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"Five Years with a Zen Master" recounts Turak's first few years spent with Zen Master Richard Rose, who launched Turak into his lifelong spiritual search. A popular lecture at UNC, Duke, NC State and other venues for the past several years, "Five Years" has garnered rave reviews from college students and adults alike. Rob Nikander (Duke '99) called it "the most intense two hours of my life." "Turak is a modern-day Socrates," says Dr. William Willimon, author of The Search for Meaning, Dean of Duke University Chapel. "I feel like I should be following behind him writing down the things he says."

On the surface, Turak is a successful businessman who ran several award-winning Triangle software companies. But Turak's real passion throughout his life has been what he calls "spiritual seeking"—struggling to answer age-old questions about life and death. In his twenties Turak quit college and studied with Rose for the next five years. A powerful storyteller and frequent lecturer alongside such luminaries as Huston Smith (author of The World's Religions), Turak seeks to inspire people to find deeper meaning. He is also Founder of the Self Knowledge Symposium Foundation.

"As a college student in 1972, there was one problem primarily on my mind: death," says Turak. "The question I was asking myself was, 'How can I live a meaningful life, when no matter what I do, no matter how successful I become, I still die?'" Turak pursued his question in the libraries, digging through Nietzsche, Plato, Shakespeare, Alan Watts—any author who might have an answer. "I agreed with all of them, but none of them agreed with each other. What was I supposed to do?"

Fortunately, an answer presented itself in the form of Richard Rose, a cantankerous, witty, and profound West Virginian farmer—a most unlikely-looking Zen master. Turak recalled how he chanced upon a lecture by Rose at the University of Pittsburgh, where Turak was a student. Although Rose supported research such as Turak had already done, his main message was a call to action. "The first thing Rose said was, 'Some people think Zen is about finding peace. There's plenty of peace in the cemetery. I'm not here to give you peace—I'm here to wake you up.' I walked out of that lecture with my head spinning." Not long afterwards, despite enormous family pressures and an impressive educational background including four years at Hotchkiss, one of America's premiere prep schools, Augie left college to work full time with Rose.

"I've never seen anyone walk out of 'Five Years with a Zen Master' without a stunned expression on their face," says Kenny Felder, founder of One Tree Software and former group program manager at Microsoft. "And I know what that look means, because I've been there. They're thinking: 'Do I have the courage to do what he did?'"