Dharma Punx

Most recently, over a long weekend, I finished Dharma Punx by Noah Levine. I'd read Against The Stream earlier and this finally arrived on library hold. It seems to be a pivotal book for a lot of people.

I'm not a punk, I'm a goth, but I've had plenty of dear punk friends through the years and I understand the anger. In fact perhaps the most salient difference between punk and goth is the reaction of anger to the state of the world, versus a reaction of sadness and quiet acceptance that things are fucked.

However, it was pretty neat to read about the young Noah heading out with his skateboard to see shows from bands I've listened to occasionally since the 80's. He is three years older than me and also lived in Cali during the 80's so that is another neat thing- lots of personal overlaps.

The meat of the book has to do with his getting clean and sober and working the straightedge philosophy alongside some pretty hardcore buddhist practice. This is very different than the punk ethos, even though he's done a good job reconciling the two in his mind, as one does every day. He is uniquely positioned to see the similarities. But I know I'm not alone in rejecting the suggestion that slam dancing with someone helps them towards enlightenment, and this is where I have one major problem with his ideas: I don't get the self righteousness of the bodhisattva vow, that his work is in any way helping the rest of us sentient beings. The great merit of buddhism to me is that when I practice it I stop being an asshole. But my practice ends at my house. Nothing I can do or say in terms of mantra or sitting will ever affect anyone else, and I'm fine with that. Maybe I'm missing something.

And again, there's a lot, a LOT to be said for any belief system capable of making a large segment of society collectively stop being assholes to each other.