The 'Walk for Peace' enters Richmond on Monday. This is what it's like to walk with the monks

As the purposeful footsteps of 17 Venerable Buddhist Monks crunched road salt, snow, and frozen dirt on the shoulder of U.S. Route 1 in Alberta, Virginia, they landed silently on rose petals.

Heading north through an arctic Virginia countryside on Friday, the Venerable Monks began the 97th day of The Walk For Peace, a 2,300-mile journey from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C. spreading peace, loving kindness and compassion to the U.S. and the world.

Monday, on the 100th day of their walk, the monks will enter Richmond. The public is invited to walk with them starting at 2 p.m. from the fire station at 2211 Semmes Avenue to City Hall, where they will speak at about 3 p.m.

Once they reach Washington, they will ask Congress to recognize Vesak, the day of the full moon in May which marks when Siddhartha Gotama (The Buddha) was born, the day he attained enlightenment, and the day he passed away, as a federal holiday. By the time this request is made and the monks return home for the Lunar New Year, millions of people around the world will have witnessed their journey.

Peace moves at a brisk pace, roughly 3 miles per hour. The days of walking begin around sunrise, and continue until sunset.

By 8:11 a.m. on Friday, John Scott McClung had stood in two different places on Route 1 to bow in reverence to the Venerable Monks.

McClung, a practicing Buddhist of 30 years from Fort Collins, Colorado, began his spiritual journey from a place of pain. Through the practices of meditation, mindfulness and being present, which are espoused in Buddhism, McClung found his own peace. On learning of the monks’ walk, McClung was moved to drive from Colorado to Raleigh to see and support them, and has stuck with them since. 

“It touches me to see them do this, and it brings me joy to see a peaceful way to make a difference in the world without screaming and yelling,” he said.

You’d be hard-pressed to hear more than a word or two from the monks as they walk. The practice of walking in silence conserves energy and allows them to focus intently on each step they take. Along their route, onlookers reflect this silence, which helps the monks to focus. 

The monks on this journey were all invited by the Venerable Bhikkhu Paññākāra, leader of the Walk for Peace, and hail from U.S. states including Texas, Kentucky, and Virginia, and countries including France and Thailand.

All of the monks on the walk belong to the Theravada Tradition of Buddhism, one of the oldest paths in Buddhism which translates to ‘The Way of the Elders,’ and follows a strict adherence to the original teachings and discipline espoused by the Buddha.

Some of the ways this tradition manifests on the walk includes the monks only eating what is given to them and staying in shelters only if they are offered. Early on in the walk, the monks spent nights sleeping in tents in fields when they did not have an indoor location offered to them.

As the monks approached her driveway on Route 1, Asia Navarrete knelt, her outstretched hand offering a scarf and homemade craft which was received by one of the monks. After receiving a white flower, Asia remained kneeling, taken with the experience.

“It symbolizes hope," she said of the walk. "It symbolizes the future that we need to live by…We need to come together instead of always fighting.”

Peace as a word and symbol is ever present on homemade signs along the walk. Peace as a feeling also permeates the air along the path trodden by the monks, and soldiers on no matter the weather.

If one monk is unable to walk, they ride in one of the RVs or other support vehicles that accompanies the group between destinations.

Already, the walk has seen it’s share of adversity. In November, two of the monks were injured when a truck hit a support vehicle, causing it to hit the group. One monk needed to have a leg amputated after the accident and discontinued the walk.

In addition to a sizable crew of volunteers working on the logistics of the walk, the monks are also accompanied by a dog named Aloka, whose name means “divine light” in Sanskrit, who was rescued by Paññākāra in India. Lately, Aloka has not been walking during the day after receiving surgery.

As the monks pulled into the TA Express gas station in Warfield, Virginia around 10:30 a.m. on Friday for their lunch stop, a crowd was waiting. After lunch, Venerable Monk Douangphaneth Mingsisouphanh from Salt Lake City addressed the crowd of onlookers that stood amidst arriving and departing semi trucks.

Mingsisouphanh expressed that everyone has peace in their own minds already, though it is kept in a box, so-to-speak. One goal of the walk is to give its audience the key to open the box. The monks suggest that to access this inner peace, we all must develop loving kindness, compassion, hope, and unity. 

“But how do we get that? How do we get the loving kindness?" he asked. "We have to practice…The mindfulness, that is the key to have the loving kindness.”

One way Mingsisouphanh suggests we can access our own peace is by abiding by the affirmation: “Today will be my peaceful day." Other addresses the monks have given which expand on mindfulness practices are available to view on the Walk for Peace Facebook page.

After Mingsisouphanh’s speech, Player Butler, who had travelled from Virginia Beach with her mother, waited patiently with a handful of orange flowers for the monks.

As one of them tied a blessing cord on her wrist (a token of loving kindness and peace), tears of joy began to flow. Player’s sister likened seeing the monks to seeing a shooting star, something rare that you will never forget. For Player, being close to the peace and serenity afforded by the monks helped her on her journey.

“I've been on a spiritual journey the last five years. I'm in recovery…And being able to be that close to something, as spiritual as that and as peaceful and serene – I just needed to be in their presence…It just reassures me that there is a higher power. And these are, in my eyes, the human representations of that higher power.”

The healing effect of the monks’ walk on people in places of pain has repeatedly proved itself to be profound.

Not one mile from the lunch stop at the TA Express, Ruth Bayer waited patiently for the Monks on a bridge over the Nottoway River. A year prior on the same day, Ruth’s son Shane took his own life. As the monks passed Ruth, they gifted her a single orange flower, a color she feels represents Shane.

“So I’m here today not only for myself to create a new memory, but to create a new memory for my son – who this was probably his most difficult day on this planet, or in this world, in his human body," she said. "And now he’s in spirit, and with me in a different way. And he’s helping me be strong, in order to move forward in my life, which is what he really wants me to do.”

Further north, Arthur Hinds walked in solitude a few hundred yards behind the monks. Eight years ago to the day, Hinds’ wife, Catherine, passed away. Arthur came out to kneel and salute the monks during their walk in memory of his wife, who was herself an activist for peace.

“My great wife was a great many things. (She) believed that compassion was the greatest virtue of all. And it's hard to have peace without compassion. And if you have true compassion, peace flows. So it just seems like this is the right thing to do in her name,” he said.

The Walk for Peace comes at a time when it seems like America itself is grieving. The monks’ walk can almost be taken as a physical manifestation of the words ‘ceasefire.’ 

Pastor Horace B. Parham, Jr., a graduate of Virginia Union University, took a break from writing a sermon to park along Route 1 to see the monks at his wife’s urging. Parham has been praying that the monks' presence and notoriety can do some good for America.

“I’m kind of sad for our country," he said. "Especially when American citizens get shot, killed – You do kind of wonder, ‘Where is God,’ you know, and what is his hand in all of this?

"I’m using this moment – the monks walking through – to help myself feel better, and at the same time pray that other people will feel better.”

As the monks have traveled north into Petersburg and now Chesterfield County, the number of people flocking to witness their walk has only increased. Sunday marked Day 99 of the walk, the first day of February, and the countdown to the monks’ arrival in Washington.

So many people came out to greet the monks for their last four miles of walking, they felt overwhelmed, which was echoed in a post on their Facebook page:

“We felt so welcomed. We felt so warm. In those 4 miles, we felt like we were coming home."

As sun set on Day 99 and the Venerable Monks arrived at Kingsland Baptist Church in Chesterfield County, a man named Ed shouted a heartfelt, “Thank you for doing this!” as tears welled up in his eyes.

Ed, who asked to not be identified by his last name because he felt too overcome with emotion, was moved to be present and witness the walk after seeing it on TikTok.

“I just can’t imagine putting yourself out for the good of humanity," he said. "Just to spread the good word of peace. I’m just so moved by the selflessness. I just wish I had that in me…I feel more moved to try and find something in myself after seeing something like that.”

The monks are due to speak at the Marshall Street entrance of City Hall on Monday at 3 p.m., where they will be greeted by Governor Abigail Spanberger and Mayor Danny Avula. More information is available on the city’s website.