Flowers for the Monks
Flowers for the monks.
“Transform your garbage into flowers.” Quoted from Your True Home: The Everyday Wisdom of Thich Nhat Hanh
The Buddhist monks walking from Texas to Washington D.C. are becoming a phenomenon as thousands of southerners of all races, ages and creeds come together to walk along side the monks and to wish them well on their way. The people are tired of division and violence and stereotypes and are curious about a different narrative that unites them behind the unifying concept of peace. The monks are walking for miles with only their cotton robes and perhaps an umbrella to protect themselves from the elements. As they walk, these pilgrims evoke much emotion. Those encountering them routinely erupt into smiles, prayers and tears. Once in a while a monk will pause to tie a string around a person’s wrist, while the other monks chant a blessing.
Why are increasingly large numbers of humans—young, old and in between so moved by the monks? Many of those interviewed say that they long for a story that is not the one unfolding day by day in this troubled nation. The message that peace throughout our world will come only when we are in harmony with the people around us and within our deepest selves is one that’s beginning to resonate deeply, inspiring people to want to participate in creating an alternative narrative.
One of the monks speaks English and answers questions and dispenses wisdom at their stopping points. He reminds us that practicing patience and kindness diffuses potentially volatile situations. Reacting only drains us of our power and causes suffering. Instead, we can wait until the angry, agitated person (and perhaps instigator) settles down before offering them a glass of water, with love and kindness.
This monk communicates with a voice resonant with warmth and compassion. His implicit message is that when we hurt one another we hurt ourselves. In a country where powerful people disdain the quality of empathy as a human weakness, these attuned souls turn with love towards the thousands who they pass by every day, finding within themselves the internal strength to offer blessings and loving gestures of recognition. Freed from having to appear powerful or of consequence, these souls dwell in the anonymous territory of love, knowing that one smile or discrete blessing carries immense meaning and power.
They have have chosen a path of mindful walking as a way of waking up Americans out of the nightmare of violence unfolding abroad and on our streets. Many of the folks who are gathering are bursting into spontaneous tears; they are longing to be in the presence of non-violent human beings who would not hurt a fly let alone a human being. Habits of manipulation, gaslighting, abduction, or extraction are foreign territory to monks who demonstrate the necessity of starting every day with the prayer, “let today be my peaceful day.” These spiritual beings are quiet, humble, and sometimes barefoot with bound and bleeding feet.
Many folks emerging from their dwelling places to see the monks are having profound spiritual experiences. Those who experience even a brief eye exchange with these sojourners are shown their own precious humanity. The monks distribute back to the crowds the flowers they have been given, silently transmitting to people along the way their infinite value as human beings. In so doing, they are helping people to turn their own “garbage”, or suffering, into flowers.
Why by their mere presence are these monks able to telepathically communicate their compassion for others?
Perhaps it’s because the monks do not dwell in a material world dominated by transactions but rather in a consciousness that celebrates the value of all sentient beings. To the monks, we have no reason to spend our lives proving our worth to others so that we can gain status and acceptance. When we grow up in a world where we are taught that we need to “add value” to every situation, that we must “cast a favorable light” on our tribe, we are trained into thinking that our worth derives from fickle external factors.
The monks remind us that we’re inherently worthy of love as well as strong enough to resist the temptation to embrace hate and division in country that has never fully reckoned with its history and has lost its way. In interviews, people joining these crowds are declaring, simply, “we’re all the same.” Tired of a narrative of division, folks of all stripes are expressing gratitude toward the monks for reminding them that they have the capacity to cultivate patience and loving kindness inside and outside of their homes. Indeed, they can make micro decisions in every moment to cast off anger and fear by slowing down to focus on one breath at a time.
The monks exude an aura of peace, honesty, simplicity, and determination. Their humility and holiness is like a cold drink of water offered with kindness to another human being with a crushed heart and a dry throat. The monks are walking for us, caring as they go for those who sit in wheel chairs, for those who bring them their tears, for those who are among the wounded and broken-hearted.
Happiness, or more deeply joy, comes when we let go of ourselves, and “the world,” to embrace the mystical truth that all sentient beings are sacred.
Every step that the monks take they’re inviting us to remain calm in the face of a storm so that we can forge a new path. This path toward peace requires our participation. It requires that we cultivate our own inner peace, so that we can contribute, along with these glorious monks, to healing our world from the inside out.