Bodies of Discourse: Walking for Peace in a Divided America

This paper examines the Buddhist "Walk for Peace" sponsored by the Hương Đạo Vipassana Bhavana Center in Ft. Worth, Texas.  From October 2025 through February 2026,  19 monks walked across several southern states on a 2,300 mile pilgrimage to Washington DC.   We'll consider how the Walk allowed for interreligious dialogue both as language and collective, embodied experience.   By examining the monks' voluntary suffering and daily "peace talks" hosted by civic groups, public schools, and churches, we'll see how audiences-- in-person and virtual--recognized a shared purpose and expressed an organic curiosity about Buddhist philosophy and rituals.   Finally, we'll imagine how shared embodied experiences might help establish interfaith understanding at a time when many white Christian Nationalists consider themselves under assault.