Rejoicing in the Good: Reflections on the Monks’ Walk for Peace

Kaira Jewel's March 2026 Newsletter

Mar 12, 2026

Dear friends,

In Tibetan Buddhism there is a beautiful practice called rejoicing. It is the conscious cultivation of delight in the goodness of others. When we see integrity, courage, restraint, and compassion, we allow that goodness to strengthen us. We let the example of another person water the same seeds within our own heart.

This practice feels especially important right now.

We are living in a time of deep strain. Systems we once counted on now often feel unmoored. War, violence, polarization, corruption, and economic uncertainty touch the everyday lives of so many. Our collective nervous system feels overwhelmed.

And yet, even in the midst of this disruption, small acts of attention, integrity, and courage ripple outward—quiet resistances that keep our shared world from fracturing entirely.

And into this landscape, nineteen Theravādin monks from the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Fort Worth, Texas began to walk.

In monastic robes and sandals, through one of the harshest winters in decades, they walked quietly and steadily.

They moved through towns and cities carrying a simple message: peace begins in each one of us.

People came out to greet them with flowers. Local sheriffs and law enforcement officers joined their palms in respect, bowing and even pinning their badges onto the lead monk’s sanghati robe. In a time when distrust and confrontation so often dominate the public square, those images carried a powerful symbolic resonance. It felt archetypal, like a gesture across divides, a remembering.

There was no attempt to capture attention or build a movement. No fundraising campaign, no political messaging designed to sway allegiance. The intention was simply to walk and to inspire peace in human hearts.

And yet people traveled from across the country just to walk beside them for a stretch of road. Others stood silently along the route as the monks passed, honoring them for a moment. Their journey eventually touched millions.

Walking with them was Aloka, the dog, offering his own quiet teaching from the more-than-human world. His steady presence reminded people that this earth does not belong to humans alone, that peace must include all beings. Children knelt to meet his eyes. Adults softened. Even a single nonhuman companion can shift the field of a gathering and remind us that we walk not only for ourselves, but for the whole web of life.

What moved me most was the sincerity of their devotion. They walked twenty miles a day, more than 2,300 miles in total, through freezing winds and blizzards. Some were ill and continued on. Each morning began with chanting and bowing. They walked ten miles, paused for a simple meal and a short teaching offered to whoever had gathered, then continued another ten miles. In the evening there would often be another teaching. Day after day.

It was devotion made visible.

Even in exhaustion they made themselves available—for blessings, for conversation, for simple presence. Their renunciation and discipline carried a quiet dignity that felt like a profound teaching in itself.

Feet on asphalt. Breath in cold air. A heart that refuses to close.

Their walk stands in a long lineage of pilgrimage and peace. We can remember the Buddha walking across India offering another way in the midst of violence and hierarchy. The peace walks of Mahā Ghosānanda in Cambodia after the ravages of war. The mindful walking of Thích Nhất Hạnh in numerous cities around the world in times of deep conflict. Across cultures, pilgrimage has long been a way of restoring moral and spiritual balance.

Walking is humble. It simply places one foot in front of the other.

Recently, during a day of practice I was leading, we were doing walking meditation in the meditation hall and I found myself reflecting on how many intentions humans bring to the simple act of walking. We walk to find food. We walk to work. We walk to meet someone we love. We walk in protest. We march in armies. We walk to hunt. We walk our dogs. We walk carrying grief or hope or confusion.

And we can walk for peace.

Breathing in, I feel the earth under my feet
Breathing out, I offer the earth my full presence and my peace.

As I walked around the hall that day I felt moved by the courage and compassion of these nineteen monks. Through their steps they brought transformation to many people they would never meet. As my teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh often reminded us, we can walk in a way that imprints peace on the earth with each step. We can walk with awareness that we share this planet with countless beings and transmit our energy to the earth in a way that honors ourselves and every single being alive with us now.

Peace can travel through our feet.

I remember when I was a nun, we organized a Peace Walk led by Thích Nhất Hạnh in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles. Several thousand of us walked slowly and lovingly around the lake, with no destination, no rush—just moving together. As we approached the stores and bodegas lining the water, the energy of peace seemed to ripple outward; even the music blaring into the street was turned off, out of respect. Many passersby joined us—not always knowing exactly what we were doing, but drawn by the calm, the stillness, and the quiet intention filling the air.

This spirit of mindful living showed up in another small way recently when I was teaching at Smith College. A group of students and I shared a meal together and inspired by the monks walk for peace, I invited them to explore what it might mean to eat in peace. We ate in silence for about ten minutes. When we finished, we went around the room and shared what the experience had been like.

Their reflections were beautiful. Some spoke about how their body softened as they ate, how they gave themselves permission to rest. Others noticed the flavors of the food more vividly, the herbs and spices they would normally miss. One person said the meal reminded them of someone they loved and had lost touch with. Another felt gratitude arise simply from slowing down.

For myself there were a few things on my plate that I couldn’t eat. I noticed how often my habit is to push unwanted food away with a small gesture of aversion. This time I gently moved those items to the side of the plate with a kind of quiet respect. It surprised me to see how mindfulness illuminated even such an ordinary moment.

These small acts matter.

There is a story I often remember about John Francis, who, after witnessing an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay in the early 1980s, decided to stop riding in gas-powered vehicles. He began walking everywhere and eventually took a 17-year vow of silence as well. What began as a personal response to ecological grief became a journey that carried him across the country on foot.

Sometimes a single decision to live with greater integrity begins to ripple outward in ways we cannot predict.

Watching the monks on their Walk for Peace, I felt the practice of rejoicing arise in me. Here was goodness made visible. Restraint. Patience. Devotion.

Rejoicing does not deny the suffering of the world. It does not overlook corruption or injustice or violence. It keeps our heart connected to what is wholesome so that despair does not have the final word. It strengthens our capacity to continue the work of healing without becoming hardened or bitter.

Their walk calls to mind words from Thích Nhất Hạnh’s poem:

Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk
without thinking of arriving anywhere…
Peace is the walk.
Happiness is the walk.

The monks simply walked, and through that simplicity they reminded many of us that peace is not something waiting for us in the future. It is a way of inhabiting the present moment, a way of touching the earth, a way of meeting one another.

The world is sick in many ways. And we are part of that world. Yet the reverse is also true. When we cultivate moments of peace in our own body, heart, and mind, we contribute to the peace of the world.

Sometimes I feel this very personally. Recently I woke up upset with someone who had responded to my efforts at understanding with blame and harsh judgment. As I lay in bed, I began my morning ritual of reciting the Five Remembrances: that I am of the nature to grow old, to become ill, to die, to be separated from what I love, and that my actions are my only true belongings. For a moment my heart softened reflecting on life’s fragility. I remembered that compassion is still the wisest response, even when someone is speaking from their own unresolved pain.

These practices help us remember who we want to be.

And sometimes joy appears in the smallest places. Feeding my dog pieces of apple as I prepare my breakfast and listening to the delightful crunching sound of her canine teeth brings me an almost ridiculous amount of happiness. The simple presence of another being enjoying life can open the heart in unexpected ways.

When we rejoice in goodness—whether in monks walking across a continent, students discovering mindful eating, a dog happily crunching an apple, or a moment of patience arising in our own heart—we strengthen the possibility of peace.

May we continue to recognize and nourish that goodness.

And may we place our steps on this earth with care.

Kaira Jewel

Below is a full list of my upcoming events but here I want to highlight a few key ones, many coming up soon!:

March 12, TONIGHT! 6:30 to 8:30 pm ET The Power of Play series online or in person
March 19, 9:00 to 11:00 pm ET I am offering a talk in person and online at Naropa University We Were Made for These Times: Bodhisattva Courage in a World on Fire
May 24 - 29, I will offer an in person retreat Finding Refuge, Finding Home: A Retreat in Nature at Spirit Rock with Mark Coleman and Susie Harrington
June 20 - 24, Join me in person for Wisdom for Meeting the Storm Together: Holding and Transforming Our Fear with Compassion and Collective Care, our annual BIPOC retreat with Dr. Marisela Gomez, Joe Reilly and Judy Nakatomi

More info on these below.

Upcoming retreats, day longs, and talks:

Thursday, March 12, 6:30 to 8:30 pm ET

The Power of Play: Improvisation, Trust, and The Gift of Aimlessness

Sponsored by New York Insight Meditation Center Part of The Body Remembers Freedom Series with Kaira Jewel Lingo and My Dung

In this session, we explore the power of play as a doorway into aimlessness, a freedom from striving, fixing, or achieving anything at all. Through gentle InterPlay and meditation practices, we let the body rest from effort and rediscover trust, spontaneity, and ease. When nothing is required of us, creativity naturally emerges, not as something we produce, but as something we allow.

This workshop is part of The Body Remembers Freedom, a monthly series that brings together meditation, dharma, and embodied practice in a way that is relational, grounded, and alive. Each session includes time for meditation and contemplation, a dharma talk or shared inquiry, and InterPlay, a playful and powerful practice using movement, voice, storytelling, and deep listening to access the wisdom of the body.

For more info and to register here for March 12.

In-person and online.

Thursday, March 19, 9:00 to 11:00 pm ET

We Were Made for These Times: Bodhisattva Courage in a World on Fire

Sponsored by Naropa University In this Lenz Distinguished Lecture, Dharma Teacher Kaira Jewel Lingo explores what it means to live the bodhisattva vow right now.

Together we will reflect on fear as a natural response to real danger, and how mindfulness helps us transform fear into compassionate, skillful action. We will examine how to speak out against injustice without hatred or partisanship, how to practice “sacred criticism,” and how to care for the whole even in polarized times. Grounded in both the historical and ultimate dimensions, this talk invites us to anchor in what is good, beautiful, and worth protecting—becoming seeds of the future we long to see.

For more info and to register here.

This event is offered both in-person and online. Choose your preferred option on the ticket page.

Naropa University - Nalanda Events Center, 6287 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301

Saturday, March 28, 11 am to 12:30 pm ET

Amita Schmidt speaks on Dipa Ma—The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master

Amita Schmidt joins Kaira Jewel Lingo and Father Adam Bucko at the Beloved Community for Engaged Spirituality March Gathering

We invite you to join us on Saturday, March 28, from 11 am-12:30 pm ET, featuring Amita Schmidt speaking about the life of revered Buddhist teacher, Dipa Ma.

Amita Schmidt has been teaching Vipassana meditation for over 30 years and she was a resident teacher at Insight Meditation Society (IMS). She is a licensed clinical social worker in Hawaii and a certified IFS (Internal Family Systems) therapist. She is also the author of Dipa Ma: The Life and Legacy of a Buddhist Master.

These gatherings will include guest teachers and conversations that draw from the lives and wisdom of the saints of the beloved community—those whose lives remind us that even in difficult and violent times, groundedness, courage, and a spacious vision are possible. Their witness helps us remember that oppression and cruelty never have the final word.

Online.

Thursday, April 9, 6:30 to 8:30 pm ET

Belonging to the Earth: Touching Interbeing and Our Place in the Whole

Sponsored by New York Insight Meditation Center Part of The Body Remembers Freedom Series with Kaira Jewel Lingo and Linds Roberts

This session explores what it means to belong to the Earth, rather than stand apart from it. Through InterPlay and meditation, we deepen our felt sense of interbeing and our relationship with the more-than-human world. We practice kincentric ways of being that invite humility, care, and a remembered place within the web of life.

This workshop is part of The Body Remembers Freedom monthly series.

For more info and to register here.

In-person and online.

For more info and to register here for May 7 — The Universe in a Hand – Encountering Our True Nature through the Four Immeasurable Minds of Love

For more info and to register here for June 18 — Beyond the Separate Self – Emptiness and the Freedom of Awareness

Tuesday, April 14, 2 to 4 pm ET (program begins March 24)

Embodied Presence: A session of Kazu Haga’s course Fierce Vulnerability Kinship Lab.

Kaira Jewel is a guest speaker in this three-month journey to inspire collective action rooted in healing, emergence and deep care, focused on the book Fierce Vulnerability

For more info and to register here.

Online

Wednesday, April 15, 2 to 4 pm ET

Befriending Consciousness: Transforming the Mind from Within

Our thoughts and reactions arise from deep layers of consciousness shaped by habit, experience, and collective inheritance. This talk explores mind and store consciousness, and how befriending what lives within us allows seeds of understanding, compassion, and freedom to grow.

Join Kaira Jewel Lingo the guest speaker for monthly practice sponsored by The Lotus Institute

For more info and to register here.

Online

Tuesday, May 12, 7 to 8:30 pm ET

Hope and Joy Series

Antonique Smith sings “Here Comes the Sun” at Sun Day in NYC. photo by David Fenton

Kaira Jewel Lingo offers an evening of meditation, reflection and connection with Third Act.

Online

SAVE THE DATE.

Tuesday, May 19, 7:00 to 8:30 pm ET

Positively Adapting to Climate Change; An uplifting trilogy of talks

While much else about the subject can cast big shadows, we look at climate breakdown from three uplifting perspectives in the areas of science, action and healing. These amazing international experts give us positive insights for our heads, our hands and our hearts, offering knowledge, practical advice and inner nourishment.

In addition to two prior talks in the triology, on 19 May Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches us how to move through change, loss and disruption.

Please note that you can still sign up for the whole series even after one or two of the talks have passed, as you will then receive a link to recordings of all three once the series is over.

This is a series of Zoom webinars with interactive Q&A sessions. If you would like to submit a question before the event, please email events@resurgence.org

For more info and to register here.

Online

May 24 - 29

Finding Refuge, Finding Home: A Retreat in Nature

Held at Spirit Rock with Kaira Jewel Lingo, Mark Coleman, and Susie Harrington

In the storms of our lives, we need refuge—a place of nourishment and support where we can replenish our tired bodies and troubled hearts. When the Buddha taught meditation, his first instruction was to go sit under a tree. We will practice together in the age-old tradition of being outside in the company of the natural world. Together, we will tap into the natural stillness and dynamism that surrounds us and teaches us balance. As we integrate stillness and movement, we move toward being active participants in the world while maintaining balance and ease in our hearts and minds.

This retreat is silent except for teacher-led Q&A, small groups, or other practice meetings.

For more info and to register here

In-person retreat

June 20 - 24

Wisdom for Meeting the Storm Together: Annual Retreat for Black, Indigenous, People of Color

Held at Garrison Institute with Dr. Marisela Gomez, Kaira Jewel Lingo, Joe Reilly and Judy Nakatomi

In a time of intensifying uncertainty, grief, and pressure on our communities, it is essential for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to have spaces of refuge, truth-telling, and collective care. This retreat offers a place to pause, breathe, and remember that we are not meant to meet these storms alone.

Together, through mindfulness and embodied practice, we explore how fear lives in our bodies, histories, and communities, and how it can be met without turning away or becoming overwhelmed. We strengthen our capacity to stay present, to draw on ancestral and communal wisdom, and to support one another in meeting this moment with integrity and love. Inner transformation becomes the ground from which collective healing and wise action can emerge.

Mindfulness will be at the heart of all we do. The retreat will include daily dharma teachings, sitting and stationary meditation, mindful walking or movement, mindful eating, singing, dharma writing, and small-group sharing. We will practice for one full day and a half in silence and engage in optional somatic movement and nature practices that invite us into deeper presence with the land. Rooted in compassion and collective care, this retreat supports us in meeting the storm together and remembering our capacity to rest, heal, resist harm, and build Beloved Community.

In-person retreat.

Info and registration here.

June 24 - 30

Teen Retreat

Held at the Insight Meditation Society Retreat Center with Kaira Jewel Lingo, Cara Lai, Jean Esther, Anthony “T” Maes, nico hase, and movement with Monica Williams

The retreat is especially designed for young adults, aged 15-19 who, as of August 31, 2026, will be at least 15 years of age. The course offers 1/2 hour periods of sitting and walking meditation with ample instruction, along with two daily facilitated discussion groups. In addition there will be daily workshops offered in the field of meditative arts, music, nature as well as other focused topics pertinent to teens. Daily periods of free time for socializing or rest are also included. This retreat allows young adults to develop and value their natural spirituality within a supportive environment committed to inclusivity of all. Along with the teaching team, a group of trained and dedicated adult mentors will support the teens’ experience. Extensive supervision is provided.

More info and to register here.

In-person retreat.

Ongoing every Thursday at noon ET

Weekly BIPOC Meditation Sangha Online

We extend a warm invitation to Black/Indigenous/People of Color to join for an hour of meditation, teaching and sharing with Kaira Jewel Lingo and Marisela Gomez, and other guest teachers, who alternate teaching every Thursday from 12 - 1pm ET.

By donation. More info here and to register here.

Recent teachings:

Block by Block, Heart by Heart: Sacred Care Amid Uncertainty. Dr. Lyla June, Kaira Jewel Lingo, Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg & Rae Abileah

Recorded from a live Science and Non-Duality Gathering (February 2026). From Los Angeles to Minneapolis, communities are turning toward one another in a time of uncertainty, remembering that care begins close to home. Beyond public action, quieter networks of support are taking root: block-by-block relationships grounded in land, lineage, and love.

This gathering explores how spiritual practice, trauma-aware care, and neighborhood organizing are being woven together as living traditions. We ask what it looks like to shift our energy from reactive mobilization toward steady, proactive organizing that can sustain us for the long haul. Drawing from Indigenous memory, Black freedom traditions, diasporic Jewish practices of care, and contemporary grassroots work, we reflect on how mutual care—feeding one another, tending grief, protecting children, honoring the dead—can be reclaimed as daily sacred practice.

This is a conversation about blending spiritual practice and movement practice; about thinking smaller, closer, and more relational; and about learning from quiet, resilient forms of organizing that move people from isolation into coordinated courage.

This conversation invites attunement: How do we stay grounded in grief without collapsing? How do we strengthen relationships across differences? How do small, steady acts of care help communities move from fear toward shared courage?

Good things I’m spreading the word about:

April 4, 3pm Beyond Vietnam free public event at Riverside Church

Free public event at Riverside Church, no tickets required; conversation on the revolutionary values expressed by Dr. King in his speech, “Beyond Vietnam,” among theologian Lucas Johnson, activist and author Michelle Alexander, and journalist Krista Tippett.

This is part of a weekend of events commemorating the great scholar and historian Dr. Vincent Harding, who wrote speeches for Dr. King, including “Beyond Vietnam.” In my early twenties, I had the great honor of working with him when he directed the Veterans of Hope Project at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. Over the following decades, he remained a kind and caring mentor to me until his passing.

No tickets required. The Riverside Church is located in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in Manhattan, near Columbia University where Harlem meets the Upper West Side.

212.870.6700 | welcome@trcnyc.org

We are showing up together again on March 28: No Kings Day

When our families are under attack and costs are pushing people to the brink, silence is not an option. We will defend ourselves and our communities against this administration’s unjust and cruel acts of violence. America does not belong to strongmen, greedy billionaires, or those who rule through fear. It belongs to us, the people.

Support Caro’s attendance at May-July Plum Village Retreats

A message from Caro below:

This year, Plum Village will host its first Latin American Retreat, “Abya Yala Retreat”, May 15-22, 2026 in France. A wonderful initiative that creates space for Latin American practitioners to gather in person, deepen our collective spiritual path and offer our voices to the chorus of the mahasangha. As a woman of color born and raised in the global south, having worked alongside students in poverty, I am excited about this possibility. The second retreat I aspire to be part of is “Nurturing the Fire”, the 2026 Biennial Plum Village Order of Interbeing (OI) and OI Aspirants June Retreat, when the OI will celebrate sixty years since Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh founded OI in 1966 and reflect and envision the development of our beloved global community. I am a formal OI Aspirant and will be volunteering from June 27th to July 23th –and have been actively building PV sanghas, primarily in the global south for four years.

Donate here: https://www.paypal.com/donate?campaign_id=UWM7N5C4YZAYJ