Meditate and Destroy profiles the persona who quite possibly represents America’s most unexpected Buddhist: former punk rocker and juvenile delinquent Noah Levine, bestselling author of the book Dharma Punx. As a teenager, Levine was mired in an abyss of violence, drug and alcohol abuse – and criminal detention. When he hit bottom, attempting suicide in juvenile jail in the late 80’s, Levine received a phone call from his father who instructed him how to take baby steps toward initiating meditation practice. Knowing that he either need to die or to change, Levine tested meditation and felt a glimmer of freedom from his intense suffering. Today, Levine is a respected teacher and figure in what is perhaps the most unconventional Buddhist community in the country: the “Dpunx Nation.” Staking claim to his egalitarian urban vision, Levine states that “Buddhism is not just for hippies anymore” as he reaches out to a new generation of youths who are turning to meditation as they seek a departure from their lives of drugs, violence and crime. In major cities throughout America, these unlikely Buddhists find comfort – and affinity – in Levine’s approach. Today, New York, Hollywood, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boulder and Portland all host regular Dharma Punx-inspired meditation groups that allow punks to develop their own awareness on a deep level while retaining their edge and individuality.
Meditate and Destroy is the definitive documentary film about the Dharma Punx nation, its roots and continued expansion in U.S. cities.
Meditate and Destroy Product Information
Grade Level: Grades 10-12, College and University
Subjects: Religion and Spirituality, Eastern Teachings & Thought
Language: English
Copyright: © 2007. All Rights Reserved.
Set: 1 Disc
Total Running Time: 81 minutes
UPC Number: 718122566372
Catalog Number: ALV-DV-38
ISBN Number: 0-9822536-2-1
Educational Prices:
Educational with Public Performance Rights: $249.00
Educational without Public Performance Rights: $129.00
For public exhibition inquiries please contact us for more details!
Educational Media Reviews Online September 9, 2009
Meditate and Destroy
Rating: Highly Recommended!
Meditate and Destroy provides Buddhist punk author (Against the Stream, Dharma Punx) and provocateur Noah Levine a visual platform on which to expound on his dramatic conversion from turbulent anti-parent, anti-hippy, and aggressively self-destructive teen rebel and repeat offender to a national punk-culture spokesperson for meditative practice and 12-step recovery. Director Sarah Fisher uses concise editing and splicing of animation, punk visual culture, music, and Santa Cruz, California, urban street life to paint an effective tableau of the modern saha world that attracts and feeds violence for the sake of violence, crime, and substance abuse for a significant sub-culture of bored and rebellious youth.
Subject Noah is not only a son of practicing Buddhist parents (thus automatically rejecting their spiritual commitment), but also a product of a late 20th century media culture, and he is clearly engaged and comfortable in front of the director’s camera, as well as a natural and engaging public speaker. His closest punk-culture peers expound considerable reverence on camera for Noah’s leadership and vision, inspired by him in both their most destructive adolescent behaviors and his leadership in moving them out of the self-destructive wasteland and into meditation. Noah finds in his own tapping of the twin tools of meditative practice and a 12-step recovery the compassion to lead his peers toward a purposeful existence, yet carefully maintaining his punk-culture credentials and spiritual independence.
The use of Noah as his own narrator and his eloquent punk-culture peers as authentic spokespersons is a very effective documentary technique. Noah’s punk friends are visually salient, offering calm monologues that alternate with the more frenetic music of Santa Cruz punk bands. Noah, his parents, his parole officer, and his Buddhist mentor Jack Kornfeld all have calm and unique perspectives on Noah’s suffering, and the core Buddhist principles of suffering and release from suffering are woven throughout the video. For urban sociologists, the inner-city violence and substance abuse culture of the late 1980’s is described in stark terms by Noah, his parents, his peers, counselors, and law enforcement officers.
The use of Second Life virtual character animated sequences to portray the most physically dangerous moments of Noah’s incarceration, complete with self-inflicted injuries, is quite effective, offering a non-destructive yet viscerally disturbing substitution for typical re-enacted violence, effectively combined with Noah’s own narration.
Noah describes his meditative rebirth as a spiritual revolution, and Noah’s punk acolytes confirm on camera that Noah’s liberation from suffering and pain has inspired their own meditative experiment. The newly restored trust and respect with his parents, particularly his father Stephen Levine, allows the reemergence of family respect. Patricia Washko, Noah’s mom, also provides authentic memories of her son’s youthful alienation and sadness that has been transformed into compassion and commitment. Noah has become a Buddhist activist on mission, an unabashed iconoclast, challenging negativity and strife with meditation and youth counseling, while maintaining his authentic punk credentials and a free-pass to re-enter the rebellious turbulence of the punk scene. The film’s loud punk soundtrack and belligerent sequences such as mosh pits provides a visual and aural authentic ambience. The film also includes Noah speaking to young persons in locked-down educational settings for troubled youth, and it is remarkable to see this style of group counseling (Noah has earned a degree in Counseling) and encouraging young people to consider meditation as their own form of self-affirming rebellion.
Highly recommended for supervised or moderated viewing at institutions for troubled or incarcerated youth, sociology classes covering punk-culture, and classes on comparative religion.
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