Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 25. Chapters: Thich Nhat Hanh, Gary Snyder, Claude AnShin Thomas, Sulak Sivaraksa, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Robert Baker Aitken, Joan Halifax, Angel Kyodo Williams, Preah Maha Ghosananda, Christopher Titmuss, Alan Senauke, Alfred Bloom, Paul Genki Kahn, Maylie Scott, Tara Brach, Engaged Spirituality, Joanna Macy, Shenphen Rinpoche, Rodney Smith, Tue Trung, Kurt Kankan Spellmeyer, Sylvia Wetzel. Excerpt: Claude Anshin Thomas (born 1947) is an American Zen Buddhist monk and Vietnam War veteran. He is a vocal advocate of nonviolence and an international speaker, teacher and writer. Thomas was brought to Buddhism by Vietnamese Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, and was ordained in 1995 by Tetsugen Bernard Glassman of the Zen Peacemaker Order. Thomas brings Buddhist meditation practice and dharma teachings directly to the public through social projects, talks, and retreats. Since 1994, Thomas has walked 19,000 miles (31,000 km) on peace pilgrimages throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. While walking, Thomas carries no money and begs for food and shelter in the mendicant monk tradition. He is the author of At Hell´s Gate: A Soldier´s Journey from War to Peace (2004) and founder of the Zaltho Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending violence. Thomas was born in November 1947 in Pennsylvania and grew up in the town of Waterford. His father was a teacher and veteran, while his mother worked odd jobs as a barmaid, waitress, and house cleaner. Thomas experienced an abusive childhood, with his mother responsible for much of the physical abuse in his home, and his father emotionally distant. In one incident, his mother threw him down a flight of stairs, and in another, his father severely beat him. His relatives spoke glowingly about their war experiences, talking about it as a ´´great adventure´´ and influencing the young Thomas. When he was 11, his parents separated. Thomas began studying Korean style Ka...

Thich Nhat Hanh, Gary Snyder, Claude AnShin Thomas, Sulak Sivaraksa, Tetsugen Bernard Glassman, Robert Baker Aitken, Joan Halifax, Angel Kyodo Williams, Preah Maha Ghosananda, Christopher Titmuss, Alan Senauke, Alfred Bloom

Claude Anshin Thomas war selbst Soldat im Vietnam-Krieg und für den Tod von Hunderten von Menschen verantwortlich. Nach seiner Heimkehr kann er, wie so viele Kriegsveteranen, nicht mehr richtig Fuß fassen. 1991 trifft er Thich Nhat Hanh und lernt, den Ursachen von Gewalt und Zerstörung in der eigenen Biografie nachzugehen. Er erkennt, dass wir die Saat des Krieges in uns tragen und dass wir Gewalt immer weitergeben, wenn wir diese Aspekte in uns selbst nicht annehmen. In seinem schonungslosen und bewegenden Buch zeigt Claude Anshin Thomas anhand seiner eigenen Lebensgeschichte, wie die bedrohliche Spirale der Gewalt beendet werden kann. Sein Buch vermittelt die zutiefst berührende und ermutigende Botschaft, dass die Wunden des Krieges geheilt werden können. Mit einem Vorwort von Robert Atzorn und neuem Nachwort von Claude Anshin Thomas.