On Feb. 10, 20 Buddhist monks arrived in Washington, D.C., having walked 2,300 miles from Ft. Worth, Texas, over the course of more than three months. Their purpose? A pilgrimage for peace.<\/p>\n
Although the Lehigh Valley is not on the monks\u2019 route, local residents have been moved by their journey. Many are no strangers to the cultivation of peace. We spoke with Nancy Tate, a longtime member of LEPOCO, and with Buddhist scholars and practitioners about what it means to choose peace in troubled times.<\/p>\n
Virtue as a magnet<\/p>\n
The Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center at 93 Angen Road in Washington, N.J., was founded by Geshe Ngawang Wangyal as a place where monks and lay individuals could learn and pray. Current TBLC directors Joshua and Diana Cutler lived and worked with the center\u2019s founder for years and have run the facility since his death in 1983.<\/p>\n
Joshua Cutler explains why the peace walk is drawing such powerful reactions from people across the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople understand that being peaceful and calm and loving and kind are virtues. \u2026When they see others who are kind, it\u2019s like a magnet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commenting on the tenor of the typical news cycle, Cutler adds, \u201cIt\u2019s not something you see in the news\u2026 [The news] doesn\u2019t often report on somebody who is peaceful and kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, for the first several weeks of the pilgrimage, most news about the monks spread via social media, but as they passed the halfway point of their journey, and crowds in the thousands began gathering to see and hear them, they drew national media attention. CNN\u2019s Anderson Cooper featured them on a Jan. 14 broadcast. The monks told Cooper that their goal was to \u201craise awareness of loving kindness and compassion around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kammie Takahashi is the director of Asian studies at Muhlenberg College, where she is also associate dean of academic life and associate professor of religion studies. She remarks that because she is not active on social media, her children were the ones who drew her attention to the monks. She notes that part of the monks\u2019 appeal may be the boldness of acting in a world where people\u2014particularly young people\u2014are increasingly indoors and online.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see that there are a lot of middle-aged and older people and grandmas bringing their kids, in person,\u201d Takahashi notes, \u201cbut I think there must be a whole unseen contingent of young people online, and I think that\u2019s part of [why the peace walk is drawing so much interest].\u201d<\/p>\n
She continues, \u201cPart of it is just that they\u2019re showing up as they are, as people, but also the act of walking and going out and letting go of status, familiarity, safety and security is a pretty profound activity for a generation who is mostly in. And I think that must be inspiring to them in a way that other forms of manifested spirituality may not be so compelling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walking for peace<\/p>\n
Amy Miller, who has studied with both Cutler and Takahashi, has a doctorate in the history of religion, with an emphasis on Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. She suggests that one can view peace walks as dating back to the foundation of the Buddhist monastic order.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the Buddha established the Sangha,\u201d she explains, \u201cit was a state of homeless wandering and, according to some scriptures, Buddha asked them to \u2018go forth\u2019 to teach the doctrine for the welfare, benefit and happiness of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Miller says, \u201cPeace walks have become a modern Buddhist phenomenon.\u201d She comments that some say this bringing together of social activism with Buddhist principles is something new\u2014\u201csocially engaged Buddhism\u201d\u2014while \u201cothers say that Buddhism has always been socially engaged.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller recalls an important figure in the peace walk tradition, Maha Ghosananda. He was a monk who narrowly escaped the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot in the 1970s and dedicated his life to the promotion of world peace and the rebuilding of Cambodia.<\/p>\n
One component of Maha Ghosanada\u2019s work, Miller explains, was the peace walk.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first of these was conducted in 1992 and was called a \u2018Dhammayietra\u2019 (Buddhist teachings and pilgrimage). \u2026This first walk involved Cambodian monastics and laypeople walking across the Thai border into Cambodia, signaling the repatriation of refugees as well as the return of Buddhism to Cambodia. This was no easy walk, as they were passing through Khmer Rouge territory and areas laden with land mines, with no government permission to cross the border. Eventually, the walk went all the way to the border with Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking within,<\/p>\n
doing the work<\/p>\n
The challenge for people inspired by the peace walk in the U.S., Miller notes, is to do the hard work of strengthening virtues and de-emphasizing negative qualities within ourselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can\u2019t just be a veneer of loving kindness,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to do the inner work.\u201d<\/p>\n
So what does it mean to choose peace?<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all,\u201d Miller asserts, it means \u201cremembering that I have some choice. Circumstances come your way, but how you respond\u2014and in Buddhism, what kind of mind you are holding throughout the day\u2014is in your own hands.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t make it easy,\u201d she concedes, noting that \u201cwhen you look within and see negative qualities and attitudes you\u2019d rather not have, it can be very daunting.\u201d However, she counters, \u201cWorking at becoming more peaceful within oneself, even though it requires facing many challenges, is rewarding in itself, because you get happier along the way\u201d and become better able to help others.<\/p>\n
\u201cBuddhism is also about recognizing our interdependence,\u201d Miller adds, \u201cand turning away from focus on the self to improving the lives of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cutler adds, \u201cBuddhist practice is working to reduce the strength of those unpeaceful states of mind and augment the peaceful states of mind. Then your mind \u2026 becomes peaceful, [and] when you make your mind peaceful, then you have the ability to think realistically, so your actions become peaceful and well-intended, well-thought-out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Takahashi notes that the changes may be difficult to perceive on a national scale. \u201cIt may be that it\u2019s unquantifiable: those soft transitions, internal transitions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Working for peace<\/p>\n
Cultivating compassion doesn\u2019t mean ignoring harms done to others, Cutler says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you have to be able to do,\u201d he clarifies, \u201cis distinguish the person from the actions of the person, and if the actions are bringing about harm to others, you can condemn such actions, but you don\u2019t let it break your wish for the person to be happy and free from any suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller concurs, adding, \u201cIn order for social activism to be truly effective at establishing peace, you have to be a peaceful person yourself. The way to peace is for the individual to be working on transforming their inner attitudes and intentions alongside of whatever they\u2019re doing [socially]. If you\u2019re becoming more loving and kind yourself, that\u2019s going to help the people around you, from your family to your community and outwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
One Lehigh Valley group that has stood for peace and against war for a very long time is LEPOCO. Founded in November 1965 by Valley residents who traveled to the national capital for the March on Washington for Peace in Vietnam, LEPOCO has steadfastly rejected the use of violence, from its roots in the Vietnam era through today\u2019s conflicts in Ukraine and Palestine.<\/p>\n
Longtime LEPOCO staffer Nancy Tate says there are many ways for people to get involved in the peace movement. Anyone is welcome to join the group\u2019s weekly peace vigil held Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. on the South Side of Bethlehem, at the corner of Wyandotte and South Third streets.<\/p>\n
Tate notes that \u201cLEPOCO provides a place to get together with other people of like minds.\u201d Events at the group\u2019s headquarters (53 East Lehigh St., Lower Level, Bethlehem) include educational programs, action meetings, and an annual gathering\u2014scheduled for April\u2014with a speaker focused on peace issues.<\/p>\n
Although it\u2019s easy for voters to be discouraged by available options, Tate says that progress does happen through elections and encourages people to get involved in political movements. \u201cSometimes you don\u2019t know where it\u2019s going to start,\u201d she says. \u201cI think the thing to do is to find other people \u2026 building community around issues is extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Press at the October 2025 outset of the walk, the monks\u2019 spiritual leader Bhikkhu Pannakara declared, \u201cWe walk not to protest, but to awaken the peace that already lives within each of us. The Walk for Peace is a simple yet meaningful reminder that unity and kindness begin within each of us and can radiate outward to families, communities, and society as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
photos by dana grubbLocated on East Lehigh Street in Bethlehem, LEPOCO traces its founding to 1965 and the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
At a recent LEPOCO event Feb. 7, member Carol Baylor discusses her artistic series of banners which depict the plight of Palestinians.<\/p>\n
Carol Baylor shows a cloth book she made to the nearly 20 LEPOCO members in attendance.<\/p>\n
In the LEPOCO foyer Carol Baylor\u2019s \u2018Gaza Veils\u2019 reflect on the genocide in Gaza by listing the names of some who have died, the locations, and a poem that inspired her.<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Prof. TakahashiKammie Takahashi is the director of Asian studies at Muhlenberg College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Feb. 10, 20 Buddhist monks arrived in Washington, D.C., having walked 2,300 miles from Ft. Worth, Texas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":["post-129268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}