LEVINE, Noah 1971(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1971; son of Stephen (a writer) and Patricia Levine. Education: Attended California Institute of Integral Studies.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Francisco, CA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins, 10 East 53rd St., 7th Fl., New York, NY 10012.

CAREER:

Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Woodacre, CA, teacher-in-training. Mind Body Awareness Project, cofounder and director.

WRITINGS:

Dharma Punx: A Memoir, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Noah Levine tells the story of his life in Dharma Punx: A Memoir, tracing his journey from drug addict and street thief to practicing Buddhist. According to Kerri Hikida, writing in the Whole Life Times online, in his memoir Levine seeks to "integrate the punk ethic with spiritual practice."

The son of Stephen Levine, a writer on New Age spiritual topics, Noah had a troubled childhood which included suicide attempts, drug addiction, vandalism, and crime. When his parents divorced, Levine lived with his mother and stepfather, a situation he fought against. Part of Noah's rebellion against his family was a turn to punk rock, embracing the violent style of the scene. By the age of seventeen Noah had been arrested so often that a final arrest found him sentenced to three months in the Santa Cruz Country Juvenile Hall. At this time his father approached him with the suggestion that he try meditation, a suggestion that set Noah on the path to kick his drug habit, finish school, and study Buddhism. "I turned my attention inwards and started to see I wanted to decrease the anger, fear, envy and greed I had within myself.… I began to see that a lot of [punk] music was actually encouraging hatred, encouraging grief—not necessarily the influences I wanted to have," Levine explained to Hikida.

An homage to twentieth-century Beat writer Jack Kerouac's book Dharma Bums, Levine's Dharma Punx was derived from several essays he wrote for school. These papers were "on things I had done and learned in life that I hadn't received school credit for," Levine explained to Jessica Rae Patton of the Buddhist News Network Web site. "My topics were recovery, Buddhist pilgrimage, community health. My teachers were impressed, and I realized I'd had a pretty interesting life." The resulting book "is dramatic," a critic for Kirkus Reviews admitted in reviewing Dharma Punx. Making his home in San Francisco, Levine teaches Buddhist meditation techniques and counsels young prisoners.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2003, review of Dharma Punx: A Memoir, p. 588.

ONLINE

Buddhist News Network,http://www.buddhistnews.tv/ (August 7, 2003), Jessica Rae Patton, "Punk Monk."

Noah Levine's Home Page,http://www.dharmapunx.com/ (October 6, 2003).

Salon.com,http://www.salon.com/ (November 19, 2002), Sean Elder, "From Street Thug to Dharma Punk."

Whole Life Times Online,http://www.wholelifetimes.com/ (November 24, 2003), Kerri Hikida, "Dharma Punk Noah Levine: Buddhism's Next Generation."*