Walk for peace: Ramesh Shrestha

Philosophy not a religion

On 26^th October 2025 a group of 20^* Buddhist monks of East Asian origin started their 3750 km journey on foot from Huong Dao Vipassana Monastery in Fort Worth Texas to Washington D.C. Their spiritual journey was titled as 'Walk for Peace'. This journey was gracefully welcomed and received in every city and town during their stopover. The team leader Pannakara gave brief talks on Peace and spirituality in many of their breaks and stops. Upon arriving in Washington D.C. on 10^th February, 2026 the monks visited important sites such as Washington National Cathedral for interfaith congregation, Lincoln Memorial, etc. Their only message was Peace, Ethical conduct, Restrain, Compassion and Mindfulness. 'Walk for Peace' team was received by the Mayor of Maryland. The team returned to Texan on 12^th February 2026.

^*There were two unfortunate incidents during their journey. On 11^th November one of the monks, Phra Ajarn Maha Dam Phommasan was seriously injured after a 'walk for Peace' support vehicle was struck by a speeding truck and pushed him causing serious leg injury. He was amputated on 3^rd December 2025. He had to drop out from the walk. A second incident occurred in Walton County, Georgia on 3^rd January 2026 where a group of people shouted against the monks with slogans such as 'Jesus is the answer', 'Jesus saves', etc. Contrary to this, hundreds of thousands of local citizens along the way offered them flowers, snacks and water throughout their journey.

It was perhaps a coincidence that the 'Walk for Peace' team was led by a 44-year-old Vietnamese Monk named Pannakara^‡. His name Pannakara means 'commitment to wisdom' in Pali, an ancient Indo-Aryan language. The 'Walk for Peace' team was carrying a message of Peace, fifty years since the US military fled Vietnam (30 April 1975) and the destination of their journey was Washington D.C and not Brussels or Moscow or Beijing. (^‡ The birth name of Pannakara was Su Tue Nhan, which was changed after being ordained as Theravada Buddhist monk in 2008. He is a computer engineer graduated from University of Texas, Arlington and had worked for Motorola prior to being ordained as a monk.)

Talk of peace

Our radio waves, TV, print and online media are dominated by news of conflicts and wars 24/7. We hear of peace only when there are peace treaties to be signed or peacekeeping forces to be deployed. Even then, many peace treaties are violated even before the ink dries on the paper where treaties were signed. Peace keepers are known to have been attached and killed on several occasions. We regularly hear politicians of every shade lament about democracy but we rarely hear them talk about peace. Without peace democracy can never be sustained. A state of peace is achieved when there are social stability and justice for all; it is also the premise of democratic governance, yet peace remains elusive. Instead of cultivating peace, our leaders are fueling war ironically in the name of establishing peace! 

People simplistically associate peace with absence of conflict. If we look back in history conflict seems inherent in human society with some level of persistent tension - uneasy peace almost everywhere. There are a lot of unhappy people, an indication of lack of peace. Peace denotes a complex state of mind in people with different meanings to different people. In Buddhism peace is considered as tranquility (mental calm), liberation from greed, hatred and delusion. Peace is beyond absence of conflict; it is being empathic, compassionate and presence of wisdom in a state of being mindful of the present. Peace is easily defined but extremely hard to achieve. Being mentally calm and freedom from greed are perhaps the most difficult aims to achieve in our society fueled by today's flashy extravagant lifestyle promoted by consumer based economy. It does not mean that peace is impossible to achieve; it just means that it requires deliberate and tenacious commitment by everyone as it is something one cannot buy in a supermarket. It is beyond monetary value.  

Talk of war

One accepts whether or not, the world seems to be in a state of perpetual wars. Since the establishment of the United Nations eighty years ago with a promise for global peace there has not been a single year without a war or conflict. The major wars since then include Chinese civil war 1945-49, Korean war that started in 1950 and ended in 1953 but no peace treaty signed yet, Cuban missile crisis of 1962 from which Cuba is still made to suffer, Vietnam war that started in 1955 and ended in 1975 but Vietnam remained under siege till 1994, forever civil conflict in Burma since 1962, never ending Israel-Palestine conflict since 1948, India-Pakistan standoff since 1947 with occasional fireworks, two Gulf Wars from which Iraq is still recovering, dismantling of democracy in Iran in 1953 from which Iran is still suffering, uneasy coexistence in Balkan region since the war of 1990s, Afghanistan war since 2001 with no sight of ending misery, Civil wars in Libya since 2011 with continued instability, Somalia is still in misery since 2013, Syria is in danger of fragmentation due to civil war since 2011, and never ending conflicts in Lebanon since 1979, Ukraine war since 2014, and add Venezuela in 2026 as if there is not enough for humanity to cope with.  

As of November 2025, according to UNHCR, 73.5 million were internally displaced people and 36.4 million were seeking refuge in a third country and 8.4 million were asylum seekers. Out of all these, 49 million were children. These are not statistics; these are the lives of people displaced by wars and conflicts - lack of peace. Many of these conflicts also have external interference/influence. All these conflicts tell us that peace as promised by the leaders is just a smokescreen. Perhaps, they never mean it. The sad story of peace is that the United Nations is asked to establish and maintain peace towards the end of conflict with little resources and then blame the UN for not being able to keep peace as the parties to the conflicts continue to be funded by the member states. 

Cultivating peace

Defence budget of countries continues to grow annually but no country has a specific budget line for peace. The UN peacekeeping budget for the fiscal year 2025/26 is $5.4 billion for its missions in eleven active field locations. The budget allocated for the UN peacekeeping mission is less than 0.5% of global military expenditure of 2023. The UN has no budget to cultivate peace; it has an anemic budget only to maintain peace following the end of a conflict, if that is possible.  

There are infinite reasons for lack of peace. At the individual and community level peace is destroyed by inequality, corruption, injustice, domination, intolerance, personal differences, discrimination, lack of education, etc. At the national and international level peace is destroyed by power struggle, proliferation of weapons, selfishness of leaders, idea of domination, ideological differences, greed and ego of politicians. It is up to the general public to make conscious efforts to cultivate, nourish and cherish peace by engaging national leaders otherwise peace will always remain elusive.

Globally speaking we see competition for natural resources such as natural gas, oil, fresh water, land, rare earth minerals, etc. Unfortunately, natural resource rich developing countries are also very prone to exploitation through corruption as we have seen in many resource rich countries. The end result is an artificially induced permanent state of flux with a cycle of armed conflict, violence, terrorism, corruption, and instability. At the international level 'might is right' is possibly the biggest nemesis of peace. Strong and powerful countries can destroy weaker countries with no justifiable reason or perhaps for a reason to bring democracy. The problem is that humans can be corrupted which destroys peace at individual as well as at the national level.

Will there ever be a stable peace in our world? Maybe, subject to …… fill the gap.   

Read more articles by Ramesh here.
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