August Turak interview: the Quest for Enlightenment

In this spiritual Q&A episode, I respond to listener-submitted spiritual questions spanning a variety of themes. Be open to possibilities… Topics include the paradox of striving versus letting go, how seekers sustain their practice, and ways of recognizing the background presence behind experience. The conversation explores not-two-ness, emptiness, the value of doing nothing, and the … Continue reading "September 2025 Spiritual Q&A"

I first interviewed Bob Cergol in episode 2 of the podcast back in 2016. In this episode, we discuss his new book Hope! Life’s Calling: Finding Yourself on the Spiritual Path Called Life. Even meditation alone is insufficient. One will not complete the journey of going within solely by sitting and self-reflecting. Unless one’s lifestyle … Continue reading "Bob Cergol: Finding Yourself on the Spiritual Path"

Tyler Matthew is one of many unpretentious, extraordinary people doing their part as friends along the path to spiritual awakening. Right now, your true self, your absolute identity is fully here in the exact same way its fully here in deep sleep and the dream state and the awakened state…. You can learn to abide … Continue reading "Tyler Matthew: your true self"

Filo Sophie King is one of many unpretentious, extraordinary people doing their part as friends along the path to spiritual awakening. What you think of as nothing is in truth, everything. Remember it is all only a dream. Realize that what you want is not up to you, and will never be achieved by you, … Continue reading "Filo Sophie King: Awakening to the Unspeakable"

Most recently, Federico Faggin founded the “Federico and Elvia Faggin Foundation” to support the scientific study of consciousness. But his path to the study of consciousness was preceded by his contributions to some of the key technologies in the computing world. In 1968, Dr. Faggin moved to Palo Alto, California, to work at Fairchild Semiconductor, … Continue reading "Federico Faggin: the Physics of Consciousness"

Message in a Bottle: Reflections on the Spiritual Path is a new book from the TAT Foundation Press. Rather than another book by a spiritual teacher, this book takes the approach of asking spiritual seekers, those still on the path to “finding,” to share their stories and wisdom. Interestingly, each contributor to this volume also … Continue reading "Reflections on the Spiritual Path – new book"

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 … Continue reading "August Turak interview: the Quest for Enlightenment"

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 … Continue reading "Shawn Pethel Interview: What am I?"

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. … Continue reading "Ramana Maharshi – Instructions for Self Enquiry"

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 … Continue reading "A Reading from Eddie Traversa’s Truth Realization"