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Dharma Punx [Paperback]

Noah Levine (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)

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Book Description

May 4, 2004

Fueled by the music of revolution, anger, fear, and despair, we dyed our hair or shaved our heads ... Eating acid like it was candy and chasing speed with cheap vodka, smoking truckloads of weed, all in a vain attempt to get numb and stay numb.

This is the story of a young man and a generation of angry youths who rebelled against their parents and the unfulfilled promise of the sixties. As with many self-destructive kids, Noah Levine's search for meaning led him first to punk rock, drugs, drinking, and dissatisfaction. But the search didn't end there. Having clearly seen the uselessness of drugs and violence, Noah looked for positive ways to channel his rebellion against what he saw as the lies of society. Fueled by his anger at so much injustice and suffering, Levine now uses that energy and the practice of Buddhism to awaken his natural wisdom and compassion.

While Levine comes to embrace the same spiritual tradition as his father, bestselling author Stephen Levine, he finds his most authentic expression in connecting the seemingly opposed worlds of punk and Buddhism. As Noah Levine delved deeper into Buddhism, he chose not to reject the punk scene, instead integrating the two worlds as a catalyst for transformation. Ultimately, this is an inspiring story about maturing, and how a hostile and lost generation is finally finding its footing. This provocative report takes us deep inside the punk scene and moves from anger, rebellion, and self-destruction, to health, service to others, and genuine spiritual growth.


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Dharma Punx + Against the Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries + The Heart of the Revolution: The Buddha's Radical Teachings on Forgiveness, Compassion, and Kindness
Price For All Three: $32.93

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Levine has a gift for plunging readers into the belly of his experience.” (Tricycle magazine )

“Honesty and wildness that become transformed and inspiring.” (Jack Kornfield, author of A Path With Heart )

“Fierce and disarming in its honesty, raw and true in its expression...This is not your average spiritual autobiography!” (Norman Fischer, Zen priest and poet, and founder of the Everyday Zen Foundation )

“An entry point for many others into a potentially life-saving practice...an empathic and moving offering.” (Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are )

“This honest, page-turning confession is also a measure of the adaptability and usefulness of the Asian tradition of Buddhism for the young and restless of contemporary America.” (Publishers Weekly )

“This book is a great success story that shows that violence, negativity and self destruction doesn’t accomplish anything.” (Mike Ness, lead singer of Social Distortion )

“Noah takes us through his own personal genocide in this honest and at times unbearably painful account of his journey.” (Sothira, lead singer of Crucifix/Proudflesh )

About the Author

Noah Levine is the founder of the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, with two centers in Los Angeles and over twenty affiliated groups in North America and Europe. He is the author of the national bestseller Dharma Punx and Against the Stream. He leads meditation groups and workshops nationally as well as in juvenile halls and prisons. Levine holds a master's degree in counseling psychology and has studied with many well-known and respected teachers in both the Theravada and Mahayana traditions. Levine lives in Los Angeles.


Product Details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: HarperOne (May 4, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060008954
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060008956
  • Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

45 Reviews
5 star:
 (15)
4 star:
 (7)
3 star:
 (11)
2 star:
 (6)
1 star:
 (6)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.4 out of 5 stars (45 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Echoes of the Heart, December 14, 2005
This review is from: Dharma Punx (Paperback)
I really enjoyed this book. It's simply told, and has a measure of honesty to it that I don't find in more polished works. This is Noah's story, with all his confusion, anger, puzzlement, flaws and discoveries shared with us. Having grown up hippy-trippy on California's Central Coast, I heard echoes of my own experiences in thinking everybody was really too precious for words when they talked about Zen and buddhism, or mantras or tantras or whatever. I really appreciated the author's willingness to to share his own dichotomies with us-in one scene he describes threatening a hostel owner with a wooden stick, while he was on a journey searching for inner peace. I heard other echoes of my own experience as well: the desire to have peace and tranquility to think on things, yet instead getting angry and restless once the opportunity is at hand, the need to feel things intensely and yet the wish to be quietly placid, or even the desire to have no desire. I read this almost like reading somebody's REAL journal, not some edited and cleaned up literary masterpiece. The book helped me see that the path toward enlightenment starts wherever you are-for Noah it was a padded cell and taking his father's advice to do some breathing exercises-just to get through it all, just to survive.

A word on some of the other reviews: I don't think it's relevant who Noah's father was-I have several friends who have been on similar trips to monasteries, seen the Dalai Lama, etc. who have no connections, and the author was very up-front with his interactions with his father-good and bad. He even talks about some of the negative things he experienced when people disliked his father's writings.

In the end, this is Noah's story, but I also found echoes of my own experiences. I found it insightful, honest, and pure.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Memoir, not a textbook, February 2, 2009
This review is from: Dharma Punx (Paperback)
Unlike some, I read the whole book before writing my review. The story resonated with me, but I'm the audience. I'm about the same age as the author, like a lot of the same music, and have my own experiences with using, recovery, and spiritual seeking. I don't know how the book would read to you. I'm not you, you know?

But I didn't expect a textbook on Buddhism. For that I'd probably get a, I don't know, textbook on Buddhism. Instead I got a story from a contemporary of mine who told his story with honesty, humanity, and heart. It gave me some f-ing hope and that's something for which I'm always grateful. Thanks fellow trudger along the path of happy destiny. Pax.
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25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Rude Boy's Dharma Vs. Dharma Punx, September 3, 2004
By 
Levi Keach (Lawrence, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Dharma Punx (Paperback)
When I saw Dharma Punx I was drawn to the promise of a story not too dissimilar to my own, but by the end of the book I was left quite disappointed. My biggest problem with Noah's story is that he's not really a Buddhist, but rather a generic spiritual kind of guy, who likes to meditate. Noah talks in great depths about his adherence to the 12 Steps(AA,) but doesn't mention adherence to the Eight-Fold Path, he mentions the Four Noble Truths in passing, but spends much more time in sweat lodges. Buddhist shortcomings aside, Dharma Punx is moderately interesting story of a man's struggle with addiction and growing up.
With a name like Dharma Punx one cannot help but comparing this book to Jack Kerouac's Dharma Bums, but don't, after finishing Dharma Punx I realized that the title is not an allusion to Kerouac's classic of disenfranchised youth finding refuge in the works of Zen lunatics and booze, rather, Dharma punx is the story of disenfranchised youth finding refuge from booze, drugs and violence in an amalgamated spiritual practice the author has called Buddhism.
I don't think that the lifestyles portrayed in either book could properly be called a middle path though.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Waking up in a padded cell, my head bruised and bloody, I scream with rage at an unknown assailant. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
dharma puox, dharma punx, getting tattooed, hardcore scene, punk rock scene, punk shows, hardcore bands, other punks, punk scene, beach flats, sober friends
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Santa Cruz, New Mexico, Straight Edge, Dalai Lama, San Francisco, Ajahn Amaro, New York, Spirit Rock, Club Culture, East Coast, Ram Dass, Jack Kornfield, Sri Lanka, New Delhi, New Haven, Black Flag, Costa Rica, Los Angeles, Noah Core, Hazrat Inayat Khan, Hell Bitches, Little League, New Orleans, North Carolina, Pacific Garden Mall
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