On a Monday night in March, Noah Levine was sitting in an easy chair, one wounded leg propped up before him as he addressed dozens of followers in a meeting room in Venice Beach and hundreds more who tuned in to Facebook Live to see what this Buddhist teacher had to say about a scandal that threatened to sink his career. The #MeToo movement is blowing up the world of Buddhism, and Levine, one of its brightest if most unconventional stars, is the latest casualty.
A recent dirt-bike accident had shredded Levineâs knee and left him hobbling on crutches. Within a few weeks heâd have a new way to get around, a customized golf cart, tricked out with slogans familiar to the Levine faithful: âAgainst the Stream,â which is the name of both one of his books and the sangha (Buddhist community) that he founded, and âFTW,â which Levine translates as both Buddhaâs admonition to âForsake the Worldâ and the more colloquial âFuck the World.â Cool rides and punk-skater threads are integral to the heavily tattooed 48-year-oldâs image (who often flips the bird) as well as his message that has brought many young people into the fold. Beneath a Facebook photo of LevineâVans, shadesâtilting his new ride on two wheels, a young woman wrote, âIâm keeping this picture for when people ask me how I got into meditation.â
Levine founded Against the Stream more than ten years ago on antisexist and antiracist principles, with great emphasis on ethical practicesâan irony Jezebel noted when it broke the story last summer that a woman Levine had dated accused him of sexual assault. That incident, and another alleged affair, led to an independent investigation that reported complaints against him from as many as ten women, inside and outside the organization. âThere were the two women Iâd been on dates with,â he told me, âand the other seven [said], âI think Noahâs a jerk.âââ
That report, written by certified workplace investigator Roberta Yang, concluded that Levine had âmore likely than notâ violated Buddhismâs Third Precept, âto refrain from committing sexual misconduct.â In August the grievance council of the Against the Stream Meditation Society (ATS) announced it would shutter its centers in L.A. and San Francisco (affiliated centers in Boston, Nashville, and Seattle either changed their names or closed) and dissolve the sangha. Another center might have simply pushed its leader out, but ATS is so closely associated with Levine that it deemed a divorce impossibleâit was his name, after all, and his concept; he personally trained the teachers and facilitators. Shortly thereafter, Refuge Recovery, a drug-and-alcohol rehab group Levine founded, announced his expulsion, and Spirit Rock, the Northern California mediation center, revoked his authorization to teach. All told, Levineâs following, online and off-line, has dropped by about half since the scandal erupted.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxsCAjbBaw8/It was Spirit Rockâs rejection that was on Levineâs mind that March evening in Venice. Lineage is an important concept in Buddhism, not just which tradition you come from (Mahayana, Theravada) but who your teacher is, and what gives you the right to teach the dharma, Buddhaâs teachings and path to wisdom?
âI grew up with all these famous dharma teachers and know how imperfect they are,â Levine told the room and the internet. âMy father was my first meditation teacher.â The late Stephen Levine was a pioneer in Western Buddhism whose teachings introduced many Americans to vipassana (insight) meditation.
It was Stephenâs friend and Spirit Rock founder, Jack Kornfield, who trained Noah as a dharma teacher, and the letter of authorization he wrote in 2004 was a formal blessing. Noahâs story, as told in his best-selling 2003 memoir, Dharma Punx, is extreme. Growing up in Santa Cruz, he was arrested seven times on charges ranging from strong-arm robbery to possession of controlled substances. At 17, locked up and addicted to crack and heroin, the street punk faced his suffering with the help of his father, who gave Noah meditation instructions over the pay phone at juvie. âMeditation is the only thing that ever worked for me,â Stephen told him.
Like his father before him, Noah had an awakening. In the 1990s he began visiting juvenile halls and prisons, preaching the virtues of a drug-free life and the power of meditation. With his Mohawk and myriad tattoos, Noah became a walking advertisement for his punk brand of Buddhism. No one had combined those flavors before, and his message came at a time when some American Buddhist centers were bemoaning the lack of young people in their sanghas. Noah made the most of the difference, crowing, âBuddhism isnât just for hippies anymore!â
Now, sitting in the room where Refuge Recovery began years ago, some of those âhippiesââseekers like his father who started teaching meditation in the â70sâwere back in Levineâs sights. Though he credited them in the 2007 documentary Meditate and Destroy (âI felt like I was drowning, and I wasnât so concerned that it was a bunch of hippies that were saving meâ), he was questioning their right to censure anybody. Many of them used drugs and alcohol in violation of Buddhismâs Fifth Precept, he said, and some had affairs with their students, something he denies having done. He read from the letter defrocking him, adding, âItâs important that you guys have informed consent [about] who you are sitting with.â That line got a big laugh.
Consent is something Levineâs accusers say he fails to understand. âHeâs very divisive,â former ATS instructor Vinny Ferraro has said of his friend. Which was why, after Levine told his audience in Venice, âI want to return this authorization with gratitude,â he began to rip up Kornfieldâs empowerment letter, adding that he was âasking for forgiveness for any harm Iâve caused.â Then Levine dropped the pieces in a bronze Tibetan singing bowl, the kind used in healing ceremonies.
âIf itâs important to you that Iâm an authorized teacher by the insight establishment, thatâs no longer the case,â he announced to a smattering of applause. âIâm now officially a rogue outlaw dharma rebel.â Reactions online ranged from âFuck âem, Noah!â to a more wistful âThe tearing up of the docâŚthat part bummed me out.â
The idea of an âinsight establishmentâ would probably seem funny to Stephen Levine (who died in 2016) as well as Kornfield, Ram Dass, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, and the other Buddhist converts who brought mindfulness to the West. Though a generation older than Noah, they are not part of a governing body; Buddhism doesnât have one, which is part of Noahâs complaint. âThese guys had no authorization to teach,â he said about two months after he tore up his credentials. âThey just gave it to themselves.â
Levine had just met with Kornfield for the first time since receiving the letter. He claimed that his former teacher had seen the shredding video (âHe said he had a laughâ) but told Levine that everyone wanted him out because he doesnât have the composure of a dharma teacher.
âBasically, they didnât like the irreverence, the swearing, the smoking, the motorcycles,â Levine said. He said that Kornfield didnât know the specifics of the charges against him but trusted the independent investigatorâs report. Kornfield declined to comment for this story, citing Spirit Rockâs committee investigation, which spoke to Levine, ATS staff, and several of the women who accused him. The committee wrote that the investigation ârevealed repeated breaches of the precepts of nonharming by Mr. Levine; delusion about the accumulation of harms causedâŚa lack of willingness to accept responsibility for his actions; and a failure to honor the explicit instructions of his respected mentors.â
âBasically, they didnât like the irreverence, the swearing, the smoking, the motorcycles,â Levine says of the traditional Buddhists who forced him out.
Levine disputes some of the accusations; the woman who brought the initial complaint against him has not gone public. According to Levine they had been dating for a couple of months. (Levine divorced his wife four years ago and shares custody of their two children.) They had sex a few times, he said, but after their fourth date in October 2017 she texted him to say she did not feel good about the previous evening and wanted him to see her counselor with her to talk about consentâan invitation that he declined.
âShe never told me that she was unhappy during our intercourse,â Levine told me. âShe had no sign of, you know, distress or displeasure after sex. We cuddled. She had made me cookies; we ate the cookies. There was no sign of unhappiness. So when she said, âYou want to talk about consent?â I was like, âWhat the fuck are you talking about?ââ
Levine got some clarification on that last point when in February 2018 a Los Angeles Police Department detective informed him that the woman had accused him of sexual assault. Levine got a lawyer and informed the teachers council at ATS of the accusation but said on advice of counsel that he could not talk about it in detail.
âWe stood by for a few weeks,â recalled JoAnna Hardy, the guiding teacher at ATS, âand then he came to us saying, âI slept with a student.ââ
This is where the tale gets murky, as stories involving unsubstantiated sexual allegations often do. After a months-long investigation, the LAPD did not charge Levine. The question of who was and wasnât a student is not a small one; most scandal involving leaders in Buddhist communities have centered on teachers taking advantage of students. Last year the head of Shambhala International, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct involving students; attendance and donations at its 200 centers have reportedly since fallen 50 percent.
Levine maintains that the student who did not accuse him of assault came to his classes after they dated. They met at a Misfits concert. Oh, and she was married.
âBut, you know, she was in my house, and she took her clothes off and had every intention to sleep with me. ⌠[She] was kind of like saying, you know, âIâm kind of in an open thing.â And I was like, Iâm not going to do it. And then I did it anyways. I took full responsibility for that I slept with a woman whoâs not really single. But itâs totally not my student, because thatâs not how I met her.â
After a Zen teacher who knew the woman who had accused Levine of assault wrote ATS and accused it of harboring a rapist, the group hired Yang and told Levine not to teach until the investigation was complete. In the wake of the scandal, other teachers and staff came forward with complaints. Like her fellow teachers (there were five members of the teachers council), Hardy had been hired and trained by Levine. Their relationship was harmonious at first, but she claims she was already alienated from him before the accusations. âI didnât like him anymore,â she said. âI didnât like who he was becoming, his arrogance. And he and I were always in battle.â
Levine says that Hardy, who is biracial, wanted to âget rid of the white guy. ⌠She got the support of the rest of the teachers to do it, you know, because nobodyâs going to say no to the angry black woman in charge.â
Hardy denies Levineâs charges of racism (âI teach at Spirit Rockââa bastion of Marin County whitenessâshe offered as proof). âNoah has this thing where he thinks transparency trumps all poor behavior,â she said. âHe has a tendency to overspeak and give himself away.â
Levine might be overspeaking when he plays the race card and blames the #MeToo movement for his predicament (âThis is like a cultural hysteria thatâs happening that Iâm caught up inâ), but he firmly believes that much of what has happened to him is the result of jealousy and resentment.
âMy tent got too big,â he said. âAgainst the Stream became the largest new Buddhist movement. I think it was OK when I was the Buddhist punk rock guy with a meditation group in San Francisco.â
Over the years, Levine has touched countless lives with his determination to bring Buddhaâs message to a younger crowd. But now he has been barred from teaching at many Buddhist centers. Heâs also in a lawsuit with Refuge Recovery, the addiction recovery center he founded, over the trademark of the name. Ben Affleck, whom Levine treated at Refuge, recently filed a declaration in the case, saying, âWorking with Noah and his Refuge Recovery program has, quite literally, turned my life aroundâŚToday I am sober, happy, healthy and have custody of my three children. All of those things are a result of having Noah in my life. I donât know what I would have done without him.â On top of the lawsuit, Levine is unsure if his next book will find a publisher. And he blames Hardy and others he hired for demolishing ATS.
âWhy destroy this thing that I spent 15, 20 years building?â he said. âIf you guys donât want to have anything to do with me, go away, but donât destroy my organization.â Hardy claims ATS was on the verge of financial collapse when the scandal broke, and it caused one pledge of $60,000 to be rescinded and other donations to vanish. But the vibe had also changed.
Sleeping with a married student was, as Hardy put it, a double bad. âIf you are a rock star, people would just be like, yeah, thatâs what they do. But youâre a dharma teacher.â The implication is that Levine still has much to learn. The last time we spoke he insisted, âI take full responsibility for any ways that I caused harm and wasnât being careful with my sexuality.â But the words sounded rote and his tone hurt and resentful. Maybe he was brought down by a false accusationâbut maybe he was a part of his own undoing.
Thereâs a saying in Zen: âThe teaching of Buddhism is like a finger pointing at the moon. Do not mistake the finger for the moon.â They say the same of teachers, and Levine has no doubt heard it before.
But heâs raising a different finger.
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