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Claude AnShin Thomas has walked a literal path from war to peace.
As a teenager, he joined the US Army and was sent to fight in the Vietnam War.
Now, Claude is a Buddhist monk and renowned teacher of sitting meditation.
"On the one hand, I am who I am because of what I have done, where I've been," he tells RN's Soul Search.
"At the same time, my life is committed today to bring an end to all war, all violence — and I do believe that's possible."
Since immersing himself in the Zen Buddhist tradition, Claude has come to see the roots of war, violence and suffering as internal, not external.
"They exist in each of us individually and it is our responsibility to wake up to that," he says.
It was a social worker who directed Claude to a meditation retreat. He was sceptical at first, but then something clicked when he was on the retreat.
"They were just asking me to sit down and become still, to carry that into my life and see what reveals itself to me," he says.
"I can't even remember exactly what was said, but I can remember what I heard was a truth I had known since I was 10.
"We're not bad people attempting to get good, we're wounded people looking for healing."
After committing to the practice, Claude began his training under the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh, then the Zen peacemaker Bernie Glassman.
This led to his full ordination as a Zen Buddhist monk into the Japanese Soto Zen tradition in 1995.
Sitting meditation is now a crucial discipline for Claude, who — 40 years ago — could barely stay out of jail or go anywhere without a handgun.
"I haven't done anything in particular, except stay disciplined in my commitment to sit just to sit, to walk just to walk, to eat just to eat, to work just to work," he says.
The practice has also helped Claude process the impact of war on his body.
He says he hasn't been able to sleep for more than two hours at a time since 1967.
Claude no longer sees "healing" as being able to sleep soundly, without nightmares, but rather learning to accept that "how I sleep is just how I sleep".
"Healing is not the absence of suffering. It's learning to live in a more conscious and active relationship with that suffering," he says.
Interesting article. Thank you. I've been a Zen practitioner for several decades. I always denote the difference between Zen and Buddhism because in my mind those are two completely different things. Zen is not a religion, which almost all the other forms of Buddhism are. It's seen as a spiritual practice outside the Buddhist teachings, and is not dependent on words or letters or scriptures within Buddhism. The heart of the practice, in fact I would say the entire extent of the practice, is sitting meditation and/ or chanting. The dogma is that people need a teacher, but not so. The original Buddha had no teacher, he gained insight strictly from sitting meditation. Or so we think, whatever he did was long before written history. If one practices correctly, then the whole universe is our teacher. Mr Thomas mentions two people who were instrumental to his practice, but to me they are not really Zen, as both place an almost religious reliance on Buddhist teachings.
Zen attracts very few followers, as it's a highly disciplined practice. I've been to maybe 20 or 30 Zen Centers in different areas of the US and Hawaii islands, and usually you see only a handful of people there. Over and over new people show up, then quickly stop coming. I think they expect more of a group dynamic, but Zen is "self power" as opposed to Buddhism's "other power". In other words, the Buddha is you, it's just not realized because we are stuck in our heads, heads that are full of do's and don'ts, good and bad, and all manner of beliefs and dualistic thoughts. So we are already awakened Buddhas, but we can't realize it due to our programming. The word Zen comes from a Japanese mispronunciation of the Chinese word chan, and both simply means "meditation".
A Buddha is just a person who has experienced an awakening. Someone who practices to be in the moment, which is where the real magic is. Meditation is the key. Caught in our old habits, thoughts, beliefs and patterned behavior, we never experience true reality, we just experience reality as what we think it is. Thinking is really the whole problem, and Zen meditation gives us an escape from our own myths and beliefs, as well as the so called truths that fill our minds. Enlightenment itself also doesn't last, as all things are impermanent. It's an experience, and experiences don't last. Which is why we should practice every day.
Last edited by stephenMM; 10-03-2023 at 10:27 PM..
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