Being a soldier isn't really an honorable thing. After all, it is all about be trained to kill other humans, and being willing to do so. The U.S., an alleged Christian nation, puts the military on a pedestal, only confirming that most people's religious beliefs are shallow.
Which leads me to this news story, which I find rather striking:
"As an 18-year-old soldier in Vietnam, Claude Thomas was good at his job.
Ordered to kill, he did it. But in the end, the killing destroyed him.
Years of drinking, drugs and violence would go by before he found Buddhist meditation, and eventually, life as a Buddhist monk.
...
"My job in Vietnam was to kill people," writes Claude Anshin, as he prefers to be called. "By the time I was first injured in combat (two or three months into his tour), I had already been directly responsible for the deaths of several hundred people. And today, each day, I can still see many of their faces."
Claude Anshin was a crew chief on assault helicopters. By the end of his tour in Vietnam, he'd won 27 Air Medals, a Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart...
Eventually, post-traumatic stress disorder and the accompanying addictions landed Claude Anshin on the streets. It wasn't until the early 1990s, when he heard Buddhist monk and author Thich Nhat Hanh speak at a retreat in upstate New York, that Claude Anshin was able to directly address the pain of both Vietnam and an abusive childhood.
In a telephone interview this week, Claude Anshin said he now travels to share Zen practices and help others understand both suffering and healing.
"How the roots of war and violence exist in all of us, and we are all responsible," he said. "What I do is share the tools that supported me: meditation practice, no intoxicants and a desire to live differently."
(from The Ann Arbor News).
Claude Anshin has put this experience into a book, "At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace."
Turn the clock forward: if he were returning today from Iraq with the same combat record he would be greeted with a flag waiving parade and honored for "fighting for our freedom." And so it goes.
Which leads me to this news story, which I find rather striking:
"As an 18-year-old soldier in Vietnam, Claude Thomas was good at his job.
Ordered to kill, he did it. But in the end, the killing destroyed him.
Years of drinking, drugs and violence would go by before he found Buddhist meditation, and eventually, life as a Buddhist monk.
...
"My job in Vietnam was to kill people," writes Claude Anshin, as he prefers to be called. "By the time I was first injured in combat (two or three months into his tour), I had already been directly responsible for the deaths of several hundred people. And today, each day, I can still see many of their faces."
Claude Anshin was a crew chief on assault helicopters. By the end of his tour in Vietnam, he'd won 27 Air Medals, a Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart...
Eventually, post-traumatic stress disorder and the accompanying addictions landed Claude Anshin on the streets. It wasn't until the early 1990s, when he heard Buddhist monk and author Thich Nhat Hanh speak at a retreat in upstate New York, that Claude Anshin was able to directly address the pain of both Vietnam and an abusive childhood.
In a telephone interview this week, Claude Anshin said he now travels to share Zen practices and help others understand both suffering and healing.
"How the roots of war and violence exist in all of us, and we are all responsible," he said. "What I do is share the tools that supported me: meditation practice, no intoxicants and a desire to live differently."
(from The Ann Arbor News).
Claude Anshin has put this experience into a book, "At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace."
Turn the clock forward: if he were returning today from Iraq with the same combat record he would be greeted with a flag waiving parade and honored for "fighting for our freedom." And so it goes.
posted by Rory at 6:21 AM
3 Comments:
...and the wheel of samsara creeks another revolution.
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