A Moment of Peace, A Glimmer of Hope

"Our journey for peace begins today, and everyday, slowly, slowly, step by
step.  Each step is a prayer.  Each step will build a bridge." Maha
Ghosananda.  It was in this spirit a group of over four hundred people took
their first steps on a 350 kilometre, cross country journey through the war
torn provinces of Siem Reap, Kompong Thom and Kompong Cham down to the
capital city of Phnom Penh.  It was the beginning of a walk for peace in
areas of Cambodia which have known nothing but war, before and since the
signing of the Paris Peace Accords in October, 1991.  "We have never known
peace."  A person living along our route, National Highway 6, told us, "Since
the United Nations' peacekeeping forces came here less than a year ago, the
fighting has increased.  They never used to shell the village directly.  Now
they often do."

Dhamma Yietra (literally pilgrimage of truth), the second Buddhist walk for
peace and reconciliation in Cambodia, almost ended before it began.  In the
early hours of May 3rd as walkers gathered for morning meditation, the pagoda
in the city of Siem Reap in which we were staying became a battle ground. 
Soldiers from both the Khmer Rouge (KR) and Phnom Penh (SOC) government
engaged in combat, and in the ensuing four hour firefight, three walkers were
wounded.  A grenade was fired into the meditation hall in which most of the
walkers had taken cover, including the Venerable Maha Ghosananda, the leader
of the Dhamma Yietra.  The grenade did not explode.  When the shooting
finally subsided, the participants gathered around Maha Ghosananda who smiled
and said, "Buddha saved us." (Two days later the Venerable monk told the
Catholic monk among us, "Christ saved us!" with an ecumenical smile.)

The immediate question the walk faced after this violent episode was, should
the Walk go on at all?  As each walker discerned their own answer, Maha
Ghosananda said with compassion and conviction, "Indeed this is why we must
walk!"  The most seriously wounded walker sent word from his hospital bed
that the Walk must continue.  "Please keep walking, so that we may have peace
soon."  Some of the organizers suggested riding the first day, through the
'rough' spots.  Yet the next morning, the eve of Vesak, the highest Holy Day
of Buddhism, as the walkers prepared to walk to Angkor Wat, Cambodia's
national shrine, a bus load of over 100 fellow walkers from various provinces
arrived from Phnom Penh.  It was followed by another bus of walkers from
neighbouring Thailand.

Both had been delayed, but not deterred, by the fighting.  Upon seeing the
first bus pull into the temple compound, spirits rose, and the organizers
affirmed, "We can forget about riding.  We are walking!"

The concept of Dhamma Yietra is as ancient as the Buddha.  Over 2500 years
ago the Buddha led his monks and nuns in long processions across the
countryside preaching words of peace, and a spiritual path to relieve
suffering.  The Buddha did not avoid areas of conflict.  Following in that
Buddhist tradition the Venerable Maha Ghosananda, as leader of the Inter
religious Mission for Peace in Cambodia and the Whole World, has often walked
for peace in different parts of the world.  He has led two walks for peace
and reconciliation in his home country.  This particular route was chosen due
to the ongoing war.  "We must walk where the troubles are", he told the
participants.

Venerable Kim Teng, a monk from eastern Cambodia and one of the principle
organizers of the walk, further explained the concept of Dhamma Yietra.  "We,
as monks, must serve our people.  We depend on them.  They are our rice bowl,
they sustain us.  If the people are suffering, we too suffer.  We cannot sit
and meditate in our temples and develop peace only for ourselves.  We must
walk where the suffering is the greatest, and share the sorrows of our
people.  We must dry their tears.  With each step we will build a bridge.  A
bridge from war and suffering, to peace and tranquillity.  We are not
peacekeepers like the UN, but peacemakers.  We must walk where there is no
peace yet to keep!"

Once the walk reached the capital, he told an audience in Phnom Penh, "The
road from Siem Reap to Kompong Thom is not far from here.  We walked from
there to here in less than a month.  But it is like another continent. 
There, people sleep in bunkers, fearing rocket attacks nightly.  Their eyes
are filled with suffering.  They came to share their suffering with us,
baring their souls before we even asked how they were.  Yet seeing us walk
was healing.  It was like visiting a sick person.  Even if you don't have any
medicine with you, the person feels better afterwards, just because of the
visit."  Ven. Maha Ghosananda said, "The suffering of Cambodia has been deep.
Years of violence have brought great tragedy.  More violence can only bring
more harm.  Now is the time for peace."  It was a message that was welcomed
with tears by the thousands of people who witnessed and participated in the
Walk.  In reflecting on Maha Gosananda's teaching, Kim Teng commented "people
were very happy to hear that peace begins in the human heart.  That peace can
begin within themselves. Until now, people had been told that peace comes
through guns.  Now they are happier because they realize that there is
something they can do in their own lives now.  Something they can control.  I
told them how sincerely I believe that if they have peaceful hearts, it will
spread outwards, soon their families, their villages, and our country will be
peaceful.  Through their offerings to us, we could see that people felt peace
in their own hearts upon witnessing the Walk.  This in turn gave us the
strength and energy to carry on with the walk."

The walkers usually began their daily treks at four or five in the morning,
depending on the amount of fighting in the area they were about to enter. 
Even as early as four a.m. in town or countryside, families would wait
outside their homes with a bucket of water, candle and incense sticks.  As
the monks and nuns filed past, two by two, they would bless the people with
water and words of peace, "May peace be in your heart, your family, your
village, our country."  In return, many walkers had her/his feet blessed or
washed by those waiting alongside the road, wishing us well on our journey. 
"May your journey be as cool as this water".  The incense sticks were
extinguished in the water as a symbol of dousing out the flames of war, as
prayers for well being were exchanged.  "May the war end now."  "May we join
hands and never know one another as enemies, from this day forward,"
exclaimed a grandmother as she held her grandchild out to receive a water
blessing from a walker.  "They want peace as much as we do," answered a nun. 
One school teacher commented, "When I heard the Dhamma Yietra was walking for
peace, I got goose bumps all over.  Now that I see you, I think we might
actually be able to have true peace."

Mine fields on either side of the road, temperatures over forty degrees
Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit) and rain storms did little to dampen the
spirit of the walkers, or those patiently waiting by the side of the road to
greet us.  One day during a pre-monsoon rainstorm as we arrived at the next
village, the families living there were kneeling in mud, waiting for the
'water blessing' of the walk!  During another afternoon of scorching heat, a
woman by the side of the road called out encouragement to the sweating
walkers, praising them for withstanding the high temperatures.  "Your walking
in this heat has got to bring peace!"  One man answered, "This heat is
nothing compared to the flames of war!" his wife adding, "I would walk in
heat much hotter than this if it would bring true peace!"  Another
oppressively hot day one old grandmother by the side of the road said, "Bless
you all for walking in this heat", to which one of the nuns walking answered
"The weather may be hot but our hearts are cool!"

In many parts of Siem Reap and Kompong Thom not a day went by when the sound
of artillery, heavy automatic weapon fire or a land mine detonated was not
heard.  The walkers heard repeatedly the lament, "We have suffered so much",
along the road from people without an arm, or a leg, or eyes, having been
disabled by the war.  We heard it from internal refugees living under blue
plastic canvas in rice fields.  "May we have peace so that we may return to
our homes soon", offered one father crouched by his family in front of their
makeshift dwelling.

The Dhamma Yietra walked through areas where UN Peacekeeping forces do not
travel further than 500 meters from their compounds for the sake of their own
security.  Through areas where people's prayers were hauntingly simple.  "May
we sleep above the ground again, instead of gathering our children for
another night in the bunker."  "May the shelling stop."  "We just don't know
where to run to anymore," pleaded a mother of five.  "May we just stop
fearing the night."

As the walk passed through this war torn country many soldiers started to lay
down their weapons, and ask for blessing, as the monks ,who walked in the
front, filed past.  At one stop several armed soldiers came into the temple
in which we were staying and asked to see a monk leading the walk.  They then
laid their weapons on the floor.  They bowed in front of Ven. Kim Teng and
requested a blessing of protection.  "We don't want anyone to be killed or
hurt," one said.  "Even though I am a soldier, I have no ill will in my
heart," he continued.  "So please bless us in a way that our bullets don't
hit anyone, and so that no one else's bullets hurt us."

This second Dhamma Yietra travelled across Cambodia during May in the hope
that its actions would encourage a peaceful environment during and after the
Cambodian elections (May 23-28, 1993).  "By walking we seek to spread loving
kindness and compassion", said one monk on the walk.  "To reconcile after
twenty years of conflict we must be able to trust one another again.  Only
then may true peace prevail in Cambodia."

In some towns government officials tried to discourage the people from
welcoming the walkers, believing the peace walk was a threat to their
political interests.  One of the Dhamma Yietra's warmest welcomes was in a
town where the people were told clearly not to come.  Old men and women would
whisper to the walkers, "We were told not to come, but they cannot stop us. 
This is our religion."  "We hunger for peace so much," they said, while they
made an offering of food to the monks, nuns and lay walkers.

In another village, which was also instructed not to receive the walk, a
young man related how the village had recently experienced a massacre of
thirty people at the temple.  "This is the first time we have dared to gather
together again in a large group", he said, "We just couldn't stay away. 
Everyone is here.  The market closed, and people have left their jobs to come
receive you.  We are so grateful that you have come to help us find peace
again.  The UN has sent people from all over the world to keep peace, but it
has not worked.  All we have left is Buddhism.  If you will help us, it
should not be so difficult to make peace.  The Monks and Nuns must lead us
out of this mess of killing one another.  If we just think of killing and
revenge, it will never end.  Buddhism must guide us."

Before the Walk reached Phnom Penh, the city was tense with the expectation
of violence.  As the Walk approached the outskirts of the capital, the number
of walkers increased to over three thousand, as many people spontaneously
joined the Walk.  A coalition of women's groups, student associations and
human rights groups coordinated the Walk through the streets of Phnom Penh,
as the walk swelled with people from all walks of life.  "I saw the Walk in
front of my office, and I just had to join", exclaimed a Khmer worker for an
international organization.  "I couldn't keep inside.  I walked off my job. 
All Cambodians, and foreigners too, should stop work and walk for peace
today.  When I saw the monks, I was speechless."  Another added, "People were
so afraid of elections.  Here in Phnom Penh they had started to stockpile
rice.  The walk has relieved us of our fear, and given us new hope."

For two days the walkers marched through the streets of the city holding
silent meditations for peace at various key points.  Rain or scorching heat,
thousands more joined each day.  After fifteen minutes of silence at what is
usually a busy traffic intersection, a boy leaned over and asked, "Do you
have peace?"  An elderly man who had walked all the way from Siem Reap
chanting one phrase in Pali, the ancient language of Buddhism, overhead the
youth, and answered with his prayer, "Natthi santi param sukham", "There is
no greater happiness than a peaceful heart."

On the final morning of the event walkers gathered in front of the Royal
Palace to meditate in silence and pray that all beings be free from
suffering, fear and sorrow.  Prince Sihanouk greeted the walk with words of
deep gratitude for the Dhamma Yietra.  He made a solemn plea to all of his
compatriots to, "put an end to violence and hatred, and take out the spirit
of vengeance....from this day forward."

Only days earlier, on a lonely stretch of road which has not known peace for
the past twenty five years, a farmer cradling his young son said to us, "If
this Dhamma Yietra brings us even a moment of peace, I offer my deepest
gratitude, for then we can hope."
Bob Maat SJ, Liz Bernstein,
Yeshua Moser

The authors Bob Maat SJ and Liz Bernstein, of the Coalition for Peace and
Reconciliation, and Yeshua Moser of Nonviolence International walked across
Cambodia with the Dhamma Yietra.