In 1995, I received Reiki training for the first time. During the training, I received a message to leave the job that I loved working with kids and families in crisis, my home by a brook, give everything I had away, and walk across the country so that I could practice meditation and Reiki all day, every day. I was already removed from pop culture and didn’t know what was popular at the time.
As I passed through towns and villages, kids and families would gather behind me and walk with me.
They would often ask, “Are you walking for peace?”
I felt incredibly honored and seen. I thought it was amazing that the meditation and Reiki I was doing all day were so obvious to everybody that they knew I was walking to achieve inner peace.
Sometimes, kids would walk with me for 30 minutes or even an hour. They were quiet, respectful, and present.
I started on the East Coast and eventually ended up in New Mexico near the border of Mexico to visit with my spiritual teacher at the time. This wasn’t my original plan, although I didn’t actually have a destination.
It was an incredible six months, meeting incredible people, but mostly meeting myself more deeply and more intimately. One of my favorite experiences during that backpacking journey was one day, when I was guided during morning meditation to chant one of the Reiki Symbols all day, walking to the melody of The Beatles’ chorus in “Let It Be.” It was hysterically funny and a wonderful way to fill my heart and being with love, joy, and vitality
Between some combination of intentionality and cluelessness, I achieved a degree of inner peace along the way.
It was not till a few months after I had completed this particular journey that I found out the movie Forrest Gump, which was insanely popular at the time, had a scene where Tom Hanks was running across the country for peace!
Initially, I felt embarrassed and humbled by my ego and lack of knowing what’s going on, thinking that people were “seeing my peacefulness“.
It was not long after that that I began having fun, laughing, and enjoying the thought of how those two worlds intersected.
My first real experiences with monks were at the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, NJ, in 1993. I began to build a relationship with one of the monks, Kashen Geshe Lobsang Tsetan. He was kind, thoughtful, warm, intelligent, and playful. I remember one Sunday after community practice, he invited me to stand at the door to wish people well as they were leaving. He offered each person a hug, which they could accept or refuse. He shared with me afterwards that hugging people was his favorite part of Sunday practice. I never forgot him or that conversation. In 1996, shortly after founding the Siddhartha School in Stok, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama appointed then Geshe Tsetan as Abbot of Tashi Lhunpo Monastery in India.
I’ve spent time living and practicing with monks & nuns over the years in many monasteries, and was even the Director of a Zen Center for a few years. I love hanging out with monks and nuns! They are perfectly imperfect people.
Reading and seeing the monks Walking for Peace has been incredibly nourishing for me. I feel warmth flood my body with every image and thought of their presence.
I have visions of Thich Nhat Hanh walking them, even though he is no longer in his body and was not a Tibetan monk. I see Pema Chodron in my mind, and the Dalai Lama (whom I spent ten days with in 1999). I feel Thomas Merton, who was a Trappist Monk, at the Abbey of Gethsamane in Kentucky, where I sat a silent retreat in the mid-90’s. I see the healers, sages, mystics, and those who have dedicated their lives to peace, harmony, humility, and lovingkindness, quietly, without centering themselves. I see them all walking together in my mind.
They are us, and we are them.
If you have never spent time with monks or nuns, I strongly encourage you to do so. Most communities have a monastery, convent, or temple nearby that welcomes visitors. Please do so without your phone, and definitely do not take selfies or share on social media. Let them remain anonymous and private. They have taken vows of simplicity and anonymity, which is partially why they wear identical clothing, often robes. If you spend time with them, your memories of the experience will be deeply embedded inyour psyche, you won’t need a picture to remember them.
We can all visualize ourselves walking with them in spirit, holding peace, unity, and togetherness in our hearts and minds. Let’s offer these monks our support and respect; they have earned it.
And may we all walk together in peace, whatever that means for you and your life.
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Previously Published on Medium
