Chaplain (Capt) Thomas Dyer, the US Army’s Baptist-preacher-turned-Buddhist-Chaplain is opening a meditation center in Afghanistan.

The Bagram Dharma Center in Afghanistan will be classified as a “faith-based resiliency center,” and it gives [Chaplain] Capt. Thomas Dyer…a better way to connect his Eastern beliefs, Southern roots and Middle Eastern deployment.

The article goes on to describe what it will be: 

It is not a Buddhist temple, but rather a building dedicated to Eastern health and spiritual practices for the benefit of Buddhist and non-Buddhist soldiers alike — although it will have a Buddhist altar and statues inside.

Chaplain Dyer gives high credit to the meditation he teaches:

“It works. It helps,” Dyer said. “Not only is it relieving suffering — it’s restoring performance.”

He used meditative principles to help a man pass a running test he’d already failed five times.

It is no small irony that US Army Chaplain (Capt) Dyer will be opening a Buddhist “temple” in a country that destroyed all vestiges of Buddhism just prior to the US invasion.

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