![The image]() Our selection for March 7 (12 noon @ River Read Books): Noah Levine: Against the Stream Review by Donna Freitas, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 4/4/2007 When RBL caught up with Noah Levine, this meditation practitioner of nineteen years was teaching a weekend workshop called "Meditate and Destroy" at Naropa, a Buddhist university in Boulder, Colorado. With the release of Against the Stream (Harper San Francisco, July) this summer, readers won't have to travel west to get a taste of Levine's Buddhism-for-rebels rhetoric. But don't be fooled, Buddhism isn't just for punk rockers. "That's the thing about malcontents, rebels and truth seekers," Levine said about his target demographic. "They don't come in any certain package. Part of my intention is to serve Generation X, but it's also broader. There are punks, hip hop fans, recovering addicts, the middle aged, anarchists, and teenagers all interested in Buddhism."
Levine's take on this Eastern tradition is decidedly unlike what he describes as the New Age "feel good" version. "We are not talking about simply getting happy, but making positive changes in the world," Levine said. "The New Age tradition has watered down Buddhism and fed people delusions about happiness and feel-good philosophy rather than presenting what the Buddha presented, which is radical engaged transformation." Readers looking for candy-coated Buddhism should steer clear of Against the Stream. It's for "true spiritual revolutionaries" who are looking for both "inner and outer spiritual rebellion," Levine writes. "The inner is about conquering the demand that life must be pleasant all the time or we are going to be unhappy," said Levine. "The external is related to how we experience the oppression, hatred, and greed in the world. As we gain more compassion for our own confusion, we gain compassion for the confusion of the world." One of Levine's central messages is that life is going to continue to be difficult—even after reaching enlightenment. That's in large part due to Mara, a "demonlike character" with whom Siddhartha (the original Buddha, who Levine refers to as "Sid") contends, who "personifies all of the strong negative emotions that, when taken personally, cause us to suffer," Levine writes. Said Levine, "Even enlightenment doesn't get rid of Mara. Mara is part of the human condition. But enlightenment helps us to encounter it and see Mara for what it is: a byproduct of the psyche." At thirty-six, Levine works as a psychotherapist, Buddhist teacher and author. He recently moved to Los Angeles because his first book, a memoir called Dharma Punx (Harper SF, 2003) has been optioned and Levine is helping write the screenplay. What's it like to live in L.A. and turn his life story into a movie? Levine said he's now "dealing with the Hollywood Mara." | 
No comments:
Post a Comment