THROUGH THE FLAMES

After miraculously surviving a plane crash in Myanmar, Allan Lokos shares what his long and painful recovery process is teaching him about humanity’s ability to survive—and even thrive—in the face of suffering.

In THROUGH THE FLAMES Lokos tells the terrifying story of being on board a plane on Christmas Day with his wife, Susanna, when it crashed and exploded in flames. Lokos was severely burned in the accident, and in the days and weeks following the crash, Susanna was told by the many doctors who examined Lokos that he would not survive. As founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center in New York City, Lokos had spent decades cultivating compassion and non-attachment. Since the plane crash, his Buddhist practice has been mightily tested. In this inspiring account of his against-all-odds recovery, Lokos uses his experience as a window to examine the challenge of human suffering and addresses the question of how we can thrive in the midst of pain and uncertainty.

Allan Lokos is the author of Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living and Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tricycle Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Beliefnet. He has taught at Columbia University Teachers College, Marymount College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Rubin Museum, New York Insight Meditation Center, The New York Open Center, Tibet House USA, and the Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Lokos has practiced meditation since the mid-nineties and has studied with such renowned teachers as Sharon Salzberg, Thich Nhat Hanh, Joseph Goldstein, Andrew Olendzki, and Stephen Batchelor.