Zaltho Foundation

Claude AnShin Thomas Biography

Claude Age 12

Claude AnShin Thomas was born in rural, Northwestern Pennsylvania in November of 1947. He was introduced to a practice of sitting meditation through my study of Martial Arts (Hop Ki Do) in 1961. He graduated from High School in 1965. Upon graduation he enlisted in the United States Army, completed my training and volunteered for duty in Vietnam where he served as a helicopter Crew Chief from September of 1966 to November of 1967.

Claude Army

During his service in Vietnam he was shot down on 5 separate occasions and wounded. He was honorably discharged from the US Army in August of 1968.

The next several years he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in English Education and complete the majority of course work towards a Master of Fine Arts in English (concentrating on creative writing). All of this education was at Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.

He then wandered about Europe, Asia, and the Far East before returning back to the United States to pursue a musical career that spanned 11 years, yielding 4 independent albums of what has been defined as Socially Conscious Rock and Roll.

Throughout this period of his life he was also very politically and socially active working to end the war in Vietnam, working for student rights and later working to address the plight of many of my fellow veterans who were being socially ostracized suffering homelessness, drug addiction, unemployability, social isolation, and abnormally high rates ofsuicide, divorce, and imprisonment. All of these were conditions with which he was intimately aware and personally familiar.

He also began the study of another Martial Art, Shaolin Kung Fu. He became an accomplished in this tradition as well as Hop Ki Do, teaching (at one point) as many as 500 students. During this time he also attended and graduated from Lesley College in Cambridge, MA with a Masters Degree in Management (MSM).

Walking Meditation

In 1991 he came in contact with the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. In this process Claude became a member of the Vietnamese monastery and retreat center, Plum Village in southern France, founded and guided by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, becoming awake to the devastating and lasting effects of war and how to make peace with this unpeacefulness (healing). He was ordained a Zen Buddhist Monk, AnShin AnGyo, in 1995 by Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, Roshi, founder of the Maezumi Institute, the Greyston Foundation and co-founder of the Peacemaker Order.

Claude AnShin published his first book in 2004 with the title “AT HELL’S GATE, A Soldier’s Journey From War To Peace”(Shambhala Publications, Inc.) and is currently working on two more books. He is active in creating and working for socially engaged projects serving the disenfranchised (the homeless, imprisoned, drug addicted, the wealthy, etc.).

Claude AnShin speak and lead retreats internationally on Mindfulness and Meditation Practice, Transformation, and Reconciliation. He speak publicly on the subjects of peace and the waking up to and healing of suffering, both personal suffering and collective suffering.

Claude AnShin has worked for Peace in the Balkans, and participated in a Pilgrimage for Peace with the Venerable Brother Sasamori Shonin of the Nippozan Myohoji lineage of the Japanese Nichiren Order. This pilgrimage began in Auschwitz in December of 1994 and ended in Japan (Hiroshima/Nagasaki) in August of 1995. On March 1, 1998, he began a New York to California cross-country journey, which was completed July 29, 1998. This Pilgrimage is known as the American Zen Pilgrimage. Claude AnShin (and those who walked with him) practiced the ancient Buddhist tradition of takahatsu, or alms begging, with the main focus of the journey being a concentration on realizing the unknown, bearing witness, and healing. From August to October 1999 he walked through many concentration camp sites, prisoner of war camps, prisons and other places of suffering connected to the Second World war in Germany and did so again in the fall of 2002 on a pilgrimage from Budapest, Hungary through Austria to Bergen-Bel sen, Germany. In 2004 he walked from September until mid November on pilgrimage from Concord, MA to Ground Zero in New York City to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. In 2007 he walked from March until May on pilgrimage along the entire US/Mexican Border starting in Brownsville, TX and finishing south of San Diego, CA.

He founded the ZALTHO FOUNDATION, INC., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote peace and nonviolence in and among individuals, families, societies, and countries supporting all efforts to attain this goal through whatever peaceful and nonviolent means available. This Foundation is also beginning to take roots in other European and other countries.

Claude AnShin Thomas Biography

Claude Age 12

Claude AnShin Thomas was born in rural, Northwestern Pennsylvania in November of 1947. He was introduced to a practice of sitting meditation through my study of Martial Arts (Hop Ki Do) in 1961. He graduated from High School in 1965. Upon graduation he enlisted in the United States Army, completed my training and volunteered for duty in Vietnam where he served as a helicopter Crew Chief from September of 1966 to November of 1967.

Claude Army

During his service in Vietnam he was shot down on 5 separate occasions and wounded. He was honorably discharged from the US Army in August of 1968.

The next several years he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in English Education and complete the majority of course work towards a Master of Fine Arts in English (concentrating on creative writing). All of this education was at Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania.

He then wandered about Europe, Asia, and the Far East before returning back to the United States to pursue a musical career that spanned 11 years, yielding 4 independent albums of what has been defined as Socially Conscious Rock and Roll.

Throughout this period of his life he was also very politically and socially active working to end the war in Vietnam, working for student rights and later working to address the plight of many of my fellow veterans who were being socially ostracized suffering homelessness, drug addiction, unemployability, social isolation, and abnormally high rates ofsuicide, divorce, and imprisonment. All of these were conditions with which he was intimately aware and personally familiar.

He also began the study of another Martial Art, Shaolin Kung Fu. He became an accomplished in this tradition as well as Hop Ki Do, teaching (at one point) as many as 500 students. During this time he also attended and graduated from Lesley College in Cambridge, MA with a Masters Degree in Management (MSM).

Walking Meditation

In 1991 he came in contact with the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. In this process Claude became a member of the Vietnamese monastery and retreat center, Plum Village in southern France, founded and guided by the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, becoming awake to the devastating and lasting effects of war and how to make peace with this unpeacefulness (healing). He was ordained a Zen Buddhist Monk, AnShin AnGyo, in 1995 by Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, Roshi, founder of the Maezumi Institute, the Greyston Foundation and co-founder of the Peacemaker Order.

Claude AnShin published his first book in 2004 with the title “AT HELL’S GATE, A Soldier’s Journey From War To Peace”(Shambhala Publications, Inc.) and is currently working on two more books. He is active in creating and working for socially engaged projects serving the disenfranchised (the homeless, imprisoned, drug addicted, the wealthy, etc.).

Claude AnShin speak and lead retreats internationally on Mindfulness and Meditation Practice, Transformation, and Reconciliation. He speak publicly on the subjects of peace and the waking up to and healing of suffering, both personal suffering and collective suffering.

Claude AnShin has worked for Peace in the Balkans, and participated in a Pilgrimage for Peace with the Venerable Brother Sasamori Shonin of the Nippozan Myohoji lineage of the Japanese Nichiren Order. This pilgrimage began in Auschwitz in December of 1994 and ended in Japan (Hiroshima/Nagasaki) in August of 1995. On March 1, 1998, he began a New York to California cross-country journey, which was completed July 29, 1998. This Pilgrimage is known as the American Zen Pilgrimage. Claude AnShin (and those who walked with him) practiced the ancient Buddhist tradition of takahatsu, or alms begging, with the main focus of the journey being a concentration on realizing the unknown, bearing witness, and healing. From August to October 1999 he walked through many concentration camp sites, prisoner of war camps, prisons and other places of suffering connected to the Second World war in Germany and did so again in the fall of 2002 on a pilgrimage from Budapest, Hungary through Austria to Bergen-Bel sen, Germany. In 2004 he walked from September until mid November on pilgrimage from Concord, MA to Ground Zero in New York City to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. In 2007 he walked from March until May on pilgrimage along the entire US/Mexican Border starting in Brownsville, TX and finishing south of San Diego, CA.

He founded the ZALTHO FOUNDATION, INC., a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote peace and nonviolence in and among individuals, families, societies, and countries supporting all efforts to attain this goal through whatever peaceful and nonviolent means available. This Foundation is also beginning to take roots in other European and other countries.