Claude AnShin Thomas is a Zen Buddhist monk and the author of the book At Hell's Gate: A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace. At the age of 17 he enlisted in the US Army and served in the Vietnam War as a helicopter crew chief. Since that time, he has been working to heal the wounds of war--emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.

Ordained in Auschwitz in 1994 by Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, he walked on pilgrimage from Auschwitz to Vietnam, begging for alms along the way in the ancient Buddhist tradition of takuhatsu. He has walked several
other pilgrimages since then in the United States and Europe.

Claude AnShin is the guiding teacher at the Magnolia Zen Center in Mary Esther, Florida, and the founder of the Zaltho Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes meditation and nonviolence. Claude AnShin teaches frequently in the United States, Europe, and South America. For more information, visit www.zaltho.org or email info@zaltho.org.