Noah levine
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Born February 2nd, 1969; Santa Cruz, CA. Author of Dharma Punx; A Memoir (HarperCollins) and Against the Stream (upcoming). American Buddhist teacher, author and councilor. Identifies his beliefs and practices with both Theravadan and Mahayanan Buddhist traditions. Holds a masters degree in counseling psychology from CIIS. He has helped found several groups and projects including The Mind Body Awareness Project, a non-profit organization that serves incarcerated youths.
Son of American Buddhist author Stephen Levine. Trained by Jack Kornfield of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. He also lists as teachers Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Norman Fischer, and Sylvia Boorstein.[1]
He currently leads Buddha Dharma and vipassana meditation retreats and workshops across the United States and teaches weekly meditation classes in Los Angeles, CA. An important aspect of his work is with inmates in juvenile and adult prisons where he combines meditation techniques with psychotherapy—“exploring how they can have a deeper understanding of what has happened and what they need to do in order to be free, on many levels—free from prison, free from the trauma of the past.”[2]
Noah’s work with inmates is fueled by his own past as a youth with several experiences in the prison system. His first book, Dharma Punx, in large part details Noah’s teenage years filled with drugs, violence, and multiple suicide attempts-choices fueled by a rebellious nature and identification with punk rock and the culture. At 17, while serving time in juvenile prison, “out of a place of extreme drug addiction and violence”[3] he began a meditation practice. Noah recounts that while incarcerated he hit “an emotional rock bottom”[4] and after receiving encouragement and simple instructions over the phone from his father, he gave sitting meditation a try. This began the practice and gave him the tools that he claims was able to relieve him of the fear and uncertainty that pervaded his life.
Noah’s second book, Against the Stream, focuses on his philosophy of dissatisfaction, found in both Buddhism and punk rock. It is due to be released May 2007.
