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Through the Flames: Overcoming Disaster Through Compassion, Patience, and Determination
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 , Allan 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 through which to examine the challenge of human suffering in general and addresses the question of how we can thrive in the midst of pain and uncertainty.
In Through the Flames , Allan 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 through which to examine the challenge of human suffering in general and addresses the question of how we can thrive in the midst of pain and uncertainty.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published February 5, 2015
About the author
Allan Lokos
8 books50 followersAllan Lokos is the founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center.
He began his study and practice of meditation with Thich Nhat Hanh in the nineties and his teachers have included Joseph Goldstein, Larry Rosenberg, Andrew Olendzki, Stephen Batchelor, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, among others. He has attended retreats at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and classes and workshops at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Allan has also attended a number of weeklong teachings with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. Since 2002 Allan has enjoyed a treasured relationship with Sharon Salzberg, studying the dhamma and deepening his meditation practice.
He is the author of Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living (Tarcher/Penguin), and Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living (Tarcher/Penguin, 12/2011.) His writing has appeared in Tricycle Magazine (for whom he also led a month long online retreat), Back Stage newspaper, and the anthology, Audacious Creativity.
Among the many places he has taught are New York Insight Meditation Center, The New York Open Center, Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Columbia University Teacher's College, Columbia University Buddhist Association, The Rubin Museum, and Marymount College.
Earlier in this life Allan was a professional singer appearing in the original Broadway productions of Oliver! and Pickwick, as well as the Stratford Festival/Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance.
Allan was selected as one of "50 Inspiring Religous Leaders You Should follow on Twitter."
He began his study and practice of meditation with Thich Nhat Hanh in the nineties and his teachers have included Joseph Goldstein, Larry Rosenberg, Andrew Olendzki, Stephen Batchelor, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, among others. He has attended retreats at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and classes and workshops at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Allan has also attended a number of weeklong teachings with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. Since 2002 Allan has enjoyed a treasured relationship with Sharon Salzberg, studying the dhamma and deepening his meditation practice.
He is the author of Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living (Tarcher/Penguin), and Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living (Tarcher/Penguin, 12/2011.) His writing has appeared in Tricycle Magazine (for whom he also led a month long online retreat), Back Stage newspaper, and the anthology, Audacious Creativity.
Among the many places he has taught are New York Insight Meditation Center, The New York Open Center, Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Columbia University Teacher's College, Columbia University Buddhist Association, The Rubin Museum, and Marymount College.
Earlier in this life Allan was a professional singer appearing in the original Broadway productions of Oliver! and Pickwick, as well as the Stratford Festival/Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance.
Allan was selected as one of "50 Inspiring Religous Leaders You Should follow on Twitter."
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 2, 2015
A very helpful book for anyone undergoing treatment for a catastrophic injury or illness. The author was already the founder of a meditation center before he suffered nearly fatal burns from an airplane crash. Literally no one thought he would recover. He did and he has produced this wonderful book which is both practical and uplifting about how to deal positively to changes caused by major illness or injury. I am thankfully not in this situation but found the book valuable in dealing with the stresses of daily life. I appreciate his concept of "mindfulness" which helps you focus on and enjoy all your experiences.
June 26, 2019
I read a sample of this book randomly over the past year and it hooked me immediately. I did not know any background information on Allan Lokos, so a lot of the book really surprised me -the airplane crash, how much he and his wife/family/friends/support system fought for him to get medical treatment, his advice for self-advocation when one is receiving any sort of medical treatment, his honesty and openly sharing about death. I found his story and the wisdom he wove into it really compelling. I think this was a really important book for me to read as a young person constantly pondering what is important in this life and how to work through the hardships. Thank you for writing this, Allan Lokos. I know it was not easy to remember and work through the trauma (as well as physical body pains) to write this.
December 15, 2019
3+
Compassionate self-help guide and memoir in one.
For me the best aspect is how obviously genuine Lokos is in all he recounts, the brief interviews within, and the guidance and advice for practice he offers. He means it, tries to live by it, and wishes a better, richer, fuller life to those who would likewise undertake similar.
"Out of the ashes" section offers messages and lessons from the book in an impressive but easy to digest list. It's quite the distillation.
I have worked to practice meditation for over a year at this point, making many of the concepts visited familiar to me & me less in need of the rudiments. But it's never bad to go over them, again, see them applied in various ways, and have gentle reminders and larger refreshers. It is practice, after all.
Compassionate self-help guide and memoir in one.
For me the best aspect is how obviously genuine Lokos is in all he recounts, the brief interviews within, and the guidance and advice for practice he offers. He means it, tries to live by it, and wishes a better, richer, fuller life to those who would likewise undertake similar.
"Out of the ashes" section offers messages and lessons from the book in an impressive but easy to digest list. It's quite the distillation.
I have worked to practice meditation for over a year at this point, making many of the concepts visited familiar to me & me less in need of the rudiments. But it's never bad to go over them, again, see them applied in various ways, and have gentle reminders and larger refreshers. It is practice, after all.
March 3, 2015
Few books bear as apt a title as this one. Lokos, a Buddhist scholar for more than twenty years and the guiding teacher at the Community Meditation Center in New York City since 2007, was on vacation with his wife Susanna in Myanmar in December 2012 when, en route to their next local destination, the plane they were travelling on crash-landed and burst into flames in a field a few miles short of its destination. After helping his wife jump from an emergency exit door, his own escape was delayed for a few critical moments as his foot got caught in the doorway. By the time he managed to free it, he himself was on fire, and he had to leap quite literally "through the flames" to escape the inferno. Since that fateful day two years ago, he and his wife - who was also badly injured in her escape from the plane - have been making their way figuratively "through the flames" of his lengthy, and often painful, process of healing both in body and in spirit.
The narrative flows smoothly through the three successive stages of Lokos' personal journey: the first section features a dramatic account of the accident itself, and the harrowing days immediately afterwards as he barely clings to life through one operation after another; the second - entitled simply "Healing" - recounts his arduous physical and mental efforts in regaining the use of his hands and legs, and in resuming his own meditation practice as well as his teaching commitments; and then in the third - suitably entitled "The Path" - he looks at a wide array of Buddhist teachings through the lens of his own recent experience of suffering and healing.
As in his previous books, Pocket Peace and Patience, his authorial tone is so gentle, honest, and intimate that the reader almost feels as if he or she is having a private conversation with Lokos. And, due to the intense nature of the events around which it is centered, Through the Flames is easily his most personal and most powerful book to date. In its skillful interweaving of inspiration and instruction, it's an extraordinary and unique contribution to Buddhist wisdom literature.
The book is framed by two memorable random encounters. In one of the first chapters, as Lokos is being carried to safety from the fiery, about-to-explode fuselage, a woman in the crowd that has gathered around the accident scene looks down upon his severely burned face and assures him, "You will be alright, sir." Then, in the closing postscript, a nurse at a New York hospital who had cared for Lokos when he was first brought into the burn unit early in his treatment happens upon him nearly a year later emerging from the hospital elevator on his way to a therapy appointment, and exclaims "You look fantastic." In one sense, this second meeting fulfills the prophecy of the first - Lokos did indeed turn out to be alright. And in a more profound sense, these two women, living in two such different worlds and encountering Lokos at two such different times in his long path to recovery, both underscore one of the essential messages of this remarkable book - that kindness to another person, even if that person is a stranger we will never cross paths with again, has a mysterious healing power all its own, and is surely one of the most meaningful gifts that we can bestow on anyone.
The narrative flows smoothly through the three successive stages of Lokos' personal journey: the first section features a dramatic account of the accident itself, and the harrowing days immediately afterwards as he barely clings to life through one operation after another; the second - entitled simply "Healing" - recounts his arduous physical and mental efforts in regaining the use of his hands and legs, and in resuming his own meditation practice as well as his teaching commitments; and then in the third - suitably entitled "The Path" - he looks at a wide array of Buddhist teachings through the lens of his own recent experience of suffering and healing.
As in his previous books, Pocket Peace and Patience, his authorial tone is so gentle, honest, and intimate that the reader almost feels as if he or she is having a private conversation with Lokos. And, due to the intense nature of the events around which it is centered, Through the Flames is easily his most personal and most powerful book to date. In its skillful interweaving of inspiration and instruction, it's an extraordinary and unique contribution to Buddhist wisdom literature.
The book is framed by two memorable random encounters. In one of the first chapters, as Lokos is being carried to safety from the fiery, about-to-explode fuselage, a woman in the crowd that has gathered around the accident scene looks down upon his severely burned face and assures him, "You will be alright, sir." Then, in the closing postscript, a nurse at a New York hospital who had cared for Lokos when he was first brought into the burn unit early in his treatment happens upon him nearly a year later emerging from the hospital elevator on his way to a therapy appointment, and exclaims "You look fantastic." In one sense, this second meeting fulfills the prophecy of the first - Lokos did indeed turn out to be alright. And in a more profound sense, these two women, living in two such different worlds and encountering Lokos at two such different times in his long path to recovery, both underscore one of the essential messages of this remarkable book - that kindness to another person, even if that person is a stranger we will never cross paths with again, has a mysterious healing power all its own, and is surely one of the most meaningful gifts that we can bestow on anyone.
September 8, 2015
An amazing book that everyone should read regardless of where they are or are not overcoming a personal disaster. It makes one aware of living a life with a different philosophy. Lokos identifies two wings of Buddhist teachings as compassion and wisdom. The book divides into three major parts: his story of crashing in a plane with his wife, his story of his long and painful rehabilitation, and lastly an account of how practices can help one go from disaster to a life of happiness.
This is an inspiring book. It is filled with practical advice regarding self-care.
Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book free from the publisher. I was not obliged to write a favorable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.
This is an inspiring book. It is filled with practical advice regarding self-care.
Disclaimer: I received an arc of this book free from the publisher. I was not obliged to write a favorable review, or even any review at all. The opinions expressed are strictly my own.
November 12, 2015
An outstanding book on so many levels. As the story of a man who was severely burned in a plane crash and not expected to survive, it us a tribute to human strength and determination. He also shares the stories of some others who faced traumatic medical issues and how they coped. As a meditation instructor, the author helps us see how meditation can aid our recovery from accident or illness. He takes us inside the American healthcare system and offers sound advice on directing or own treatment and ensuring others are ready to advocate for us when we cannot. Profound and moving, this is a must read!
April 17, 2015
This is truly an amazing story of Allan Lokos who was in an airplane crash. He had third degree burns on a third of his body and some of the burns where all the way to bone. He was told by many doctors that he would not survive yet he has. He is a very passionate person who teaches meditation and about teachings of Buddha and the Dalai Lama.
March 1, 2026
I appreciated how rawly he described the situations he went through. Each chapter had a different lesson that he learned, and I felt like they were applicable to my life as I read them. Halfway through the book, it felt a bit repetitive when he talked about meditation and the power of it, but it was emphasis on an important point, I guess.
February 23, 2015
Empowering, life affirming testimony of how meditation and mindfulness practice establishes resilience of mind, body and spirit. I felt embraced and uplifted by this book and it will always stay with me.
March 5, 2015
marvellous book that will stay with you for a long time!
April 1, 2015
I thought this was pretty good, but I read a lot of Buddhist stuff and didn't really gain too many new insights. It was a good refresher, though.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews