Being Human and Suffering Less Along the Way

Noah Levine, Buddhist teacher and dharma punk, shares the intimate details of his early lifestyle of punk rock, drugs, and jail and his climb out of a harmful way of living that was facilitated in part by meditation practice. For more details about his journey check out his spiritual memoir, Dharma Punx. He also shares with us his experience of becoming a Buddhist teacher under the tutelage of Jack Kornfield. We go on to talk about Noah’s most recent writing Against the Stream, and his unique way of expression the dharma. We also discuss the difference in how 1st generation & 2nd or 3rd generation teachers might express the Dharma in the West. He claims that there is a difference in emphasis, but that they are expressing the same fundamental teachings. We finish our conversation discussing the ideas of karma and grace, and their inter-relation, as well as the true aim of the path, which for Noah is about “being human and suffering less along the way.”

This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Listen to Part 2: The Spiritual Radical.

Episode Links:

• Against the Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries ( http://bit.ly/KKrC8 )
• Dharma Punx ( http://bit.ly/cmiwi4 )

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