Vodcast #6: A Walk with Thay
Today I attended the Peace Walk led by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh at MacArthur Park in the Westlake District of Los Angeles. In the program for the event, “Thay” (as he is affectionately known) is quoted as saying:
- People say that walking on water is a miracle, but to me, walking peacefully on the Earth is the real miracle. The Earth is a miracle. Taking steps on our beautiful planet brings real happiness and peace to ourselves and our world.
Though it was referred to as a “Peace Walk,” the walk was not about raising awareness of any particular situation or promoting peace in a certain area. Rather, the event sought to encourage and cultivate peace generally. As one mailing sent out to the Buddhist_Chaplaincy Yahoo! Group put it:
- You are invited to come and walk peacefully. We shall walk in such a way that each step we make becomes a realization of peace; each step becomes a prayer for peace and harmony. Children will join us and we shall walk together in silence, with no banners and no pickets. The walk will not be a petition addressed to anyone, nor will it be a demonstration against anyone. The walk is to unite our hearts, to nurture our togetherness and to dissipate fear and separation.
Throughout the walk, however, I couldn’t help but think of particular situations and certain areas. For one thing, the walk was in MacArthur Park–the site of a violent police crackdown on immigrants’ rights demonstrators earlier this year. The violence in Myanmar this week was very much on my mind as well. And I remain as haunted by the news coming out of Iraq and Sudan as ever.
Anyway, I took some photographs and video at the Peace Walk and shaped them into a new vodcast. You can watch it here (below), at iTunes, or at YouTube.
