24 Buddhist monks complete 2,300-mile ‘Walk of Peace’
Feb. 12 (UPI) — A group of two dozen Buddhist monks completed a barefoot, 2,300-mile Walk of Peace across the United States at the Maryland State House in Annapolis on Thursday.
The monks conducted a much shorter walk of 1.5 miles on Thursday, from the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis to the State House, where a crowd of about 6,000 awaited them.
Theravada Buddhist monk Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra told the crowd: “Today is going to be my peaceful day.” The crowd repeated the words back at the monk’s urging.
“Peace is always with us,” Paññākāra continued. “It’s been with us, never left us, never leaves us,” he said, as reported by WMAR.
“We are way too busy chasing,” he added. “So, now, all we need to do is just slow down.”
Paññākāra said it’s important to do more than simply call for peace.
“Without practicing mindfulness, peace is just a saying,” Paññākāra said: “Peace is just a word. It will never happen.”
He said peace only happens when people make it happen.
“Don’t expect anybody to bring peace to us,” the monk said. “It will never happen, either.”
The monks initially did not plan to walk to Maryland’s Capitol building but agreed to do so after receiving an invitation from state officials.
Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller welcomed the monks after they had walked across 10 states and the nation’s capital, ending their march to promote global peace at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Tuesday after walking for 109 days.
“Your walk is a reminder that peace and compassion begin within each of us every single day, one step at a time, one person at a time, one being at a time,” Miller told the monks.
Among the thousands who attended the gathering, Shannon Shea of Silver Spring, Md., who has followed the monks since their Walk of Peace began on Oct. 26 in Fort Worth, Texas, and estimated that she saw them 10 times.
Paññākāra’s words differed at each stop, but his message remained the same.
“It’s all about you, how you react to everything. It’s not what people do to you, it’s how you react to what they do,” Shea said.
“And that message has been clear over and over again,” she added. “It’s just been amazing.”
The monks initially intended to walk back to Fort Worth, but they agreed to take a bus so that they could return in time to participate in a special event.