Claude AnShin Thomas
Claude AnShin Thomas (* November 21st 1947 in Pennsylvania) is a veteran of the Vietnam War and Soto -Zen priest.
Life
Claude Thomas was born the son of a teacher in a small town in the USA. At the age of 17 he volunteered for the US Army and was soon used in the Vietnam War. He served as the commandant of a helicopter crew from September 1966 to November 1967. In 1968 he was honorably discharged from the US Army after a serious wound and returned to the USA. Like many veterans, he found it difficult to reintegrate into society. Despite his turn to sport and training, the unresolved war experiences repeatedly led him to insomnia, restlessness, and alcohol and drug abuse.
In 1991 he met the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh and turned to meditation in search of a cure for traumatic damage. As a result, he spent a long time in the monastic atmosphere of the Plum Village meditation center in France. In 1995, after a month long pilgrimage on foot from Auschwitz to Hiroshima, he was ordained a Zen monk as AnShin AnGyo by Roshi Bernard Tetsugen Glassman , founder of the Greyston Foundation and the Peacemaker Order. In the late 1990s he founded the Zaltho Foundation to support his work for understanding, peace and healing of wounds caused by violence and war.
Claude AnShin Thomas sees himself as a wandering monk and travels for several months each year, especially in the USA and Europe, giving lectures and retreats . Otherwise he lives at the Magnolia Zen Center in Mary Esther , Florida, USA.
Works
- Claude AnShin Thomas: Ending War - Living Peace. A soldier overcomes hatred and violence . Theseus 2003. Review
- Claude AnShin Thomas: At the Gate to Hell - The Path of a Soldier to a Zen Monk . Theseus 2008. Ext. And updated new edition. end of war, live peace.
Web links
- Literature by and about Claude AnShin Thomas in the catalog of the German National Library
- Biographical
- Reports and photos
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thomas, Claude AnShin |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | AnShin AnGyo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Soto Zen monk |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 1947 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pennsylvania , USA |