Buddhist Nun Organizes Interfaith Peace Walk to Reach New York City for 9/11

September 1, 2006

Source: Times Union

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=513236

On September 1, 2006 Times Union reported, "From as far as a quarter-mile away, the sounds of drums and chanting floated through the mountains of eastern Rensselaer County on Thursday morning as the Interfaith Peace Walk started an 11-day journey to New York City. Jim Fulmer, a first-time long-distance peace walker, carried a flowing purple flag adorned with a red sun and the peace chant "Nam Myoho Renge Kyo" written in Japanese characters. A few others who strode behind him, including a man and a woman in Buddhist robes, struck rough wooden sticks on a flat drum. There were six in the group when the journey started at 9 a.m. at the Grafton Peace Pagoda on Taconic Lake Road. By the time they had gone the first few miles to Route 2, they were up to eight, including one young man in a wheelchair. The goal is to cover nearly 200 miles over the next week and a half -- about 18 miles a day -- in a testament to peace, love and personal transformation. After walking all the way to Nanuet, Rockland County, the group plans to arrive by bus Sept. 10 in New York City in time for memorial events in honor of the fifth anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. At least four in the group vowed to take the entire journey, while dozens more planned to accompany them for a portion of the trip... The trip was organized by Buddhist nun Jun Yasuda, who lives at the Grafton Peace Pagoda. Yasuda, 58, a native of Japan, has traveled more miles by foot than many people have by airplane. She's made hundreds of peace walks, such as trips from San Francisco to Canada, from Grafton to South Dakota and Grafton to New York City many times. She's walked from San Francisco to New York eight times, always in the name of making the world a better place."