(Click here to read the four-part series published by Forbes.com)

Dear Augie:
Having communicated only with Sarah O’Connor about your essay, I wanted to tell you directly how wonderful I think it is, and how grateful I am that you’re letting it run on Forbes.com. I think it will reach a big, broad audience that way. It should. I found it truly moving and inspiring. Thank you very much.

Fred Allen
Editor of the Leadership Channel, Forbes.com

“I forwarded your article to Geoff Marchant at Hotchkiss, and to Jeff Kosak, now in France. I asked Mar to show it to the headmaster. It is an outstanding piece of writing, thinking, and living, as good as anything I have read in years, maybe ever, from a graduate.”

Blair Torrey
Retired Chair of English, The Hotchkiss School

Bravo!
Thank you for such a clear, motivating, powerful message.
Serving others, helping other businesses learn to become flawless because there is a problem solving method that can do it has become my life’s passion. It betters us all, individually and as businesses, it is the right thing to do. Thanks for re-inspiring me.
Best regards,

Gregg Young
Author, Seventh Sigma Tools: Best Practices in Six Sigma and the e-book sequels,Best Practice Problem Solving: Go from Good to Great and Best Practice Problem Solving: The Six Universal Tools

“This article is great! I enjoyed reading it and will incorporate the ideas into the way I run my business.”

Molly Goodall
Managing Director and Co-Owner, Studio ArtHouse McKinney

“Outstanding! It is so exciting to see the work you are doing.”

Charles Bobertz
School and Department of Theology, St. John's University

“The first two parts of the article brought me to tears! Very inspiring!”

Nina Mihaychuk

“This is outstanding and interesting. Congratulations.”

Henry Devine

“I’m very pleased to look at the Forbes.com homepage today and see that the first three parts of your article are three of the four top-rated pieces on the whole site. Bravo. The word is getting out.”

Fred Allen
Editor of the Leadership Channel, Forbes.com

Dear Mr. Turak,
This is great stuff. I'll work it into my Media Post column.
Thank you for the "good word" you're spreading. I'm a long-lapsed Catholic boy, but people like these monks have always impressed me as transcending the trappings of religion even as they seem bound to rules and traditions.

Thom Forbes
MediaPost.com

“Loved the articles. “

Karen Priester
Regions Bank

“Thank you for your articles in Forbes. I looked at your website as well and am very impressed with your work.”

William Cahill

“Fantastic! Love the article and the site.”

Alex Danilowicz

“I read your article and thoroughly enjoyed it. I sent it to my colleagues, and I am sure they too will enjoy it. Can’t wait to read the book!”

Mike Connell

“Thank you for this. I read your article and then your website and forwarded the links for both to friends. You are, without question, the smartest person I know.”

Peter Michaelson,
Personal Friend

(Click here to read the award-winning essay)

“Totally cool.”

Ken Wilber
Author of Spectrum of Consciousness and Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality

“Congratulations! Brother John is a truly remarkable essay.”

Rick Warren
Author of The Purpose Driven Life

“Thank you for Brother John. Our nation has always benefitted from a strong spiritual foundation, and people of faith and compassion continue to shape our country today. I appreciate all those who share the message of God’s boundless love and mercy with others.

Laura and I send you our best wishes. May God bless you.”

George W. Bush
President of the United States of America

Dear Augie,

I wanted to send you heartfelt congratulations on winning the Templeton Foundation’s Power of Purpose Essay Contest. I just read your essay and was deeply moved by it.

I hope many, many people are able to read and hear about your essay, and I’ve put an excerpt from it up on the wall for everyone here.

Wishing you all the best,

Andrew Cohen
Founder of What is Enlightenment?

“August Turak is a modern day Socrates. It is so wonderful to see him finally get the recognition he deserves.”

The Reverend William Willimon
Bishop, United Methodist Church and Former Dean of the Duke Chapel

“This really is a beautiful essay. It is deeply Kierkegaardian in the very best sense. SK would be proud to count you a reader.”

Bill Cahoy
Dean, St. John’s School of Theology

Dear Mr. Turak,

Now that I have read Brother John (multiple times), I feel compelled to write to you — not so much to congratulate you again for your award but to thank you for sharing with me and with us all a story that is profoundly thought-provoking. I am really at a point in my life where that inner voice is maddeningly, deafeningly, and oh-so-softly urging me to be and do what I must.

Thanks again for Brother John.

Regards,

Randy Jones
Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Bayer HealthCare

Dear Mr. Turak,

I was blown away by your essay Brother John — both by the writing and by the content.

What I love the most and think is the most important is your message of going for it in life. That is really the ultimate spiritual message.

John Morosani
President, Washington Capital Management, LLC

Dear Augie,

Brother John is a lovely essay, and I have read it twice so far. So much pertains to what I believe in, especially living the thoughtful and "deliberate" life. Your essay brought to mind St. Thomas More, whom I taught every year to seniors, and, of course, Henry David Thoreau.

Thank you for your essay. Bless you.

Blair Torrey
Retired Chair of English, The Hotchkiss School

Dear Mr. Turak,

I just wanted to thank you for your work with the Self Knowledge Symposium. I was a student at Duke University and graduated in 2003. In 2001, I attended your talk at Duke — What is Zen? — and was blown away. Largely from the inspiration of that talk, I moved to South Africa and started a company to help people generate multiple income streams. I wanted to thank you for that talk and the wonderful community you founded that helped me to undertake this venture.

Olivier de Sosa

“Brother John is an excellent piece of writing, and one I'll turn to in the future for reflection.”

Stephen Martin
President, Center for Creative Leadership

“I loved Brother John.”

Michael Costello

Dear Mr. Turak,

Thank you for publishing Brother John. It brought tears of joy, gratitude, and inspiration to my heart.

Faith Evans

Dear Mr. Turak,

My warmest congratulations for your excellent essay.

Vince Lepidi

“This is a wonderful essay and I can think of no person more deserving of the award.”

Rabbi Niles Goldstein
Author of God at the Edge and Gonzo Judaism

“Fabulous essay!”

Monica Doss
CEO, The Council for Entrepreneurial Development

Dear Mr. Turak,

I am facing some challenges in my life that are part of facing my "doubts, limitations, and self-contradictions head on while holding on to this voice of eternity" (quote from Brother John.) Today started out as a dark, rainy day in that process.

Then I saw something about this essay in The New Yorker and ended up reading it. I feel like I found Brother John and his umbrella outside the church, to protect me from today's cold rain. The insight in the essay helped me to know I am on the path, I am not alone, and I am capable of continuing the journey. Thank you so much.

Blessing to you,

Cindy Skocic

“Mr. Turak deserves everything he can receive a laureate of our times! A vital force; a vessel of election; an avis rara with golden wings and eagle eyes; a blend of hawk and dove, and a paragon of energy and production that would bring Ben Franklin to his knees, and a warm embrazzo from Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevski. I’m thrilled that he actually included me in his paean of praise of our Br. John. Those six pages will be set in stone and awed at in a thousand years.”

The Right Reverend Christian Carr, O.S.C.O.
Former Abbot of Mepkin Abbey Monastery

“Everytime I read Brother John I am hit square between the eyes when Father Christian says that the beginning of the only authentic life is refusing to run away from and deciding to deal with the fact that something is twisted inside all of us.”

Fred Macri

“Brother John is marvelous!”

Lisa Brooks

Dear Mr. Turak,

I read your essay after seeing the article in The New York Times announcing the winners of The Power of Purpose Awards. I found your essay incredibly moving. You should be writing about your experiences for a larger audience.

Maria Massie
Literary Agent, Lippincott Massie McQuilkind

Dear Mr. Turak,

Well I am here working at home today, the feel of winter is in the air. I read a copy of your essay. To say I was moved is an understatement. I was overwhelmed. There are times in which I doubt anything is real, and then came your essay.

The right essay at the right time. Especially one line: "All evil begins with a lie. The biggest evil comes from the biggest lies, and the biggest lies are the ones we tell ourselves. And we lie to ourselves because we're afraid to take ourselves on."

For two years I had been afraid to take myself on. I still have that fear — but I know what that seemingly insurmountable task is.

The rabbis say that to save one life is to save the world. You have saved one life with this writing and, I am sure, will save many more if you do keep writing. The great test will be whether you believe the lie. I don't think you will — and so you must write.

I did want you to know, though, how much I owe to you. It is going to be a good day.

Anonymous Reader

“After reading your essay, I realize it is fear of what I need to do that is holding me back. I’m clinging to earthly matters and not letting myself go to the real “spiritual realm” that is all around and engulfing me. I have identified that it is there. Now, I’ve got to go there.”

Pat Nicholson
Computer Intelligence Corporation

Dear Mr. Turak,

I have just read Brother John for the first time. I don't even know what to say except thank you. I will read it over and over again, peeling back its layers, contemplating each layer, hoping to plumb the depths of each.

Christina H. Myers
Director of Principal Gifts, University of South Carolina

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