I have been in commerce with two inner avenues for embracing my world. In past weeks, I have felt a core level pull to “fight back” and protest, while simultaneously responding to a strong alignment with the embodiment of Peace in the walking Monks. Bringing my attention to the atrocities being visited upon my country’s citizens, all of our citizens, awakens so much in my bone memory. Although it may not be in my present life experience, demanding my own freedom to live peacefully is written someplace in this life vessel.

 My inner monitor of  Peace has been tracking the Buddhist monks who have offered themselves with such loving intention. They seek to awaken each person’s Inner Peace, not to bring Peace, but to be Peace. They bring the meditative super strength of their monastic life, and compassion for all life. They are walking as Pilgrims to cross the South East part of our country in a Walk for Peace, 85 days so far 20+ mile per day from Texas to Washington, DC arriving sometime in February. In all, 2300 miles through a hundred small towns they are touching so much of us here in the US.

     Watching the daily posts and the comments, I was inspired by their online presence. The postings from individuals at the “side of the road” set the tone for me, I was in it before I arrived. I decided on a Pilgrimage of my own design. I went to find them in North Carolina. From my temporary spot in Florida this is not so far in US terms, 700 miles or so. I chose to travel by train, allowing 26 hours of contemplation in “slow travel” mode.  I gifted myself a “Roomette,” with mostly Ette and not so much Room, but exquisitely perfect for privacy and quiet. Our only US train company, Amtrak is not the efficient counterpart to the European and UK train system. What it lacks in speed and comfort, is offset by the joy I feel in moving slowly through tiny towns and countryside. The train provides the proverbial “other side of the tracks” scene that offers a voyeur’s view on other’s lives in an intimate and anonymous way. From my window I can send loving attention to that frail old man on the platform, and enjoy the child’s face when the train passes. I do love train travel.

  A map of their route with stops for lunch and dinner, and their overnight place are offered on the website Walk for Peace on Facebook. The Monk’s journey is updated often throughout the day. “The Monks” are easy to find.

The Racetrack
     I had my first encounter with Walk for Peace energies as the sun set in Concord, North Carolina, just north of Charlotte in the vast parking lot of a drag car race track. The dichotomy of how they walk, and where they land each day, is part of the mystery for me. The monks eat their daily meal at noon and speak to the gathered at lunch, and again at the end of the day’s journey, stopping at places offered by the community. Some are municipal parks, they sleep in tents on the ground, sometimes churches, or community centers.  On this cold night they would rest inside. There had been many thousands that walked behind them in the city of Charlotte the day before. I think the host officials were preparing for an unknown number of followers, this fit the need. The care of the Police in each county is touching, respectful and cautious of their safety. Think of that dichotomy, they are in the proximity and protection of pure loving energy.

     Across a few hours in the unusual below-freezing evening, hundreds of people arrived, ultimately more than a thousand. We all huddled under and at the edges of a open metal shed building while the monks walked, step by step towards us from the South.  In an experience that will remain in my bones, I joined every race of human, every age, infirm and strong, expensive jackets pressed against Goodwill hoodies waiting for “The Monks.” Some wrapped in blankets, all of us cold, all of us human beings waiting in anticipation of something yet unexperienced. The Monks have asked that when people gather that the crowds be quiet, it helps them. When they arrived, we were exuberant and amazingly silent. The energy of the crowd was extraordinary. Most were smiling, excited, bumping into each other and making space for another.  I have never been in this energy of happy, peaceful patience, ever. The elements of possibility and probability were intersecting in my thoughts, moving together as if traveling on an infinity sign. This occurs to me now that this is the shape of the racetrack!

     Back in my hotel room later, I wrote in my journal, “When we are in Peace, it isn’t only my resources to tap into, it is from the WHOLE…always available and able to hold all that we encounter.  I am Peaceful, Resourced, and Held, not in any way separate from Anything.”

Friday Morning

Everyone is invited to “see them off” in the early morning darkness each day as they set out on the day’s journey. I returned to the Race track at 6:30 am with a tiny sliver of a moon in 19 degrees F, my bones remembered the cold. There were maybe forty people there, all in good humor and waiting with great anticipation of being close to Monks. We watched and heard their morning prayer, chanted in a line facing the Police entourage that would guide and protect them front, back, and side all along their route on the highways. On the roadways people have been gathering, sometimes hours in advance to greet, to see them. Their energy precedes them I think, and permeates us and the surroundings in ways that requires many hearts to hold, this is not a journey of individual enlightenment.

     I took one picture as they came to us, pocketed my phone and took in each face as separate beings. Their bodies are wrapped in shades of saffron fabric, twisted and rolled into unique configurations, their faces reflect youth and age and contentment.  The pace is surprisingly fast.  Infused with their energetic clarity, I could feel into myself and all the places of contraction. I forgave myself in layer after layer.

 I encountered them one more time that day, and left for the train shortly after.  This crowd was different, a bit less cohered in nature.  It was a large cemetery on Mt Olivet, almost the “Mount of Olives,” but not quite. People were spaced out, with not much interaction between groups. I had a chance to practice being in nonjudgement and holding the premise that all is forgiven. Each time I fell down, I stood up and tried again.

 I felt the impact of my own inquiry into my conundrum of Peace or Protest on the last leg of my journey.  I was on a coach bus that connected the Amtrak train lines to trackless towns in Southwest Florida.  Most of the dozen passengers had been on the chronically delayed overnight train, we all looked and felt, a little “worse for wear.” As we approached a bridge across the bay, high enough for the largest cruise ships to pass into Port of Tampa, (a personal nemesis of mine), I looked up to see an older woman leaning over the driver.  “Get back!! I can’t see, sit down!!”the driver shouted.  Shock and anger followed, a heated argument erupted between the grey-haired driver, who was now maneuvering the lumbering bus to the side of the highway, and this distraught equally irate passenger She hadn’t gotten off at her unidentified stop, and was now headed to parts unknown. It escalated instantly, with shocking intensity. They screamed at each other, he threatened to call the police or leave her on the road, she responded in kind.  I heard myself say, “Please let me help you.” The words were mine, the energy arose from a new place. It was apparently received because the driver stopped his call, went back to his seat and drove on and the woman turned,  sat next to me and we worked a plan to recover her to her destination.

      It was extraordinary. It couldn’t have had a clearer answer to my inquiry of “defend” or “nonconfrontation.” It will take some practice, but I intend to bring my best version of myself as a being in Peace. Will the world be a different place because they walked? For the thousands that experience the Walk for Peace first hand, I know it already has, I am different, I am Peaceful. This is my Peaceful day.

Most images are from the Walk for Peace Facebook Photos, Many are marked with Michael A. Anderson, thank you for sharing these!