Podcast: Journals of Spiritual Discovery by spiritualteachers.org

August Turak interview: the Quest for Enlightenment

August “Augie” Turak was the first student of Richard Rose and played an key role in introducing me to the spiritual search through his founding of the Self Knowledge Symposium. Thus, I was happy for the opportunity to interview him in support of his new book, Not Less Than Everything: One Man’s Quest for Spiritual Enlightenment, a true spiritual adventure story designed to “reintroduce the miraculous” into the dialogue of spirituality.

Augie’s work via the August Turak Foundation carries the inspiring message to “bring a transformative message of higher meaning and purpose to a Western Culture increasingly bereft of meaning and purpose.”

In this episode, August Turak offers dozens of quote-worthy statements about spiritual experiences, enlightenment, the purpose of life, how to shorten one’s spiritual quest, prayer, and more.

august turak

Please feel free to leave comments or send an email with the contact form.  I always appreciate hearing your thoughts.


QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Selected Links and Topics from this Episode:

  • Augie Turak’s first book was Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks
  • Augie explain some of his writing process, using a writing coach, using his time during COVID to finish the manuscript, becoming the protagonist of his own story, the importance of “set and setting” in telling a story
  • Augie Turak’s second book was Brother John: A Monk, a Pilgrim and the Purpose of Life, based on his Templeton Prize winning essay “What is the Purpose of Life?”
  • The role that depression played in Augie’s spiritual search. Looking for cosmic consciousness to cure himself of despair
  • The devolution of religion into a focus on “health, wealth, and progeny”
  • Augie’s book as a counter to a culture “Beset by doom and gloom and dystopia”
  • “The Poison We Pick” – Andrew Sullivan’s article describing the spiritual crisis at the heart of the opioid crisis
  • The ultimate purpose of life is enlightenment – a journey from selfishness to selflessness
  • The Hero’s Journey – the call, resistance to the call, the desert, the great trial, death & rebirth, the return to help others
  • We’re all longing for transformation. The 3 forms of transformation: condition, circumstances, and a transformation of being. The latter is what we’re all longing for
  • The death of the ego, enlightenment, is the ultimate form of selflessness. But you cannot consciously surrender. “We want a guarantee that if we let go, then we’ll find God. That can’t be done.”
  • The long development of the vector that guarantees that when the day comes, “you let go in the right way.”
  • Richard Rose said “you have to attack the gates of heaven with everything you have. You will fail. Those gates don’t swing in, they only swing out. You have to have some help from the other side. Mystics call it the ‘magnificent defeat.'”
  • The Ego and the Dynamic Ground: A Transpersonal Theory of Human Development by Michael Washburn – a terrific book
  • How to shorten the span of despair that leads to enlightenment.
  • Learn to “hit the wall faster.” Try to be honest, just being mindful is not going to cut it.
    • “Nobody wants to go to ‘the Desert.’ You have to go to the Desert.”
      • “Get a group, a community.”
        • “Get a teacher.” Their job is to disillusion you. To rid you of illusions. “Deep down inside, we are terrified that if we lost all of our illusions there would be nothing left.”
  • “It’s very frustrating to work with a good teacher.”
  • Learning to create, conserve, control, and focus your energies
  • There are a lot more lousy students than lousy teachers
  • The importance of being coachable. “Americans are fundamentally uncoachable.”
  • “Are You Coachable? The Five Steps to Coachability” an article by August Turak
  • Richard Rose quote: “Make your entire life a prayer and it will be answered instantly.”
  • “The ultimate form of therapy is ‘who am I?'” The games you’re playing originate in fear and all fear comes back to death.
  • The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker
  • Mellville’s Moby-Dick: An American Nekyia – the book Augie carried with him prior to his experience in Baltimore
  • Mystics and Zen Masters by Thomas Merton, one of the best books on mysticism you can read
  • John Blofeld’s introduction to The Zen Teaching of Huang Po, another one of the best things Augie ever read
  • The Trappist Monks of Mepkin Abbey
  • “What would it be like to give myself totally to God?”
  • “The absolute essence to a spiritual path is commitment”~ Bob Cergol
  • 90% of what Richard Rose taught was lifestyle – “living the life”
  • “Spirituality is fundamentally countercultural”
  • The friction is what breaks the ego – it’s not technique, it’s the pressure the ego gets under when nobody understands you, you have no one to turn to
  • Rose’s most controversial philosophy was that “results are proportional to energy applied.” The vast majority of people go into spirituality to escape the harsh realities of life. And the harshest reality of life is that results are proportional to energy applied.
  • August Turak confirms he is not Jed McKenna
  • Keep up with August Turak at augustturak.org
  • Check out my new t-shirt design: Christ in the Desert
  • Leave a review on Amazon of my book Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment. We’re now at 148 reviews, and your help will make it 149!

Shawn Pethel Interview: What am I?

What happens when you take the rigor of a physicist and combine that with the earnest desire of a seeker of enlightenment? In his mid-twenties, Shawn Pethel picked up a book by Ken Wilber and was introduced to Eastern philosophy and the idea of enlightenment. As a scientist, he recognized that these Eastern meditators were true spiritual explorers who were gathering data and trying to systematize the exploration of inner space. Most importantly, they spoke of an answer, “enlightenment,” which Shawn recognized as what he had been built to pursue in this life.

So Shawn pursued enlightenment, first through a decade of reading and working alone, but then discovering a community of fellow seekers that greatly accelerated his path.

In this episode, Shawn discusses the highs and lows of his spiritual search, meditation, following what is given to you, the importance of connecting with what you care about, and enlightenment.

Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash

Please feel free to leave comments or send an email with the contact form.  I always appreciate hearing your thoughts.


QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Selected Links and Topics from this Episode:

  • How Eastern mystics were exploring and gathering data through meditation.
  • “I felt my whole life I had been built to seek [enlightenment].”
  • The value of having to articulate our internal narrative.
  • The value of being around people who are practicing being open and honest.
  • Wanting to know “what am I?”
    • “If you see something you must be outside of it.” This is a very useful concept that led Shawn to a “homegrown meditation” style.
  • Meditation phobia
  • To meditate without ceasing. At every moment you can, observe what is going on. Yet, don’t create some kind of crazy standard for yourself.
  • What progress in meditation looks like.
  • Nisargadatta Maharaj’s “I Am.”
    • “What do I do now?” Getting stuck on the spiritual path.
      • Your energy comes from being in touch with what you really care about.
        • What is the universe trying to tell you? What’s the thing “right in your face?” What’s the most obvious thing the universe is trying to get you to pay attention to right now?
        • The need to get honest with yourself about your priorities. Enlightenment doesn’t have to be the honest priority, but you need to be honest about what is.
          • Daniel Ingram as a mentor.
          • The vanishing of the “I am.”
          • “I can’t talk about what is, but we can talk about what you’re trying to substitute for what is.”
          • “The mind is a narrative machine.” It creates stories.
  • Asking “where is my body?” “where is my mind?” while lucid dreaming. Spiritual seeking while lucid dreaming.
  • Don’t beat yourself up comparing your efforts to others. Go with the effort level you have. ” Keep track of it and act in a way that’s in accordance with it.”
  • “Science is about building models, and those models come from your intuition and then you check them rigorously…. There’s a lot of creative process that’s in there.”
  • “I think a lot of seekers are not in contact with what really matters to them, or not got it in very good focus.”
  • Shawn’s go-to book recommendation for spiritual seekers is Nisargadatta Maharaj’s I Am That. Another important book for him was the first few pages of Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram. Also, Douglas Harding’s books are highly recommended as both logical and creative.
  • What’s life like after enlightenment?
  • “What’s illusion and what’s real is another illusion, another false dichotomy.”
  • Want to contact Shawn Pethel? Sorry, you’ll have to come to a TAT Foundation or Pittsburgh Self Inquiry Group event when he’s speaking.
  • To register for the upcoming TAT virtual event I mentioned in this episode, go here.
  • Check out the new edition of Bob Harwood’s Pouring Concrete: A Zen Path to the Kingdom of God
  • Leave a review on Amazon of my book Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment. We’re now at 148 reviews!

Ramana Maharshi – Instructions for Self Enquiry

My reading this episode is two extracts from the works of Ramana Maharshi. The first is an excerpt from a longer work entitled “Who Am I,” and the second is titled “Self Enquiry.” The “Self Enquiry” piece was written around 1901, and both writings appear in Author Osborne’s The Collected Works of Sri Ramana Maharshi.

In “Self Enquiry,” Ramana says, “In this chapter is given clearly the path of enquiry into the Self, or ‘Who Am I?'” Obviously, that’s a must read! “Self Enquiry” was Ramana Maharshi’s first written work, while “Who Am I?” was his only other work of prose. Since most of Ramana’s teachings are recorded from written transcriptions, studying his written works is worth one’s time.

This is podcast # 12 in The Induction Series. The aim of this series is to focus on “inspired” writings, those that carry the “living word.” Franklin Merrell-Wolff called them “mystic writings” and said that “when the ‘Voice of the Silence’ speaks into the relative world, the Meaning lies between the words, as it were, rather than in the direct content of the words themselves.”

Richard Rose said that “If you are interested in looking for Essence, from the point of the Process Observer you can be stimulated only by writings of inspiration rather than reason or direction” and referred students to his poem “Three Books of the Absolute.” While Rose used the term “inspirational,” clearly these are not necessarily inspirational, uplifting writings like one typically finds collected under that banner.

Photo by Nayani Teixeira on Unsplash

If you enjoy The Induction Series, please leave a review on Amazon of my book Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment.  There are currently 148 reviews and each additional review boosts the visibility of the book.  You don’t have to purchase the book on Amazon to leave a review, and a few minutes of your time will help others seekers find the book.  Just click the link above and leave a few words in a review.  Thank you! 

Please feel free to leave comments or send an email with the contact form.  I always appreciate hearing your thoughts.


QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Selected Links and Topics from this Episode:

  • Author Osborne’s The Collected Works of Ramana Maharshi
  • What does Ramana Maharshi mean by capital-S “Self”?
  • The question “Who am I?” is the distillation of the curiously we all have about our true nature.
  • “As a boy of sixteen in 1896, he challenged death by a penetrating enquiry into the source of his being…” to read more about Ramana Maharshi, visit the official website or read my review.
  • To register for the upcoming TAT Talk I mentioned in this episode or the Pittsburgh Self Inquiry Group meeting, go here.
  • Leave a review on Amazon of my book Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment. We’re now at 148 reviews!

Support this podcast

A Reading from Eddie Traversa’s Truth Realization

My reading this episode is an excerpt from Eddie Traversa’s book, Truth Realization. Eddie was an extraordinarily sincere spiritual teacher and friend who passed away in 2022. His website no longer exists, but at least as of the time of this writing, his book is still available, and you can listen to my podcast interview of him.

Eddie’s Truth Realization book is about as unknown as titles get, yet as is often the case, the value is in inverse proportion to the popularity. He succinctly described the book as “a collection of articles on the topic of spiritual enlightenment.”

For this reading, I chose two articles: the first titled “The Who am I Koan,” and the second titled “Consciousness.” Both writings carry a deeper meaning that simply the words.

This is podcast # 11 in The Induction Series. The aim of this series is to focus on “inspired” writings, those that carry the “living word.” Franklin Merrell-Wolff called them “mystic writings” and said that “when the ‘Voice of the Silence’ speaks into the relative world, the Meaning lies between the words, as it were, rather than in the direct content of the words themselves.”

Richard Rose said that “If you are interested in looking for Essence, from the point of the Process Observer you can be stimulated only by writings of inspiration rather than reason or direction” and referred students to his poem “Three Books of the Absolute.” While Rose used the term “inspirational,” clearly these are not necessarily inspirational, uplifting writings like one typically finds collected under that banner.

Photo by Ismael Paramo on Unsplash

If you enjoy The Induction Series, please leave a review on Amazon of my book Subtraction: The Simple Math of Enlightenment.  There are currently 148 reviews and each additional review boosts the visibility of the book.  You don’t have to purchase the book on Amazon to leave a review, and a few minutes of your time will help others seekers find the book.  Just click the link above and leave a few words in a review.  Thank you! 

Please feel free to leave comments or send an email with the contact form.  I always appreciate hearing your thoughts.


QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Selected Links and Topics from this Episode:

Support this podcast

Mike Gegenheimer: the Magic of Rapport

Mike Gegenheimer is president of the TAT Foundation, coauthor with me of Passages: An Introduction and Commentary on Richard Rose’s Albigen System, and helps facilitate a self-inquiry group based in Columbus, Ohio. In this episode, we delve into his years with Richard Rose and the early days of the TAT Foundation, his experiences with the power of rapport, intuition, and between-ness, and discuss the events around his spiritual Realization.

Photo by Won Young Park on Unsplash

Please feel free to leave comments or send an email with the contact form.  I always appreciate hearing your thoughts.


QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Selected Links and Topics from this Episode:

  • Philosophical questions versus questions of self-definition
  • Asking questions versus taking action
  • The Pyramid Zen Society
  • The Atman and the Braham
  • The value of reviewing past experiences and becoming free of them
  • One of Richard Rose’s key practices, sitting in rapport, as a tool for developing intuition and allowing the possibility of transmission of mind.
  • Transmission
  • Richard Rose farm: the dynamics of living in an ashram, the value of doing physical labor as part of a spiritual path
  • Why spiritual groups wind up doing construction projects…. 🙂
  • Rose’s book about developing and using energy on the spiritual search: Energy Transmutation, Between-Ness and Transmission
  • Being on the knife edge of the mind and looking death in the face
  • On spiritual experiences later in life
  • A seriousness that precedes a spiritual realization
  • On just wanting to know the answer
  • The April 2019 TAT meeting where Mike Gegenheimer had his Realization
  • A conversation with Norio Kushi that was key in the moments before Mike’s Realization
  • Finding the mind arising in the spaces “between”
  • The path of inquiry and the path of meditation
  • Online rapport sittings – “we’re not as far apart from each other as our minds believe we are”
  • What to do if you want to learn more about rapport, including books such as Passages, Energy Transmutation, and Psychology of the Observer
  • How to find a local TAT group
  • The main obstacles people are facing on the spiritual path
  • Richard Rose’s List of Obstacles to Transcendental Research
  • The H.G. Wells short story “The Door in the Wall“
  • Most recommended books: Psychology of the Observer, The Albigen Papers, and Meditation by Richard Rose, I Am That by Nisargadata, Ramana Maharshi, Bart Marshall’s The Perennial Way
  • Favorite film: Patton (1970) as an example of commitment
  • Intuition occurring in the areas of life where you focus your energy
  • If a person has a singular commitment to feel for an answer, to find a resolution of a deep question – the right combination of intensity and feeling can yield an answer
  • Contact info for Mike Gegenheimer and his group based on Columbus, Ohio

Support this podcast