3. Grieving Loss, Roots of Antisemitism, Understanding War and Moral Injury (#45)

These are questions and topics that Claude AnShin Thomas - Zen Buddhist monk, combat veteran, and author - reflects on. He reminds the listener of how to stay awake to life and how to understand more deeply the traps of a deluded mind.

This episode was recorded during a weekly zoom session of questions&responses.

For more information: https://zaltho.org/

If you want to ask Claude AnShin Thomas a question: [email protected]

Book recommendations: 

-       Bringing Meditation to Life - 108 Teachings on the Path of Zen Practice (Oakwood Publishing 2021)

-       AT HELL'S GATE - A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace (Shambhala Publications 2003)

https://zaltho.org/en/media/our-books.html

If you are interested in a specific question, this is the list of questions that Claude AnShin responded to and the time stamps for those questions so that you can go directly to the topic that is of most interest to you.
Questions and Time Stamps:

1:14 With the death of animals occurring all the time everywhere around you, how do you determine which animal you formally mourn when they die?

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2:08 How are you dealing with restless energy when you have a situation where you can rest and want to rest but there is this restless energy?

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2:36 What are your thoughts at the moment, on the situation that there is a common narrative that one is either for one side or for the other side but you cannot be both. Do you think one needs to take sides?

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4:03 What do you think are the roots of antisemitism over the centuries?

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6:05 What would you say to someone who tells me that they are sad that Muslims are often portrayed as terrorists or backward in conservative news cycles and a certain segments of public opinion in the US?

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8:51 Today, Veterans Day in the U.S., is there anything special or specific that you do?

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9:54 In newspapers and on television the focus seems to be primarily on the civilians that die during war. I don’t read or hear too much about the soldiers that die. How do you respond to this focus?

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11:16 My question is similar: with going to war, women are being raped as part of it and also this is not being talked about. Do you think that this is out of similar reasons? Because it is a topic that is filled with shame?

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12:27 AnShin, are you aware of the trend to speak about moral injury and moral distress in the world of health care and health care workers? What do you think about the application of these terms 'moral injury' and 'moral distress'?

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14:03 In the military, a soldier is obligated to follow orders unless those orders are against human rights. Isn’t that a little bit much responsibility to ask of them?

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15:30 Do you think that the people who give orders to the soldiers suffer moral injury?

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17:03 When I am speaking with my Israeli friend whose relatives are fighting in Gaza, whose family members are being bombed in Tel Aviv, is my perspective meaningless and irrelevant or should I share it?