Not Less than Everything

One Man’s Quest for Spiritual Enlightenment

By: August Turak

Narrated by: August Turak

Length: 15 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Not Less Than Everything: One Man’s Quest for Spiritual Enlightenment is the inspirational true story of how author, August Turak overcame depression and meaningless despair through a daring quest for life’s ultimate meaning and purpose.

A search for transcendence.

As a troubled young college student in 1971, Turak was seized by the idea that the mystical experience various religious traditions call Enlightenment, Satori, Nirvana, Samadhi, the Unio Mystica, or Cosmic Consciousness not only exists, but might be attainable by him. 

This sparked a life altering quest as Turak became in turn,…

…the first student of a rough-hewn, hillbilly Zen master;

…the protégé of the founder of the IBM Executive School;

…the client of a mystical psychologist doing government funded research with LSD;

…a member of the original team that launched MTV: Music Television;

…a successful hi-tech entrepreneur and even a frequent monastic guest at a Trappist monastery. 

It was this same spiritual roller coaster that dropped him off twenty-five years later in a tiny room of a rundown motel in Baltimore, Maryland deeply depressed, fearing for his sanity, and with nowhere else to turn. Or so it only seemed…

Through a series of true, wildly entertaining spiritual adventures and practical life lessons, Turak offers his listeners an accessible, universal blueprint for a life overflowing with joy, peace, higher purpose and above all gratitude.

©2023 August Turak (P)2024 August Turak

Critic reviews

"When it comes to spirituality and life, Turak is as authentic as it gets. Wonderful read!"—Michael Keaton, actor

I know this person.

When I first saw him, his eyes scared me. I’m a vet and I tend not to scare easily. But, his eyes was a mirror of pain in me. Thank you, Mr. Turak.

Listening to this book is An Excellent Spiritual Experience

All of my friends are Deeply Spiritual, and we are sharing our spiritual journey with each other. This usually means we are sharing paranormal episodes, little stories, events. This is deeply meaningful and we learn and develop from/with each other.

This book (a spiritual autobiography) is exactly like that! It is read by the author himself, August Turak. It is his life-long spiritual quest in his sharing little stories, events, and the longer narrative of his decades-long spiritual quest and who he meets along the ‘spiritual road of life’.

I loved this book for many reasons:

1. It is easy to understand. (Reading famous spiritual mystics can often be confusing if they are from previous centuries). This book is NOT confusing.
2. You have the benefit of hearing the author’s own voice inflection and tone, as he is the one reading his own audio book.
3. This spiritual autobiography is REAL, not ‘candy-coated’, Not sickly pious, Not trying to manipulate you into adopting one belief or another. He is not afraid to share ‘his personal dirt’ and struggles. The ‘rubber DOES meet the road’ in this book.
4. This book is a great example of a person whose spiritual quest is a 100% passion that he doesn’t give-up on, decade after decade.
5. We who are 100% spiritual questers often have to deal with the ‘weekend spiritual quester’ who is a whiner and only ‘half-assing it’ OR just a ‘robot’ under the control of some spiritual authority OR someone who is just looking for the ‘prosperity gospel’ for their own selfish gain. This book is NOT about a ‘half-asser’!

Understanding the journey… you are creating it.

from our deepest fears to our greatest joys, to be aware of what the experience may be, it it belongs to the seeker. I couldn’t put the book down because the story was so connected, it flowed. I do find it, intriguing that the spiritual journey has a Christian twist, but it’s definitely not typical far from it, in his unwavering request of a lifetime to be connected, to the journey. I enjoyed reading his book I feel inspired and realize what this means for my journey or more like quest. At 47, At times, worried about who or what I will be by 50 has had me a little lost and worried, but I know now it’s more about being present in this moment in this hour, practice it.

Thank you, sir for telling your Storie it’s beautiful .. But whatever happened to Mr. Rose? I’m sure he had a fulfilling life, you were with him for a while and spoke of him a lot.