Since October, a group of Buddhist monks has been making headlines with their “Walk for Peace,” a long-distance pilgrimage across the United States from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C. The group is walking “to raise awareness of peace, loving kindness, and compassion across America and the world.”
The group consists of 24 monks from the Huong Dao Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, led by Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, and their dog, Aloka, who recently underwent surgery after a leg injury. Aloka is now recovering before rejoining the monks.
Jacquelyn Dobrinska, Lion’s Roar’s weekly online meditation host, watched as the monks recently crossed through Fort Lawn, South Carolina. She writes of the experience:
As the crowds showing up to watch the monks grow, most of us don’t really know how to hold it. It’s easy to see to slip into grasping, fear, and competition, turning this into just another thing to consume. And yet, the monks meet it all with love, patience, and compassion. They keep showing up, mirroring, reminding, and pointing us back to the one thing that matters: do the inner work, or the peace we long for will stay just out of reach.
Watching the monks walk for peace felt like a lightning bolt of prajna to the heart-mind. Each step has become a mirror — gently and lovingly confronting me, showing how my mind has been distracted by fear, rage, and othering.
They aren’t arguing for peace — they’re living it. Through harsh weather, pain, obstacles, crowds, and opposition, they mindfully return again and again to love, compassion, and peace. Seeing this in action reminded me of a deeper truth: power is not a brittle force to be wielded against others; it is a living vibration that nurtures life and brings us back to our true selves.
This walk and their message feels like an antidote to this moment in history — radical in its simplicity and returning to the teachings of love and forgiveness for all of creation. They remind us that peace is something we practice — day by day, moment by moment, step by step. It starts in our own hearts.
Looking at the crowd that showed up in Fort Lawn, what struck me was how clearly the venerable monks were stirring something in us, something deep and almost unconscious. I asked several people why they had come. It wasn’t a curiosity. It was recognition: this peace is something we deeply yearn for, even if we don’t yet know how to find it. It was in the tears, the smiles, the relief, the excitement.
Jacquelyn Dobrinska (center), with two of the monks from the “Walk for Peace.”
The pilgrimage began on October 26, 2025, with the monks aiming to finish their 2,300 mile journey across 10 states by mid-February. The full journey is planned to take around 120 days to complete.
In a written statement posted to their website about why they are walking for peace, the group notes:
“Our walking itself cannot create peace, but when someone encounters us — whether by the roadside, online, or through a friend — when our message touches something deep within them, when it awakens the peace that has always lived quietly in their own heart — something sacred begins to unfold.”
“This is our contribution,” they continue, “not to force peace upon the world, but to help nurture it, one awakened heart at a time”
The walk has amassed over a million followers on both Instagram and Facebook, where they share daily updates and photos of their journey. A live map on their website allows those who wish to witness the walk in their city to follow along with their journey, with hundreds of people showing up to witness their walk in each city.
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