Dharma Punx

Dharma Punx

The Dragon makes a concerted effort not to talk too much about Politics or Religion here. OK, yeah, so I fail at that, particularly concerning Politics. I've started a lot of posts on these topics that end up in the virtual recycling bin. For some as of yet not verbalized reason, I really feel, that barring a few very justified exceptions, this just ain't the place for it. For example, the Blogosphere has been all abuzz lately with the Richard Dawkins Atheistic Jihad. I've been very tempted to comment on this. But, ultimately have felt that nothing I might say would really be HEARD. It's one of those questions about which people mostly have their minds made up. And I'm not interested in changing anybody's deeply held beliefs.
This is one of those exceptions.
Or maybe not.
Because there is a level to which Buddhism is a philosophy, more than a religion. I almost said, more than it is a faith, but there are ways in which it can function as that, without getting entangled in the tar-rabbit which is the theist vs. atheist debate. But that is an essay for another time.
I read Noah Levine's Dharma Punx three years ago, and it left an indelible mark on me. Sky had given me an ARC (advance review copy, for those of you not in the book business) for the winter holidays. Now I won't lie to you. I don't think Noah Levine is a literary genius. But that is not the appeal of this book. It is more like the "Reader's Write" section of the Sun. It's a brutally honest, raw, frequently painfully so, account of one young man's coming into to adulthood. As a friend of mine once said about a totally different story, it is an "anti-John Hughes coming of age story."
If you are between the ages of 30 and 40, and were in the Punk scene as an adolescent, you will find people you know in here. You may find yourself in these pages. If you are of another generation, or another sub-culture, I think you will still find much here that is deeply affecting. Noah pulls no punches in describing the limitations and obstacles within himself, which he has struggled with over the years. Sometimes his story was physically painful for me, as I saw him growing and working through immature attitudes and perspectives which I still wrestle with.
Ultimately that is why I think Buddhism can be seen as a non-religion. Much of it merely consists of cognitive tools for increasing one's awareness and understanding of one's self. And this can be practiced in conjuction with a theistic faith, or with an atheist's desire for cold rationality.