(Editor’s note: Columns often contain opinion and those opinions belong to the author.)
I don’t exactly know what I expected to see when I went to see the Venerable Monks on their Walk for Peace. All I knew was that from the moment I heard about this movement I wanted to be a part of it; needed to be a part of it.
For some time, my soul has been fraying at the seams from all the anger and violence we’ve been collectively experiencing. We’ve forgotten how to treat others with basic kindness and respect. We’ve been swallowed up by the savage darkness that divides and conquers. Or does it?
A group of some 20 Buddhist monks from Fort Worth, Texas thought otherwise.
I don’t know about you, but when I think of Fort Worth, my mind doesn’t automatically go to Buddhist monks. But it was there, deep in the heart of Texas, that Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara conceived the idea of a 2,300 mile walk for peace to “raise awareness of inner peace and mindfulness across America and the world.” That was their mission statement. Just walking. For peace.
In early January, when I was able to be present for the Georgia/South Carolina leg of Walk for Peace, we met in a field in McCormick County. I had to get GPS coordinates to find them. The movement hadn’t exploded yet. Several dozen people, including our own Charmain Zimmerman Brackett, quietly sat on pine straw amidst scrub brush, with Aloka the Peace Dog in attendance. Aloka parked himself in front of me and became the embodiment of peace and mindfulness.
I learned as much from Aloka, as I did Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara about peace that day. And it changed me. It is my practice to start my day with Scripture and meditation but now, in addition, I write one simple sentence, “Today is going to be my peaceful day.” I’m telling the world how I plan to spend my day, rather than having the world tell me what to do. That’s how peace begins. I wasn’t expecting that.
A Jan. 8 posting on the Facebook page, Buddhism, asked, “Why are we all emotionally undone by monks who are… just walking?… No protest signs. No shouting. No outrage. No hot takes. Just… walking. For peace.”
“And yet—People are lining the streets. Tracking them online. Crying in public. Re-evaluating their lives mid-afternoon. So, what’s actually happening here? Here’s the truth: We are overstimulated, overworked, over-argued, over-informed and profoundly under-rested.”
“This walk isn’t loud. It isn’t clever. It isn’t trying to convince you of anything. It’s just embodied peace moving through a noisy world. And your body recognizes that before your mind can explain it.”
“So maybe peace isn’t something we wait for. Maybe it’s something we walk toward—in small, unglamorous, everyday ways. Peace can look like pausing before reacting, walking without your phone, choosing kindness over being right, breathing instead of spiraling, letting “simple” be enough… You don’t wait for joy. You place yourself on the path to it… And this is why the monks’ walk matters.”
In my faith tradition, during worship, we greet others with the words, “Peace be with you.” These were the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples after the resurrection. We are still leaning into what it might mean to have peace within ourselves, our families, our country and the world. But we say and do our best to live into those words, peace be with you. Or as the monks would say, “May you be well, be happy and be peaceful.”
The Rev. Dr. Cynthia Taylor, is a retired Episcopal Priest and full-time animal lover.
Augusta Good News, an award-winning member of the Georgia Press Association, is a local, digital newspaper. Subscribe to the free weekly Augusta Good News’ newsletter here.
