Dharma Punx Quotes

“It's easy to hate and point out everything that is wrong with the world; it is the hardest and most important work in one's life to free oneself from the bonds of fear and attachment.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“The inner revolution will not be televised or sold on the Internet. It must take place within one's own mind and heart.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“The truth is, going against the internal stream of ignorance is way more rebellious than trying to start some sort of cultural revolution.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“...I didn't feel like there was anything incompatible with my love of gangster rap and my spiritual aspirations.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“The body breathes by itself. The mind thinks by itself. Awareness simply observes the process without getting lost in the content.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“The practice of celibacy alone was opening me up to a deeper sense of the way the mind-body connection works. I saw over and over that my mind and body could be filled with desire and that no matter how intense the craving was it would always pass. I didn't have to satisfy every desire that arose in my mind. I began to understand impermanence through direct experience rather than just intellectual theory.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“The more my mind began to quiet, the more I found myself wanting to be surrounded by natural beauty.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“The more I practiced kindness and humility, the more the world seemed to appear friendly and manageable.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“I really wanted to tattoo my forearms but decided that it would be a good idea to wait until I was older for that, just in case I wanted to work somewhere that having visible tattoos would be a problem, so I decided to start getting my legs tattooed.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“A couple of beers couldn’t hurt me. After all it was the harder drugs that were the real problem anyway. So I cracked open a nice cold can of Schaefer beer and drank the whole thing in one long slow chug. The booze felt great in my system after having been sober for so many months. So I just opened another and drank that one down. With two beers in my belly I was feeling pretty good and it seemed like a fine idea to have another and another and another until all of the beer was gone. At that point the only logical thing to do was to get some more.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“Most of our parents were too busy to pay attention to us as they tried to survive the aftermath of the sixties or succeed in the race for riches in the seventies and eighties.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“We agreed that at least to some extent the whole punk movement is based on the Buddha's 1st noble truth of suffering & the dissatisfactory nature of the material world. The punks see through the lies of society & the oppressive dictates of modern consumer culture. Very few punks though seem to take it further & attempt to understand the causes & conditions of the suffering & falsehoods, unfortunately punks rarely come around to seeing that there is actually a solution & a path to personal freedom. My own life's experience w/ both Dharma practice & punk rock inspired me to try to bridge the gap between the two. I've tried to help point out the similarities, while also acknowledging the differences, & to show those of my generation who are interested that they can practice meditation & find there the freedom we have been seeking in our rebellion against the system.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

“Actually a solution & a path to personal freedom. My own life's experience w/ both Dharma practice & punk rock inspired me to try to bridge the gap between the two. I've tried to help point out the similarities, while also acknowledging the differences, & to show those of my generation who are interested that they can practice meditation & find there the freedom we have been seeking in our rebellion against the system.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir