02/20/2026
May the light of peace shine ✨️🐾
For those who have been asking about Aloka....
he is doing well. 🐾...
His paw has healed. He is walking again.
Not 2,300 miles this time — just small, quiet steps around the temple grounds, at his own gentle pace, in his own time.
If you are new here, Aloka is not a dog anyone adopted.
He is a stray who chose.
During the 2022 Walk for Peace across India, he simply began following the monks.
No one called him. No one trained him. No one tied him there.
He just stayed.
Step after step. Village after village. Road after road.
Until the monks finally gave a name to the presence that had already become part of the journey.
They called him Aloka — “light.”
And somehow, he lived up to it.
He walked with them again across the United States.
Hundreds upon hundreds of miles.
Through burning asphalt and winter roads.
Through exhaustion, distance, and days that tested even the strongest bodies.
Aloka did not understand the teachings.
He did not know the purpose of the walk.
He did not know about peace pilgrimages or spiritual vows.
He only knew this:
these were beings who moved through the world with kindness —
and he wanted to stay close to that.
When his small body finally gave out, his paw worn beyond what flesh should endure, he underwent surgery.
And then he healed the same way the monks crossed continents:
slowly.
patiently.
one step at a time.
Today, there are no highways beneath his feet.
No long caravans of monks.
No miles to complete.
Just sunlight on temple stones.
Soft earth.
Familiar robes.
And the quiet dignity of a being who walked further than anyone ever asked him to.
Sometimes we think peace is philosophy.
Or teachings.
Or grand human intentions.
But sometimes peace is simply this:
a small, faithful presence
choosing, again and again,
to remain beside kindness.
Aloka never needed to understand the walk.
He only needed to love the walkers.
And perhaps —
that is all peace has ever been. 🐾✨
