[*Please note the call time, different from usual Awakin Calls] Long before spiritual integrity became a rallying cry, Jac O’Keeffe was drawn to life’s deeper questions. Born and raised in Ireland, she studied theology and adult education, and over time, her inquiry led her into the heart of non-dual teachings and direct experience. What began as a spiritual search unfolded into a radical shift in perception—one in which the personal identity she had long assumed began to fall away.
But for Jac, awakening wasn’t the end point. It was the beginning of something more grounded: the daily practice of integration, and the ongoing task of meeting life without spiritual pretense.
Today, she is known as a spiritual teacher, author, and co-founder of the Association for Spiritual Integrity (ASI)—a global initiative committed to fostering accountability, transparency, and ethical reflection in spiritual leadership. Her work invites teachers and seekers alike to look beyond transcendence and into the often-messy reality of power, trauma, and human relationship.
Her books, Born to Be Free and How to Be a Spiritual Rebel, reflect this commitment. Rather than offering formulas for awakening, they invite a deeper kind of honesty—one that dismantles illusion, challenges identity, and asks what spiritual freedom is worth if it doesn’t change the way we live.
Through retreats, mentoring, and her leadership at ASI, Jac supports others in re-rooting their awakening in the everyday: in how we speak, relate, earn, and lead. Her presence is both direct and spacious—rooted in humility, yet unafraid to ask hard questions.
In a world quick to romanticize enlightenment, Jac’s work brings us back to the real terrain of spiritual life: not escaping what is, but transforming how we meet it.
Join us in conversation with this contemplative trailblazer and co-founder of ASI, who reminds us that true freedom is not a peak experience—but a lived commitment to integration, integrity, and love in action.
Learning about someones needs, sensing what response wants to happen and being able to help make it happen. There are three parts to that and when they flow together it ignites me more than anything! Spiritual leadership can be a lonely path of service. The need to belong, being free to be in unedited human expression, to have friends that are not students - these needs are very real for spiritual leaders and because they are not easily met (culturally) leaders can show up out of balance. Harm can happen as a result of unmet human needs because unmet needs can be unconsciously projected on others. I listen to these needs as they are expressed to me and I listen within to find out how can I serve these needs. I have found that the universe wants to support and promote that which is wholesome and I love to serve in support of what wants to happen, rather that what can come from my intellect. I often ask 'how can I serve what wants to happen here?' Sometimes the way to respond to the need takes time to come clear and some things I cannot respond to. I know the power of the butterfly effect. I've seen changes in the culture of spiritual leadership since I began working in this field. It's very exciting. I'm sowing seeds. Let's see what takes root and what doesn't. I'm always keen to learn about how to do betterI learn more from failures than successes!
The clear seeing (happened a few times until i 'got' it) that this reality/our world is a construct, that what is Real was never here. What is here is temporary and nothing more than a play of light, yet every move we make is significant. There is profound beauty in both the macro recognition and the respect and love that the micro asks of us.
The love that urges people to be kind without them knowing the need that they are fulfilling is profound to me. It is without conditions, a story or reasoning. In March I was replacing my 50 year old kitchen cabinets and a friend called saying 'I am due a work bonus this month and I know its for you'. He didn't know about my kitchen project prior to the offer of funds.
I worked through my bucket list when I was diving deeply into the nature of desires. There is no experience I want to have or have yet to have in my awareness.
Ask yourself each day, "Am I invested in the love of power or the power of love?"