Meditate and Destroy

Always intriguing when seemingly disparate dimensions synthesize and form a productive counterpoint. But I'm not convinced this is what Noah Levine and Sarah Fisher have achieved in Meditate and Destroy, a documentary film examining the life and teachings of dharma punk Noah Levine. Levine's commitment to buddhism is sound and its principles have provided his life with ways in which to peacefully 'harmonize' with his community. But the role punk rock continues to play in his buddhist meditations isn't investigated as thoroughly within. Facts: Levine adhered to punk gospel in his youth and has placed buddhism within an inclusive frame that can assist individuals engaging in destructive behaviour in finding alternative outlets for their anger. It's not that their anger isn't justified, but more of a situation where Levine provides people suffering from abuse and/or addiction and/or exclusion with an outlet through which they can learn to seek inner peace through self-reflection, and make adjustments that can lead to different non-violent ways of expressing themselves, after having learned to question and understand the reasons governing their destructive conduct. Note that this process is continuous, questions leading to understandings which lead to more questions which lead to different understandings and so on. The film's form shows how individual punks become part of a buddhist community and how that buddhist community is composed of individual punks by consistently presenting groups of people, introducing us to members through close-ups, and then interviewing everyone found within these close-ups, thereby giving them a voice through which they can express how Levine's approach has helped them, moving back and forth between "translator" and "translation" while blurring the lines and showing how each individualized focus is simultaneously both a reflection and foundational component of their universal commitment. But where does the countercultural nature of punk rock fit into this universal commitment, and does it re-manifest itself within? The title of the film is misleading insofar as the Destroy factor is pacified considerably but perhaps that's the point, i.e., learning to destroy destructive behaviours peacefully through an egalitarian disposition that actively accepts and recognizes subjective shortcomings while passively pursuing and elevating an objective inclusive ideal? Taking a word like 'destroy' and re-imagining its meaning in such a way is certainly impressive. And totally punk!