Claude AnShin Thomas Sunday, May 6th, 2012

Presents Public Talk for Veterans Living
with Posttraumatic Stress by
Claude AnShin Thomas
in collaboration with Assumption College
Institute for Social and Rehabilitation
Services
Sunday, May 6th, 2012 @ 1:00pm
Open to Veterans, Their Families & Friends
and the general public
Assumption College - 500 Salisbury Street –
Worcester, MA
Contact: Bill Moore: Phone: 508-713-3362
e-mail: [email protected]
www.Projectnewhopema.org
Hell’s Gate - A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace
Claude AnShin Thomas
The remarkable story of a Vietnam combat veteran who became a Zen
Buddhist monk and an international peace activist.
Claude Thomas was seventeen when he volunteered for active duty in Vietnam,
where became a crew chief on assault helicopters. By his eighteenth birthday he
had killed hundreds of people. When he returned home, like so many Vietnam
veterans, he found himself unable to reenter society, and for many years he
struggled with post-traumatic stress, addiction, isolation, homelessness, and
debilitating despair. “Everyone has their Vietnam,” writes Thomas. “Everyone
has their war. May we embark together on a pilgrimage of ending these wars
and truly living peace.”
In simple and direct language, Thomas offers what he has learned from
the Buddhist tradition about healing trauma and ending war from the inside out.
Today Thomas travels the world speaking about war and teaching meditation.
He also leads peace pilgrimages through war-torn and war-scarred places
around the world.
In this book Thomas maintains that war is not a result of human nature
but “the collective expression of our personal suffering.” And though the seeds
of war and violence are planted early and often, Thomas shows us how we each
have the power to end war.
Claude Anshin Thomas went to Vietnam 1966-‘67, where he was seriously wounded and
received more than two dozen medals including the Purple Heart. Today Thomas is an active
speaker and teacher in the United States, Europe, and Asia and is the founder of the Zaltho
Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization that promotes peace and nonviolence:
www.zaltho.org.