After 109 days on foot, 19 Buddhist monks and their dog Aloka arrived in Washington, D.C. this week with a simple message: peace isn't something we need to find. It's something we've already forgotten how to see.
The monks began their trek in Fort Worth, Texas, back in October 2025. They walked 2,300 miles across the country calling for peace — not as a distant ideal, but as something buried inside each of us, waiting to be unlocked.
On arrival, they were welcomed at the Washington National Cathedral for an interfaith service with Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington who made headlines last year when she delivered a pointed plea to President Trump during his inaugural service. "In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now," she had said, her words spreading across social media within hours.
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Start Your News DetoxAt the cathedral gathering, Budde led a prayer drawing from the Peace Prayer of St. Francis: "Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is discord, union." The service was livestreamed as what the cathedral called "A Sacred Stop on the Walk for Peace," bringing together interfaith leaders from across the D.C. area.
Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, who leads the walk, spoke about what the monks have learned on their 2,300-mile journey. "Peace is something that we've been looking for for so long," he said outside the cathedral. "It's been with us. It never left us. It's just that we cannot see it."
The monks framed their walk not as a mission to deliver peace to others, but as an invitation for people to find it within themselves. "We are not walking from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington D.C. to bring you any peace, but to raise the awareness of peace so that you can unlock that box and free it," Pannakara explained.
What's striking about this journey is its insistence on simplicity. No grand promises. No rhetoric about changing the world overnight. Just 19 people, one dog, and the belief that walking across a country while asking people to look inward might matter.
The monks will deliver their final address in D.C. on February 11, available to stream at 2:30 p.m. EST.
