#3. War does not happen from one day to the next.
“I am a murderer. I have killed people in war, and the life I live today is rooted in this awakening. But if we do not wake up, these cycles of war, violence, and suffering will continue.”— Claude Anshin Thomas.
Claude Anshin Thomas volunteered for the Vietnam War at the age of 17; he writes in his book At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey, “By taking up arms, I was directly responsible for the deaths of several hundred people, and the killing did not stop until I was discharged with honors and a purple heart.”
The curious thing is that Claude’s thirst for violence was quenched by the enemy he fought against in his youth: a Vietnamese monk who taught him Zen.
Since then, he has been a living example that change is possible and that a peaceful world is possible, and he spends his life traveling to places where peace is unstable, such as Colombia and other sites, to transmit his powerful message.
He is a spiritual model of the first order, and I want to share with you three powerful life lessons from him that will surely blow your mind.
1. War is only the expression of suffering.
According to Claude, frustration, dissatisfaction, being incomplete, and sadness lead us to violence against others and ourselves.
According to Claude, the solution is to accept that suffering because doing so puts an end to violence. And this gives peace of mind.
And this is very important because, as Claude says, everyone has his Vietnam.
Or he has had it, and from time to time, it comes to his mind, like Claude’s, that every time it rains, he goes back to Vietnam and feels between the monsoon and the napalm destroying trees and living beings.
- Your Vietnam may be a childhood trauma or abuse.
- Your Vietnam may be a severe current problem that you dare not confess.
- Your Vietnam may be the debts, the lovesickness, the social injustice you experience.
But the solution to that Vietnam remains the same: acceptance.
You have to accept that what is gone is not coming back. And some things will still last for a while before the sun returns.
And that acceptance will make the emotional stress we face daily much more bearable.
2. Anger is a huge, explosive pile of unattended feelings.
Claude brought hell with him when he returned from Vietnam.
The first thing that happened to him was that a Hippie walked up to him and spat in his face as soon as he got off the plane dressed in uniform.
And things wouldn’t get better for him for years.
He got into all kinds of trouble: alcohol, drugs, and never staying in one place for over six months. Until he went to college and got married, and had a son, but he ended up leaving them because of his frequent panic attacks, hearing his son cry.
All the resentment built up in him, digging him deeper into a hole. He was a war veteran, wounded in combat, whom no one respected and whom everyone laughed at and humiliated.
He had to learn to deal with feelings that, until then, he had not allowed himself to face: helplessness, despair, and rejection.
He had to learn to live in harmony with his suffering.
3. War does not happen from one day to the next; it is sown day by day.
Claude Anshin Thomas once wrote, “War does not begin with a declaration, nor does it end with an armistice. The seeds of War are constantly planted, and the harvest never ends.”
Hatred is sown day by day in those small actions that seem harmless.
- That news suggests that outsiders will take your job.
- In that barroom comment that assures you that all refugees are dangerous.
- That derogatory comment about the skin color of a soccer player.
All these little seeds sow our brains daily, and in due time they will germinate.
Because for the seed of hatred to flourish, it only needs to be watered with fear: inflation, scarcity, and violence. Sound familiar?
War is the violent response to suffering. Don’t forget that.
And I know it is tough to embrace frustration, pain, and sadness and not pay for what hurts us with others.
But we have to try.
Because unity is our advantage. If we unite, if we help each other, if we demand a better world, a better world we will have.
I don’t want to sound naive, but I genuinely believe you can be the change I want to see in the world.
There is strength in unity.
We are the future. I genuinely believe that.
So don’t let them steal your joy and happiness because your happiness matters much more than you think.
Love is the true enemy of hate; even though it sometimes loses battles, it wins the War.
A virtual hug
AG
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