Except for his bald head, there isn't much monkish about Noah Levine. His body is covered with tattoos, his speech is spiked with profanities, and his style (T-shirts devoted to his favorite bands, lots of black) is a throwback to his days as a hard-core punk rocker.
So it looked a bit unusual to a newcomer when, on a recent evening, Levine, 37, sat cross-legged at a Buddhist center in East Hollywood to lead several dozen people in a guided meditation.
"Now bring your awareness to your breath," began the Buddha in the Bad Brains T-shirt, who happens to be one of the most influential Buddhist teachers in America.
Levine is the founder of the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, which has centers in East Hollywood and Santa Monica and more than 20 affiliated groups nationwide. He and his students practice a unique incarnation of Buddhism infused with punk rock's anti-establishment ethos. They call themselves Dharma Punx.
Dharma Punx don't wear robes and they don't bow to statues of the Buddha. Anyone can form a group -- as long as he checks with Levine first -- and there isn't the emphasis on hierarchy found in many forms of Buddhism (there are no Zen masters or Tibetan lamas). The idea, Levine said, is to make Buddhist teachings accessible to punks -- and to reconnect Buddhism with what he sees as its radical roots.
"I don't feel like this is bringing a punk rock corruption into Buddhism," Levine said. "I think that that anti-establishment ethic is a part of Buddha's teachings."
Both punk rock and Buddhism, according to Levine, began as a rebellion against the status quo. "The first noble truth of Buddhism is that there is suffering in life, that there is an unsatisfactory quality to living in a world where everything is constantly changing, and to living in a world where there is so much greed and hatred and delusion," he said. "Punk rock's foundation is dissatisfaction, acknowledging greed, hatred and delusion and rebelling against sexism, racism, political corruption and war."
By bringing punk and Buddhism together, Levine has reached a mostly untapped demographic.
"I've been to other Buddhist centers where I felt out of place, but I've found a home here," said Gary Sanders, 37, who drives from Castaic to East Hollywood to attend Levine's meditation sessions. "Noah's taken an approach that makes it palatable to our scene."
