Present Still

A Journey from Philosophy to the Profound Teachings of Venerable Beopsang  It wasn't a sudden flash of light or a magic answer.  It was the gentle, profound realization that the ultimate truth, sought out of curiosity through a long journey into philosophy and the cosmos, is not a distant goal, but is instantly present, here and now .  Photo by now-waker Introduction: My Unexpected Path to the Buddha  From Western Philosophy to the Authentic Heart of Dharma  For years, my greatest passion was exploring the vastness of the cosmos and the deepest questions of philosophy.  I dove into the works of Eastern and Western thinkers—from Lao Tzu to Hegel, Deleuze, and Derrida—always searching for the fundamental truth of existence.  Though my mother was a devout Buddhist, the tradition felt distant, a subject I simply hadn't prioritized.  My first encounter was purely intellectual. Reading a book like "Intellectual Conversations for Shallow but Wide Knowled...