Earlier today, Venerable Bhikku Pannakara graciously accepted the World Peace Award in Stockholm Sweden.
Most Venerable Ratanuguna, Phra Supalak, Phra Ponchai Khamyaem, and Venerable Pongsawat were in the audience. And I believe Venerable Samma Maggo, too!
Below is my transcript. I may have gotten a word or two wrong; any and all mistakes are solely mine.
"Respected Maha Sangha, faith leaders, professors, scholars, government officials, and everyone here.
Today I stand before you with deep gratitude, receiving the World Peace Award here in Stockholm, is a great honor. I accept it with humility, not as something belonging to me alone, but as recognition of every person who still believes that peace is possible and is willing to work for it.
On October 29, 2025, at the gate of the Huang Dao Vipassana Center in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, before me was a road that would take us across to the United States. Beside me were Theravada monks from the United States, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. We carried our robes, our bowls, and a simple message: Peace must begin within each of us.
For 112 days, we walked approximately 2,300 miles or 3,700 km. We passed through 10 states before arriving in Washington, DC. We walked through small towns, crowded cities, rain, cold winds, and many difficult days. The true meaning of the Walk for Peace was not found in the number of miles we traveled. It was found in the people waiting beside the road.
We met here, holding handmade signs. We met veterans, police officers, firefighters, nurses, teachers, emigrants, public officials, and families who had driven for hours just to stand with us for a few moments. Some offered flowers, some offered food and water, and many offered their tears. They did not cry because they were weak. They cried because something within them had been waiting to hear that peace was still possible.
I did not have a gift, and of course, when people come to us with questions like, "Can you help me find peace?" I wish I had something like that to give, but of course, I did not have a gift that I could place into their hands. Peace cannot be handed from one person to another. It cannot be purchased with money, received through an award, or imposed by force. We may pray for it and speak about it, but unless we learn to care for the anger, fear, and sorrow within ourselves, peace will remain only a beautiful word.
If a person is hungry, watching someone else eat will not remove their hunger. In the same way, listening to others speak about peace will not bring peace into our hearts unless we practice it ourselves.
This is why our walk was not a protest against anyone. We did not walk to defeat a political party, condemn a nation, or persuade anyone to follow our religion. We walk to remind the human family of something we already know but often forget.
Every person wants to live without fear. Every parent wants a safe future for their children. Every child deserves to grow up without being taught to hate someone they have never met.
Across America, I met with so many people from different bases, languages, religions, and political beliefs. I saw the same human heart. That heart can be wounded, but it can also be healed. It can hold anger, but it can learn forgiveness. It can become divided by fear, but it can return to compassion.
Our world moves very fast. Information reaches us within a second, but understanding often arrives too late. We react before we listen. We judge before we know the whole story. We speak while anger is still burning, and our words travel further than we ever intended.
A war begins long before the first weapon is fired. It begins when fear is allowed to grow without understanding. It begins when we stop seeing the humanity of those who are different from us. It begins when another person becomes only a laborer, an enemy, or an obstacle.
The same pattern can begin in our homes and communities. Every harsh word adds something to the world. Every act of patience adds something to peace. Peace is not only the work of presidents, diplomats, religious leaders, or international organizations. It is also decided at the dinner table, in the classroom, at the workplace, and in the moment when we choose to enter anger with more anger.
Peace does not require everyone to think alike. It asks us to remember that disagreement does not remove another person's human worth. It is easy to speak about peace among people who already agree with us. The true work begins when we meet someone whose beliefs are very different from our own. Can we listen without preparing an attack? Can we disagree without humiliation? Can we protect our convictions without treating another person as an enemy?
Those of us who speak about peace also must examine ourselves. We cannot call for harmony in public while creating division in private. We cannot ask nations to forgive while refusing to forgive within our own families and communities.
We cannot expect society to become kinder if our own words continue to carry anger and contempt. Peace begins within us, but it cannot remain there. Inner peace must become compassionate action. It must feed the hungry, comfort the grieving, protect children, care for animals, welcome the stranger, and stand beside those who feel forgotten. A peaceful heart does not withdraw from the suffering of the world. It enters that suffering without adding more hatred to it.
Today, a [distant- not certain this is the correct word] message has brought us to Sweden. Stockholm is known around the world as a place where great achievements are honored and serious conversations about how humanity's future are held. Yet peace cannot live only in ceremonies, conference rooms, or official declarations. It must enter our daily lives. It must guide how we speak, how we lead, how we treat other people when no one is watching.
I receive this award on behalf of the monks who walk beside me, the volunteers who serve quietly, the officers who protect us, and the people of many faiths who pray in their own ways along the road. I also receive it for every person who came to us carrying a private shawl and hoping that peace was still within reach. This award does not mark the end of our work. It gives us a greater responsibility. Recognition gives us a voice, a further reach, but what matters is how that voice is used.
I will continue to use mine for non-violence, compassion, understanding, and dignity for every human life. Today, I ask each person here to make one quiet commitment: do not wait for someone else to begin. Choose one place in your life where peace has been missing, and take one honest step towards it. A single step may not carry us across the nation, but without that first step, no one crossed the road. One voice may not end the war, but it can prevent hatred from entering another part. One act of compassion may seem small, but to the person who receives it, that act may change everything.
May those living in war find safety. May those separated from their families be reunited. May those carrying hatred find the courage to put it down. May those who have lost hope find a reason to begin again. May every child inherit a world in which differences do not become a reason for violence.
From Stockholm, let us send a message beyond this hall, beyond Sweden, and beyond every border: Peace is not someone else's responsibility. Peace is not a dream for another time. Peace begins here. Peace begins now. Peace begins within each of us.
I hope that if you already listened to my talk, if we don't give our mind a wholesome thing to do in the morning when we wake up, then our mind will automatically pick up all the trash to chew it over and over. Trash means all those unhappy things: hatred, anger, delusion, greed, so on. Once our minds are filled with all those defilements, we will mess up our day.
Before we mess up our day in the morning when we wake up, always remember to make our own bed and then get a piece of paper and a pen out. Write down the statement called "Who Knows That Statement?" Raise your hand. That statement says: "Today is going to be my peaceful day!" You begin your day just like that. Just write that statement now: "Today is going to be my peaceful day." Instead of letting your mind be filled with anger, greed, and delusion, now we wire our mind to have a wholesome message, which is "Today is going to be my peaceful day." Write that down, read it over and over with our eyes, and then read it out loud to tell the universe that today is going to be my peaceful day.
It's mine, no one else's, and I am the only person in this world who can mess it up, no one else, because I have a choice: I have a choice to mess it up or not. To determine that today is going to be my peaceful day, tell the universe that positive statement, because we've been spreading hate, delusion, greed, and all those unwholesome things to the universe already, so much from generation after generation. That is why the universe returns with disasters, and then we suffer.
So now, we need to change by spreading only loving kindness, compassion, and mindfulness to the universe. By doing that message, that statement, "Today is going to be my peaceful day," and then throughout our day, just live peacefully, mindfully, one task at a time, because we've been multitasking also, not every day, not just every day, but right now.
Earlier, when I talked, most of you will were also sidetrack. Do you know what you sidetrack with? With the slide of the video earlier, so when your eyes catch that, your ear cannot listen to me, cannot hear what I said. Is that true? Because all I can only pick up one thing at a time. When we pay attention to this, (gestures at screen)we are not paying attention to this (points to ear). When we pay attention to this, we cannot pay attention to that, so one thing at a time.
We are multitasking ourselves every day and for many years already. That is why we suffer. That is why we are not mindful enough to live a peaceful day. Now is our chance to work on it, to build peace within ourselves. May you all be well, be happy, and be peaceful. Thank you so much."
