Claude Anshin Thomas, the author of the best selling book “At Hell's Gate,” will speak at the Walpole Library on Tuesday, October 23, 2007 at 7:30 PM. In this talk Claude recounts his dramatic coming-of-age story and spiritual odyssey as well as offering his profound insights into suffering and violence, and how we can end them in ourselves and in our world.
“Everyone has their Vietnam,” Claude writes, everyone has experienced trauma and everyone, if they want, can find healing and peace through looking deeply at the nature of their suffering. “War is a collective expression of individual suffering.” The seeds of war and violence are planted early and often, and it is only through our actions and insights personally that we can hope to end war globally. What is startling in these days of the “war on terrorism” is that we rarely hear from the soldiers themselves. As a highly decorated helicopter crew chief who was wounded in battle and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart, Claude speaks with an authenticity and an honesty that is extremely compelling to a wide audience. He can speak with direct experience about the realities of war, about what we are sending young men and women to do, and about the effects that making war has on all of us.
Claude Anshin Thomas went to Vietnam at the age of eighteen, where he received numerous medals, including twenty-seven Air Medals, a Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart. Today he is a monk in the Soto Zen tradition and an active speaker and Zen teacher, traveling the world speaking about war and teaching meditation. He also leads peace pilgrimages through war-torn and war-scarred places around the world. Claude is the founder of the Zaltho Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes peace and non-violence. The talk is sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group and is open to the public.
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