Bayard and John Cobb Peace Lecture

Distinguished thinkers, practitioners, activists, and scholars from diverse backgrounds are invited to give Naropa University’s annual Bayard and John Cobb Peace Lecture.

5th Annual Peace Lecture

Claude AnShin Thomas, "The Real Cost of War, Violence and Denial"

April 10, 2013
"We who have fought in war know intimately about life and death", says Claude AnShin Thomas. During this talk Claude AnShin Thomas shared his inspiring spiritual odyssey from combat to becoming a Zen Buddhist Monk as a road map for any of us who are interested to understand life and death in a deeper sense and who want to embark on a journey to life differently in the world.

Claude AnShin Thomas was born in 1947 in Pennsylvania. He experienced forms of violence and abuse in his childhood. At the age of eighteen he volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War. He served from 1966-'67. He was injured seriously. Those injuries were physical, psychological, and spiritual. Today he states that during his time in Vietnam he became responsible for the death of many people. When he came back to the U.S. he experienced unemployment, drug-addiction and social isolation. 1990 he began to walk a Buddhist path, and in 1994 he received his novice-ordination in the Japanese Soto Zen Tradition. In 1995 he became ordained a Zen Buddhist monk and received the name AnShin AnGyo. He is the founder of the Zaltho Foundation, Inc, a non-profit organization that promotes non-violence and change. He is also the author of "AT HELL'S GATE – A Soldiers Journey from War to Peace" (Shambhala Publications, 2004). For further information please visit: www.zaltho.org

Previous Peace Lectures

Prior year's lectures include:

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