THE WALK FOR PEACE

Hey you guys. Welcome to the Karen Kenney

show. I'm super duper excited to be here with you today. And I'm

also not gonna lie, I don't know about you guys, but my 2026 is

it's off. It is off to an emotionally rough start, man.

We've had some things happen over here, in my world and in

the greater world as well. And we're going to get into the show

you probably saw the title, the walk for peace. And just a heads

up that I'm going to rely heavily on some notes in this

episode. Most of you who listen don't even see if I'm using

notes or whatever, but I always like to be honest, and I like to

be transparent. But those of you who watch the show, you might

see my eyes dot down a couple of times because it's wicked

important to me, especially when I'm talking about other people,

whether it's their quotes, their work, whatever dates things, I

just things I want to I want to get shit right. You know,

because it matters and the truth matters in this day and age, you

wouldn't think the truth matters so much because of our current

administration and and social media and AI and everything else

that is going on, but to me and to many others, the truth still

matters. So I like to, I like to get things right when I can. So

forgive me if you hear some rustling of papers as I switch

things around with my my notes here. Okay, so just a little

update. So those of you I know a lot of people who follow me on

social media or who are friends with me online or whatever, one

of the things I'm really well known for, you know, I often

joke and I'm like, What do you think somebody once asked me,

What do you think they'll say about you after you die? And I'm

like, I think they're probably going to say she loved animals.

She tried to help people. She smelled good. The smelling good

is a story for another day. But those of you who follow me know

how much I love, love, love animals, and that I am the mom

of many furry kids, and we are now down to two. We are down to

bunchy and our three year old pug and Toby pajamas, our 19

year old cat and our 15 year old pup, Scoots, my guts. We just

had to say goodbye to him. So I'm going to try to keep it

together and not not ball my eyes out while I'm trying to do

this podcast. And I also recently lost a childhood a dear

childhood friend. He was my one of my childhood sweethearts. I

was with him for a very long time, and he just passed away

this week too. So I'm just getting repeatedly punched in

the face by life. And on top of it, we just have all the chaos

and the turmoil in the world. And the one of, one of just one

of the latest brutalities that we have seen, of course, is this

the murder of Renee good by the ice agent who shot her in cold

blood in the face three times and then called her a fucking

bitch. Let me. Let me tell you something. As the kid of a

murdered Mother, I have like such low tolerance for violence,

and I remember that one of my teachers who once said to me

about me, and it was this very aha moment for me, because it's

gonna it kind of and I'm telling you all this for a reason. I'm

telling you all this because it connects to today's show. And I

said to him, you know, when I see people like who are being

bullies, or people who are picking on on beings human or

animals that are smaller than them, weaker than them, don't

have a voice, don't have the physical strength, whatever.

When I see people who are cruel and unkind and vicious, it

brings up something in me, and I said, and it makes me so angry.

It makes me feel like, like, ah, like, and he says, oh, and the

way he described it was, he's like, you have a violence

towards violence. And I thought that that was just like, like,

when he said that, it was literally, like, my brain, like

my my mind was it wasn't just blown, it just like, expanded

out, and it gave me this viewpoint. And one of the things

that I've thought about a lot is how the way that we end violence

is not just like the way that we end violence is by eradicating

every bit of violence within ourselves, in our minds and our

thoughts and our language and our habits and our speech. You

know what I mean. And so this is something I have thought about

for a really long time, especially as a yoga teacher,

because the foundation of yoga the very first Yama, y, A, M, a,

the very first Yama of yoga is Ahimsa, which means non

violence, non harm, non killing, right? It's like compassion in

thoughts, words, deeds, actions, the whole thing. So I've been

thinking about. This a lot, as we're seeing all of this

horrific stuff just go down out there. And you know, it's been a

very emotional start to my 2026 and the one thing I'll say about

me, though, is that I see how easy it is to get down, to get

depressed, to feel helpless, to feel hopeless, to feel like it's

all just a cluster fucking a shit show, and like, how are we

going to navigate all this? But I will tell you this, I do not

give up. There are moments when it is going to feel like there

is nothing to do but despair. And I have so many incredible

teachers in my lineage and just in my life. And obviously

teachers I've learned from like Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi, and

Martin Luther King, Jr, and like all kinds of people that

practiced this belief of non violence. And so when I start to

feel like a little overwhelmed, right? So, like, Vicki with 2k

from Lawrence, you know that part of me that's kind of like,

mouthy and tough and sassy and resilient as fuck. You know,

she, like, steps forward, and she's like, Yeah, we're not

gonna let the bastards get us down, right? So my whole thing

is, when I need some inspiration, when I'm starting

to feel like life is getting really, really hard, I look in

the direction of spiritual teachers and books and

characters and all kinds of things, right, like anybody or

anything at work, nature, my sweetie, music, whatever. I

think there's 1000 ways that we can draw inspiration. And right

now, I know a lot of people are deeply disturbed. They're

feeling hopeless, they're feeling helpless, they're

tumbling into despair. And I want to just share with you

something that has been bringing me great inspiration and great

peace. And it is the current if you have not, I'm telling you if

you if you have missed, if you have missed, have not heard of

right, the monks currently, who are doing the Buddhist monks who

are doing the walk for peace. If you are have missed this and you

are missing out, and I'm telling you about it, it's so important.

This is so important and so helpful and hopeful that I am

doing a whole podcast dedicated to this. I think it's important.

I think it matters. And I know it's not just me. There are

millions of people now. They have gained so many followers

and fans, and really what I'm feeling is a collective need for

some sort of alternative. And this is what I tell people in

the nest all the time. This is what I tell my spiritual

coaching clients and my mentoring people is I always

say, Look, our job isn't to look out at the world and try to

change the world, right? Our work is to look within

ourselves. The change work, the transformational work is always

an inside job, and the greatest thing that we can do right is to

not try and get the world to behave the way that we want it

to behave. We get to be the living, breathing alternative.

We get to be the opposite of what we're seeing that we don't

like. So if there's a lot of fear in the world, we get to be

the loving presence. You get to be the alternative of you get to

be that alternative right to the craziness, to the chaos, to the

violence, to the hatred, we get to be the loving presence. We

get to be the peaceful presence. And right now what we're seeing,

and I'm going to tell you a little bit about the monks and

what they're doing and why, and a little bit of who they are and

all of that. But if you haven't seen it, I'll just give you like

some of the basics. So So right now, there's a group of Buddhist

monks who are walking with their dog, Aloka. He's adorable, and

they originally picked him up in India when they were doing a

walk for peace in India, and he followed them the whole time,

and they took him back to the United States. A loka means

light. It means brilliance, right? And so that's what they

named him. And I can just tell you I'm not alone in this, that

there are millions of people, hundreds of 1000s of people, I

think, right now, Americans who are being captivated by this

whole process of them walking for peace, and I think a lot of

people can think of this as a protest, but it's not, excuse

me, it's not really viewed as a protest. It does have meaning.

There is a message that they're spreading. There is a purpose to

it. But I want to be clear, it's not like they're walking in

protest to one particular thing. So it's a group of Buddhist

monks. They started off. I think I want to say that there was 19

of them, and I'm going to tell you more about why there is now

18 of them.

So they're doing a 2300 mile walk, and they're walking.

Walking from Fort Worth Texas, from their monastery to

Washington, DC. And these are just the facts, right? They're

going to cross 10 states. It's a 2300 mile walk. It's a

pilgrimage for peace, for unity and for healing. They started on

October 26 and they expected to complete their journey, their

trek, by around mid February, like February 13, I think, is

what they're shooting for. And one of their goals, well, their

main goal, this is their main Why, is to promote compassion

and mindfulness and non violence and connection wherever they go,

all across America, and they're kind of offering a respite from

all of this division and and I'm so inspired by them. But like

anything, you know, if you guys listen to this show regularly,

you know that I kind of like to do my homework, and I like to

find out a little bit more, and I remember, so I googled it,

because the first like, walk for peace that I kind of remember

was, like, there must have been a new I don't know how I saw it.

Maybe I learned about it at BU but in one of my classes. But

there was a Cambodian monk. The first time I remember kind of

learning about this was back in the 90s, the beginning of the

90s, and there was a Cambodian Buddhist monk, and he was

leading peace walks during really violent political

turmoil. And his name was, and I, and forgive me if I don't

pronounce these exactly right, but gosh, Ananda. And you know

when you Googled it, because I was like googling this, because

I wanted to present you guys with the right information, and

hopefully you're going to stick around for this, because I find

this so inspiring. Right To me, this is like, when I think of

like, things that inspire me, and I think of people like David

Goggins, who is so hardcore and so kick ass. To me, the monks

are like the David Goggins monks, except they're like 180

degrees different in terms of their their peacefulness, right,

and how they present, but there is a resilience and a toughness

that is beyond, that is just beyond. So let's go back to

Goshen. And does so he began what is often called the first

peace walk. But it can't be the first peace walk, because monks

have been doing this for 1000s of years, that they will go out

and they will walk, and they will make their presence right.

They will, they will kind of be in communities and cross your

communities that are, whether it's being war torn or they just

need, they need the presence of the monks, right? So a peace

walk is called, I think it's Dhamma yitra. Dhamma yitra, and

he started, so, gosh, Ananda started to do this in 1992 and

the Dhamma yitra is a walking, meditative pilgrim of truth, and

it's in the tradition of the Buddha, and Buddha often walked

as part of his spiritual tradition. I think there's

something that is so beautiful about that. And those of us

nowadays who I know that artists and creatives and writers, we

love to often walk, because it's when we get really great ideas

and our minds just kind of open. So I can totally see how walking

could be part of the spiritual, you know, discipline, and how so

many of us now today who walk, we feel something, something

changes and something shifts inside of us. And to me, you

know, walking can totally also be a part of our spiritual

tradition. And one of the things that go shenanda said is that

they needed to journey to the places of human suffering. Now,

if this is why the monks walked in, the Buddha walked, right is

to go to the places of suffering, I have to believe

it's to alleviate, to help alleviate that suffering. And we

are a country right now that is deeply suffering in so many

ways. So I think it is so powerful and so potent and so

profound that the monks currently, who are currently

doing this, have taken this upon themselves to do this in their

tradition. And he said that they need to go to the places of

human suffering, from refugee camps to battlefields, and to

make them, make those places their temples. And I Googled

this, this is what I learned. It says the walk is sought to

transform the Cambodian people in society, and it is said that

wars of the heart always take longer to cool than the barrel

of a gun, and we must heal through love, and we must go

slowly, step by step. How incredible is that I'm going to

say that again, wars of the heart always take longer to cool

than the barrel of a gun, and we must heal through love. And we

must go slowly, step by step. And I don't know about you, but

the first time that I saw the monks on TV, the ones who are

currently walking from Texas to DC, every time I see them, I

start to cry. I know I cannot be alone in this something deep

inside of me, something in my heart, in my soul, something

deep in the fabric, in the essence of me is moved, is just

so deeply moved by their presence. It's so powerful. And

to come back to Goshen Anda, he started doing these walks back

in like, the Cambodian wars and stuff like that. And he said he

started doing like 125 mile route. And along the way, it

says 1000s of people would come out to encourage the walkers and

to receive traditional Buddhist blessings. And in each village,

goshananda would teach about peace and reconciliation and

even the soldiers from all factions would lay down their

weapons to pray and to be blessed, you guys, that's like

us in this country right now and all this divisiveness and all of

this we are like. We are like soldiers right standing there

with our weapons, and we might not be physically shooting each

other, although apparently we are right, apparently we are but

I'm talking about like everyday humans, neighbors who live

across the street from each other. Most people are doing it

by closing their hearts, by casting judgment by there's so

much separation right now, and when it says here that even the

soldiers from all the different factions would lay down their

weapons to pray and to be blessed, this is what this is

reminding me of as these current monks, these current day monks

are walking through the 10 states and all the towns, people

of every color and creed and religion and faith tradition, no

faith tradition, whatever, people are showing up by the

1000s, and to just surround them, and to sometimes walk with

them, and to hear them speak and to learn from them. And there is

so much, so much to learn from them. And the last thing I'm

going to share about Maha goshinanda Is this quote that he

said, he said, We must remove the land mines in our hearts

which prevent us from making peace. The land mines in the

heart are greed, hatred and delusion, and we can overcome

greed with the weapon of generosity, and we can overcome

hatred with the weapon of loving kindness, and we can overcome

delusion with the weapon of Wisdom. Peace making stats with

us. Peace making stats with us. And I was thinking back, you

know, because right now, as I have a new space in Concord,

Concord, New Hampshire. I just opened a new space. And I have

one room where I do private one to one work for mentoring and

coaching, Thai Yoga, massage, Thai Yoga, body work, private

yoga, all those things. And then I have a separate room where I

do like group yoga classes and stuff. And when we when I do tie

yoga body work, traditionally known as Thai Yoga massage. To

me, what tie yoga massage is, and this is what I was taught

from one of my teachers, Cam Tai Chau. It is the physical

expression, the physical application of what we call meta

or loving kindness. And for me right now, being able to put my

hands on people in this loving and compassionate and, you know,

healing and therapeutic way, this is one of the ways that I

get to practice peace. I get to be the presence of peace. I get

to be the alternative for all the fucking insanity that's

happening out there, all the bloodshed and horror and

violence is to be able to be a loving presence into into

compassionately share, right, loving kindness through physical

touch. You know, it's a very powerful, powerful thing, and so

you can tell I'm kind of jumping around a lot today, because my

mind, I have so I have just so many thoughts about what is

happening in the world, and I'm so I do. I just feel so grateful

right now, even though I'm not going to get to see them. I

mean, unless I fly to DC or something like that, but just

getting to see the monks online every day as we're seeing them

walk towards DC, it's absolutely incredible.

And when you see them walking, they always walk in like single

file. And we're seeing them walk some of them barefoot. Some of

them are walking in like cushioned shoes, like Hocus like

sneakers. Some of them are walking in like socks that have

like rubber bottoms. The leader of the group. Uh, he tends to

walk barefoot, and then he sometimes has to bandage his

feet up because they're stepping on all kinds of hot, hot

objects, right? That it just happened to be in the road, and

whether that's rocks or nails or like whatever comes up or

whatever. And so let's, let's talk about them. Now. Let's talk

directly about these monks, the Buddhist monks, that are doing

this and again, right? 2300 miles, it's a pilgrimage for

peace and unity and healing, walking with their dog. Aloka

from Fort Worth Texas to Washington, DC and again. Why

are they doing this? To promote compassion, mindfulness, non

violence and connection across America, offering a respite from

this national division. So as I said before, this walking is a

form of spiritual practice. It is a meditative tradition. And

every place they go, they're also teaching mindfulness.

They're teaching about forgiveness, wherever they stop

and talk to people, and people are offering them food. People

are walking along, you know, behind them and around them,

they're bowing, you know, hands together and then bowing their

heads. Because monks are not. Most monks are not allowed to

touch people, especially women. Male monks are not, you know,

they take a vow of celibacy, so they don't, not allowed to touch

women. So one of the most respectful thing you see a lot

of people doing is just putting their hands together and then,

like bowing their heads, and they're spreading so much peace

right now, and they're connecting with people, and

they're spreading so much hope, and they're inspiring people to

have mindfulness in their own lives. One of their goals, also,

I think it's important to mention this, is that they have

a goal to go to DC to ask Congress to pass legislation.

They want to ask Congress to recognize the Buddha's day of

birth and his day of enlightenment as a federal

holiday. And one of the things that's really important about

this is this legislation. And I'm like, I'm like, I made notes

to myself to make sure I say this The monks when they arrive

in Washington plan to seek recognition of VSAC, the day

which marks the birth and enlightenment of the Buddha, as

a national holiday. In doing so, they're not looking, I want to

be very clear. They're not looking to quote, unquote,

convert people to Buddhism. It's not about that at all. Because,

listen, it says doing so would acknowledge VSAC as a day of

reflection, compassion and unity for all people, regardless of

their faith, regardless of their faith, it's like so fantastic.

And along the way, as they're making this match, they're

trying to promote peace. And their highest priority is

connection. Their highest priority is connecting with

people. I don't think this is most people's highest priority

right now. I don't know about you, but it doesn't seem to me

that most people's highest priority. A lot of people right

now want to be right and they want to be rich. They're not

really thinking about their neighbors. They're not really

thinking about right, like how they can help their fellow

neighbor. There's a lot of people out there who are look

at, I am annoyingly positive, I am annoyingly happy, and I am

not going down. I'm not going down without a fight, people.

But I think there's something for us to learn from, from these

monks I've actually thought about, I'm like, How can I do

like, a little local walk for peace? And I started thinking

about it, and I'm like, what I have to reach out to the police

or the city? Do I have to plan it like, can you just gather? I

know we can gather. But I'm like, how would I do this in a

safe way? I really, my brain is really churning and burning on

this, you guys. So maybe I'll be able to figure out, like a

little, I don't know, just so like, a little, I don't know, I

don't know how to explain it, other than I feel like, like I

want to walk. I can't go to them and walk with them, but what I

can do, and this is what they ask, is to promote mindfulness

and peace in your own life. But I also thought it'd be really

cool to gather together a bunch of people and just do a little

walk for peace in my own neighborhood. So I'm gonna think

about this. I'm gonna see if I can figure out how to do

something here. And something here and conquer but I want to

say this. So the guy, the guy the lead monk, who is kind of

doing this right? So, as I told you, this is a meditative

tradition that is really common in South Asian countries. It's

resonating, I think, here so much now, because our whole

foundation feels like it's falling apart. You know, the way

that the Constitution is kind of being shit on in so many ways,

and the way that people are trying to rewrite history, the

way that, like there is so much racism and homophobia and

xenophobia and hatred like that, is alive and well here in the

United States. And I think seeing these very peaceful,

beautiful humans walking across again, being the living,

breathing, embodied example of what could be different, of how

it could really be. It strikes something in our hearts. It

strikes something in our soul. It's a very powerful thing. And

the Venerable biku Panu Karen, he's the leader. He. Says this,

my hope is when the walk ends, the people we meet will continue

practicing mindfulness and find peace. He's the one I told you

who is trekking about barefoot. So every place he goes, he's

teaching about mindfulness, he's teaching about forgiveness. He's

offering healing at every stop. And I don't want to tell you

every single thing about them, because my hope is that, because

I could just tell you all the different things. But my hope is

that your curiosity, something in you, if you have not heard

about them, gets lit up, and that you go and find out and you

see how this can apply to your own life. Maybe it will move

your heart too. Maybe you will find a sense of inspiration and

peace and hope in what you're seeing them do as they do this,

you know, here's a quote from an ABC article. It says, There's

something traumatic and heart wrenching happening in our

country every day. And this woman, she describes herself as

spiritual. You know, she says spiritual, but not religious. We

hear that all the time, right? And this is what she said.

There's something horrible and heart wrenching and traumatic

happening in our country every day. And she goes, and I looked

into their eyes, talking about the monks, I looked into their

eyes and I saw peace. They're putting their bodies through

such physical torture, and yet they radiate peace. You guys,

there's like, 1000 lessons I'm learning from these guys, as I'm

watching them walk. They travel very light. They carry very

little. People offer them gifts. People offer them water, people

offer them food. They really only travel with what they can

actually physically carry, you know. So there were 19 monks

that started this. I think this is important to say. And even

though it can be really easy, and I'm going to come back to

another point that I that was just made, but even though it

can be really easy to just be like, Oh, love and light, the

monks are the peace walks. Namaste all day, right, no, this

journey has not been without loss and without scary moments.

And on November 19, while they were walking in Texas, their

escort escort vehicle. So they have a vehicle that, like,

follows along. You know, there's sometimes they get police

escorts sometimes, but there's like an RV that travels behind

them from when they need medical care, I'm assuming, a bathroom,

like whatever. And then they also have other Escort vehicles,

and one of their escort vehicles was hit. So there was a

distracted truck driver who hit them, hit the vehicle, which

then it injured two of the monks. And one of the one of the

19 monks who was walking ended up losing his leg. Got injured

so bad that they had to amputate part of his leg. You know, when

I looked him up to learn more about him and what happened to

him, to see him now in a wheelchair, wishing he could get

back out there and not harboring any hatred towards the person

who hit him, he's already forgiven him. He sees the loss

of his leg as as like, almost like an offering, as almost

like, you know, just part of what happened. He holds no

malice. He holds no violence. He holds no hatred in his heart. It

is so remarkable, you guys, we get mad if somebody cuts us off

in traffic. We get mad if somebody uses a tone of voice

that we don't like. We're so fast to just like, judge people

and hate people and other people and just be so unkind and

impatient and awful to one another. And yet, these, these,

these monks, are just like, showing all of us, not just me,

I'm so deeply moved by them, you could have somebody could have

already signed off, like, why am I listening to her talk about

the monks? But I don't know what to tell you. If this doesn't

touch you a hat, I don't know if you're paying attention enough,

you know what I mean. And so this is a really, really, really

powerful, powerful thing. And one of the other things I wanted

to tell you again looking at my notes, because I wanted to make

sure that, you know, going back to one of the things that I that

he said that I thought was really important. And when He

said,

My hope is this, when the walk ends, people we meet will

continue practicing mindfulness and find peace. Here's what I

know about us as a people. We get inspired really quick. You

know? We get a little we're like, a little flash in the pan.

We get all like, especially in January. I talked about this

before, right? Oh, January, I'm going to start doing X, Y and Z,

and then three weeks into it, we lose our fizzle. You know, where

people sometimes who, and I'm going to do a whole podcast

about this, about about depth versus width. We can be very

surfacey as a people, and it's really easy to get caught up in

the moment, with the with the monks, and be inspired and

whatever. And then two weeks from now, you forget about it,

or you feel all inside. Fired, and you're listening to their

messages, and you're like, Oh yeah, and you're taking

pictures, and then you go home and you yell at your kids, you

know what I mean? Or you lose, you lose your mind, and you,

you're like, spewing hatred on the internet, right? So my hope

is, what his hope is, is that we take something away from this,

but we don't just take it away at surface level, that we start

to embody it, that we really start to embody it, and that we

start to really live it, because I think it could be so

important. There's a professor of religious studies at Rhodes

College in Memphis, and they were saying that these walks

really inspire people and inspire faith. The core

intention is to have others watch and be inspired, not so

much through words, but through how they are willing to make

this sacrifice by walking and being visible, which leads me to

this next bit. So again, I always like to do like a deep

dive, because I know, like I said, I'm feeling inspired like

my faith in humanity returns when I see living, breathing

examples of love and peace in this kind of presence, this kind

of, what I call the five D's, daily dedication, determination,

discipline and devotion in action. This, to me, is what a

daily DSP is, a daily spiritual practice is it has these five

things, the daily dedication, determination, discipline,

devotion, which these guys are the walking, living, breathing

example of, right? And so when I was trying to get a little more

history on this, I found a monk on Instagram. His name is Shen

Yu and it says monks. He said this, monks have walked for

peace for centuries, and he said a lot of times, like these guys

are currently getting a lot of attention, but it's not the

first walk for peace. He says monks have done this forever.

They've been done this for centuries, going all the way

back to the Buddha of course. He says monks have walked for peace

for centuries, and they walk slowly, humbly and consistently.

He says, Peace begins with presence, and they teach not by

speaking, but by how they live. And this goes back to what this

woman was saying, right? Their core intention is to have others

watch and be inspired, not so much through words. And he's

saying this, they don't teach by speaking, but by how they live,

by their presence. And it makes me think about A Course in

Miracles when A Course in Miracles says to teach is to

demonstrate. To teach is to demonstrate by who you are being

by how you are showing up in the world. This is how we

demonstrate what we believe, who we are, what we love, right?

It's like we embody it, and then we just be it. We don't have to

even, quote, unquote, do it. We just be it. And that's the thing

about these monks. It's so genuine. It is so stripped away

of everything. It's not for clicks, it's not for likes, it's

not for fans, it's not for followers. Yes, they have a

mission, yes, they have an intention, but it's not about

them. They're not trying to be a brand, right? And Shen Yu also

says this. He says this is not a performance, this is a lineage.

This is an ancient answer, returning when words are no

longer enough. I'm going to say that again. Listen, this is not

a performance, this is a lineage. This is an ancient

answer, returning when words are no longer enough. You know, as a

yoga teacher, when I see this, I'm like, this is meditation in

motion. This is devotion in motion. This is prayer in

motion. This is prayer in action. Action is the voice of

the heart and every step they take, step by step by step, they

walk slowly, they walk humbly, they walk consistently. You

guys, they are leaving spiritual bread crumbs for us to follow.

Just pay attention. Pay close, close attention, because they

are teaching us so much. And one of the things they're teaching,

one of the main messages that panna Karen has told the crowds

every time that they get together again. I can't stress

this enough, they're not trying to convert anybody to Buddhism.

You can be Catholic, you could be Christian, you could be an

atheist. You can be whatever, and still learn from this. Take

something from this. You could be a yogi, right? So this is his

like main message. This is what he says. I'm going to give you

the short one, and then I'm going to leave you one of the

longer ones, and then I'll tell you how you can follow these

guys and see what's going on. So one of the things that panna,

Karen always says is, today is my. My peaceful day. Today is my

peaceful day. This is one of the things to meditate upon. And

these are the instructions that he gave at one of his talks. He

says, in the morning, is a spiritual mentor and coach. This

makes me so happy. My people, if you're listening, you know why

you get this right? He says, in the morning, give your mind a

job to do. He says, this is very important. Get out a piece of

paper and a pen. And then he says, Write this down. This is

what he wants you to write down. Today is going to be my peaceful

day. Write it down. Today is going to be my peaceful day. He

says, After writing it, you read it with your eyes over and over

and over, and then you start to read it out loud, today is going

to be my peaceful day. Today is going to be my peaceful day.

Today is going to be my peaceful day. He says, you're telling the

universe. You tell the universe, today is my peaceful day, and no

one can mess it up, except for me. He says, believe me, no one

can mess it up if you're not allowed to, if they're not

allowed to, nobody else outside of you. He's saying can mess it

up unless you let them. And he says it's because we've been

opening our door widely for everyone to come in and mess it

up. But that's on us. We think, Oh, I've lost my peace because

of the Renee cook thing, right? That brutal murder, that thing I

saw on the news, the thing. And I don't mean, I'm not saying the

thing lightly. It's just we're assaulted every single day our

nervous system, right? We are assaulted every single day

through the senses by what we're seeing and hearing and what's

being crammed on our throats, and all the misinformation and

the disinformation and all the hatred and all the vitriol, all

of it, we are bombarded constantly. The doors are wide

open every time you're on the internet, every time you go on a

social media app, it's because we're opening the door widely.

And I always say to my people, I've been saying this for years

and years and years. Think this was taught to me through my

teachers, from A Course in Miracles to yoga and beyond,

right? It's that. It's this. No one, no thing, can take your

peace away, but you sure, you sure can give it away. Nobody

can take your peace from you, but you sure as shit can give it

away, and we do it all the time. And this is one of the reasons

why a daily spiritual practice is so powerful. He says, Today

is my peaceful day. That's the wicked short version. And then

here's the longer version that I'm going to leave you with,

okay, and then I'll tell you how you can watch this if you've

been unawares. I love this, and I hope you stick around for the

whole thing, even if you get ants in your pants, even if you

think that you have the, you know, what is it? The the

ability to pay attention, if your attention span, right? They

keep telling us this. They keep telling us this. They keep not

only trying to make this true, but they keep trying to

hypnotize us and program us into believing that we have the

attention span of butterflies in Goldfish and we can't sit still

and we can't it's bullshit. Anything that is learned can be

unlearned. We can unlearn these ways of being. We can come back.

You know who has attention spans? Readers, people who read.

Those of us who don't write too long didn't read readers. Stop

picking up books. Start reading. So if you're still here with me,

I hope you let me read this whole thing to you. He says

this,

this is from again, panna Karen, who is leading the monks who are

doing the walk for peace right now across the United States. He

says, Today is going to be our peaceful day. This is the

beginning. This is like a prayer, right? This is the

beginning, a fresh start, a new opportunity to live with

awareness and care. May we be mindful of our breath as it

flows in and out, anchoring us to this present moment. May we

be mindful of our daily actions, bringing intention and

gentleness to everything we do, the words we speak, the way we

listen, the kindness we offer, even in the smallest gestures,

may peace shine brightly in our hearts, and from that inner

light, may compassion flow naturally to. Those who are

struggling, may loving kindness soften our responses and warm

our connections, may unity remind us that we are all

walking this path together, bound by our shared longing for

a more peaceful world, right? This reminds me of when Ram Dass

says, right, we're all just walking each other home. Okay?

He continues. He says, Let us walk together in spirit today,

wherever we are, wherever you are, and whatever you're doing

with each mindful breath you take, with each compassionate

choice you make, you are helping peace bloom more beautifully in

this world. We are not separate. We are not alone. We are walking

together, each of us contributing to the garden of

peace that grows when we tend to our own hearts and extend that

care outward to everyone around us. Today is our peaceful day.

Let us live it with awareness, with love, with the

understanding that every moment we choose peace, we help create

more peace in the world. I'm going to say this again. Let us

live with awareness, with love, with the understanding, the

knowing that every moment we choose peace, we help create

more peace in the world. And he ends it with this, may you and

all beings be well, happy and at peace. And that is my wish for

you also, if you can still hear the sound of my voice, thank you

so much for sticking with me. I have no idea how long this has

been, but it was important. It was important to me, and

hopefully it's important to at least one other person out

there. But I always say this podcast also is from my ears

first, right? So that I can remember these things. Remember

monks have walked for peace for centuries, and we can be a part

of that. We can walk peacefully through each of our days. We can

walk peacefully in our own homes and our families and our

communities and our workplaces, the places we gather. Okay? And

if you want to follow the monks, if you're had no idea what was

going on, if you don't already follow them, you can find them

on Facebook for at, walk for peace USA. Walk for peace USA.

And on Instagram, it's at, you know, it's their their handle is

walk for peace period, or dot USA, walk for peace period, USA.

I hope that this has touched your hat in some way. It's

landed for you, or just got you excited, because you love the

monks also. And if you're somebody who has been

struggling, if you're somebody who has been down, if you're

struggling, who you know. I think about this when he when he

says in this that you know, may peace, may compassion flow

naturally to those who are struggling. I think so many

people are struggling right now. So many humans and animals are

struggling and suffering right now. And one of the greatest

things that we can do is first get our own minds and our own

hearts right. That's how you change the world by, first of

all, doing the work on yourself. The work isn't about becoming

more peaceful or more kind and more loving. That is who you

already are. That is your natural inheritance. That is

your birthright. That is who you are you are love, you are

peaceful, you are kind. The gig is the spiritual. Work is being

vigilant for when you are unkind. The work is removing the

blocks and the barriers we created against our own

awareness of it, our own awareness of love's presence,

the love that we are the gig is to embody. It to be the peaceful

presence, so that wherever you walk, whatever room you walk

into, you are on your own peace walk. You get to be the

alternative to all the things that you don't like and see all

the cruelty and violence and hatred. You get to be the loving

alternative. I think I'm just going to end it with that. Thank

you so much for being here. Thank you for listening. I'm

sending you so much love. Bye, bye.