At the age of 24, after years of intense internal suffering and an intuition that something about the way we interact with our thoughts causes a lot of unnecessary suffering, Angelo had a fundamental shift in the way he experiences reality. This was a pervasive transformation and was life-altering at every level. It suddenly became clear that thoughts, and the way they "paint" our experience of ourselves, time, and space, are essentially unreal, something like ghosts. What replaced this world of thought, struggle, and suffering, was boundless clarity and intimacy with all immediate textures of phenomena. It became clear that this is simply the natural state of things and that it is true for everyone, even if there is some distortion in experience caused by thoughts.

It became exquisitely clear that suffering is unnecessary among humans and that any human being who has a genuine yearning to wake up to their true nature has the capacity to wake up to this boundless (non-separation) living truth. This led to the writing of the book, "Awake: It's Your Turn." The book is a combination of practical advice to help anyone who is on this pathless path, practice pointers and inquiry tips, and direct pointing (transmission) through language.

Book: Awake: It's Your Turn

Simply Always Awake YouTube channel

Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group.

Transcript of this interview.

Interview recorded April 2, 2022.

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 - Introduction and Background

00:05:38 - The Shift in Perception: From Suffering to Enlightenment

00:10:20 - Becoming Home

00:14:56 - Suffering and Awakening

00:19:21 - The Paradox of Authenticity

00:23:32 - Finding the Gap in Thoughts

00:28:07 - The Structure of the Mind and Perception

00:32:54 - The Unbound Consciousness

00:37:27 - The Natural State of Mind

00:41:59 - Embracing Pain and Sensory Input

00:46:51 - Overwhelming Sensory Experience

00:51:43 - The Nature of Experience

00:56:39 - The Dance of Nature and the Nature of "Ocean-ness"

01:01:06 - The non-dualistic nature of perception

01:05:29 - The Subtlety of the Spiritual Journey

01:10:39 - Shifting Gears, Changing Expectations and Enjoying the Moment

01:15:30 - The Meaning of Awakening

01:19:44 - Attuning to Your Instincts and Embracing Your Awakening

01:24:05 - Investigating the Relational Self

01:29:08 - Escaping Suffering and Dissolving into Reality

01:33:47 - Dissolving Boundaries of Perception

01:38:00 - The Importance of Focus while Driving

01:42:12 - Love for All Beings

01:47:04 - The Paradox of Enlightenment

01:51:51 - Trusting Yourself and the Unborn

01:56:26 - The Length of the Book

02:00:41 - Uncovering and holding discomfort in the body

02:05:12 - Going into the Contracted Area and Feeling Helplessness

02:09:47 - Investigating God, Death, and Reincarnation

02:14:12 - Energetic Realizations and Past Lives

02:18:34 - Wrapping Up the Conversation