Publication Date: September 18, 2023
“When it comes to spirituality and life, Turak is as authentic as it gets. Wonderful read!”
— Michael Keaton, actor
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 longtime, part-time Trappist monk. 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 adventures and practical life lessons, Turak offers his readers an accessible, universal blueprint for a life overflowing with joy, peace, higher purpose and above all gratitude.
Thirty-five years’ worth of memories evolves into telling the story of a man’s search for spiritual enlightenment.
Using a storytelling approach, author August Turak shares his quest to find purpose in Not Less Than Everything.
It’s an eclectic first-person account that he begins at age 19. Along his journey, he meets a series of spiritual teachers and experiences things that radically change his life.
Without a doubt, the author possesses a unique conversational tone that resonates with an audience. While some of the stories featuring his spiritual enlightenment may be a bit off the beaten path, they emphasize the complexity of his quest.
His successes are great, notably his role with MTV. However, it is just as important to take note of his failures because they spawned a number of valuable life lessons.
Not Less Than Everything delivers one man’s account of finding a purposeful life packed with joy and gratitude.
AUGUST TURAK is a successful corporate executive, entrepreneur, award-winning author, speaker, and consultant. He is the founder of the educational nonprofit the Self Knowledge Symposium Foundation. As a frequent monastic guest, Turak has been living and working alongside the Trappist monks of Mepkin Abbey since 1996.
After a corporate career with companies like MTV, Turak founded two highly successful software businesses. He has published many popular leadership articles for Forbes and been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Selling Magazine, the New York Times, and BusinessWeek.
His book, Business Secrets of the Trappist Monks, uses 1000 years of Trappist business success and his own entrepreneurial experience to demonstrate that the monks are not successful businessmen despite adhering to only the highest ethical values, but because they do. Turak’s inspirational true story, Brother John: A Monk, a Pilgrim, and the Purpose of Life, combines his $100,000 Templeton Prize winning story with original oil paintings from award-winning artist, Glenn Harrington. August Turak lives on a seventy-five-acre cattle farm outside Raleigh, NC. For more information, visit: www.AugustTurak.com.
