shift.
These things happen.
And some people get really upset when I say: without a shift in identity, this hasn’t even begun for you. It’s just conceptual.
And it’s true. It is.
Even “Already Here” Isn’t a Concept You Can Hold
If either side feels sticky to you, realize neither of those in the way you’re thinking about it is going to be the case.
When I say it’s just here, even that is not accurate the way your mind will pick it up, because there’s no here here.
And there’s no you to be enlightened.
Your mind can’t accurately understand that, and yet it’s true. It’s obviously true.
On the other hand, your mind can’t imagine what awakening will be like through seeking. It just can’t.
So both of those are fixations with different personality types.
And if either way of speaking triggers you, it’s not bad.
It’s information.
And if it’s emotional, that’s not bad either.
Sometimes I point people into the emotion when they say, “Fuck you, you’re contradicting yourself, this is bullshit, I’m out of here.”
And I say: don’t disregard the emotion. Maybe you think it’s not working because you don’t understand it, but maybe it is working, and you don’t understand it, and your mind is frustrated and you’re dropping into emotion.
That’s not bad.
Disillusionment is not bad when it comes to real awakening.
If you’re not disillusioned, you haven’t really…
If you’re not disillusioned by the approach to awakening yet, you will be, and that’s okay. That’s how this goes.
Why This Has to Be Non-Conceptual
This leads back to something I say a lot: this is non-conceptual.
It’s not about the way you understand it.
Some of us have amazing amounts of fixation on understanding—intellectual understanding—or having things the way you think you want.
Having things the way you think they are, as if by thinking things are this way, it makes things this way.
It’s like self-manipulation.
You’re not manipulating anyone else as much as you’re manipulating yourself when you think that way.
And that is what suffering is. That’s what makes it so unsatisfactory to live in thought.
Awakening is going to blow that up. That’s what it’s for.
You will be disillusioned, and that’s a good thing.
So I’m curious about your response. Drop a comment if you want.
Have you ever been fixated in one of those ways? Has it ever been a trigger for you to hear either side?
Because I can’t in good conscience leave out either side. I don’t always talk about them at the same time, but I point in different ways because it’s critical.
Otherwise the mind will fixate on something and turn it into something I’m not saying.