Zen Center roof painted white

"I see a black roof and I want to paint it white."
(apologies to the Rolling Stones)

This from Michael (Chuna Guan) of the Zen Center:

For the past week, Jian-Xie shifu led a group of volunteers painting
Zen Center’s roof white. This effort is one action of Zen Center’s
overall SunnyZen Green Initiatives.

A pale colored roof would help to contain climate change both by
reflecting more solar radiation into space and by reducing the amount
of energy needed to keep buildings cool by air-conditioning. It also
has the potential of increasing the efficiency of solar panels.

We used a surface thermometer to measure the temperature of two areas,
side by side, of our tar roof. One area is painted white while another
is not. The difference in temperature is about 40F degrees (please see
the posted photos in Files section). Using the rule of thumb that
“1000 square feet would offsets 10 tons of CO2 emission; our action
would offset about 160 tons of CO2 or more. For comparison purposes, a
typical US house emits about 10 tons of CO2 per year. The average
world car emits about 4 tons of CO2 each year. “

There is a winter penalty of a white roof as more heating is needed.
The penalty is about 5 to 15%. There is no specific data for
California, but it would be on the lower end of the scale. “In the
winter, the sun is low and sees mainly the south wall. As long as the
south wall of the building is in dark color” that should compensate
the penalty to great extent.

California has an ordinance, since 2005, that requires all flat roofs
on new commercial buildings to be white. This ordinance is the brain
child of Dr. Art Rosenfeld, a member of the California Energy
Commission. In 2008, Dr Rosenfeld and two colleagues from the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Hashem Akbari and Surabi
Menon, calculated that changing surface colors in 100 of the world’s
largest cities could save the equivalent of 44 billion tons of carbon
dioxide — about as much as global carbon emissions are expected to
rise by over the next decade.

Dr, Rosenfeld’s research result influenced Steven Chu, the Nobel prize-
winning physicist appointed by President Obama as Energy Secretary. On
May 26th of 2009, Dr, Chu announced a global initiative to change the
color of roofs, roads and pavements in containing global warming.

Please see following links for more information:
http://www.loe.org/shows/segments.htm?programID=09-P13-00007&segmentID=7
A link to an interview with California energy commissioner Arthur
Rosenfeld on the reasons to paint our roof white. It also commented on
the CO2 emission and economy of this action.

http://www.loe.org/images/090213/White%20Roofs%20Cool%20the%20World.pdf
A non-technical summary of this action.

http://www.loe.org/images/090213/Global%20cooling.pdf
A technical summary of this action.

Go Vegetarian 1 Day A Week

We are encouraging people everywhere to pledge "Go Vegetarian 1 Day A Week".

Director of IPCC, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, has stated that the meat and dairy industry contributes 18% of all the greenhouse gases that causes global warming. In comparison, all the air, land, and water traffic produces 13%. (IPCC shared the Noble Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007.)

If everyone make a slight change in our diet, we can make a real difference to our world.

Be kind to your body. Be kind to the animals. Be kind to our planet.
Go Vegetarian 1 Day A Week (more than 1 day is even better, of course).

Show your support by pledging (joining) the Facebook group we created.

Ask your family, friends, boss, coworkers to pledge.

If you're not on Facebook, please make your pledge by signing up at the Zen Center of Sunnyvale or Buddha Jewel Monastery.

Currently, we already have over 200 people signed up from all over the world. Our goal: 100,000 people. This will effect a change of lifestyle for human beings.


Some facts taken from the book "The Food On Your Plate" (references to these data can be found in the book):

The more than 2.5 billion pigs and cattle excrete more than 80 metric tons (176 billion pounds) of waste nitrogen annually; by comparison, the entire human population produces 30 million tons. (Nitrous oxide has 296 times the effect on global warming than CO2).

The EPA says that the 3 trillion pounds of waste from factory animals is a greater source of pollution our our rivers and lakes than ALL OTHER industrial sources combined.

Animals on factory farms in the U.S. produce 87,000 pounds of waste EVERY SECOND, which 130 times more than the entire population of the United States. This equivalent to about 5 tons of animal waste for each person in the U.S.

A typical pig factory farm generates as much wast as a city of 50,000 people.


Cornell University research has calculated that it takes 13,000 gallons of water to produce a single pound of beef. Other researches found that it takes 2,600 gallons of water to produce a single serving of steak.

Producing 2 pounds of animal protein requires about ten times more water than producing 2 pounds of grain protein.

EPA: chemical and animal waste runoff from factory farms is responsible for 173,000 miles of polluted rivers and streams.

Our water sources are also disappearing fast. 17 trillion gallons of water were used for irrigation annually to produce feed for U.S. livestock.

New York Times: "As the world's appetite for meat increases, countries across the globe are bulldozing huge swaths of land to make more room for animals and the crops to feed them. From tropical rain forests in Brazil to ancient pine forests in China, entire ecosystems are being destroyed to fuel our addiction to meat."

A song about the Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng

Sixth Patriarch Hui Neng is probably the most important Chinese Zen Master, next to Bodhidharma. An illiterate woodcutter that nevertheless had an immediate affinity and capacity to grasp the most profound Zen teachings, he ultimately was responsible for bring the Zen teaching to all parts of China.

This is a very nice song about Hui Neng by an American John Wheeler.

這是一首美國人寫的「六祖慧能」的歌！

New forum for discussion of CT-Zen initiatives

We have created a google group (i.e. an online discussion forum) called "CTZEN Development" for the discussion of Chung Tai Zen Center possible initiatives and developments for the future, topics such as protecting our environment, outreaching, how to better serve the public with the Dharma and the Buddhist way of life.

Everyone can see the group discussions here: http://groups.google.com/group/ctzen-dev

However, I encourage you to "join this group" (on the left panel of the webpage), so that you can be an active participant and post messages to the group. To do so I believe you need a google account; you can use your regular email to set up the google account. If you have gmail then use that as your email, though gmail is not necessary (it is slightly more convenient with gmail if you use other google services like google calendar).

Then, please post to to group with your suggestions to what the Zen Center can do, or information and links regarding the environment, global warming, vegetarianism, etc. I see this forum as one for both discussion of ideas and also a depository of information. You may post from the website, or send an email to ctzen-dev@googlegroups.com. Remember this will go to everyone in the group.

Anyone who is a participant of Zen Center of Sunnyvale or Buddha Jewel Monastery classes may join.

You may also set up the way you receive messages from the group: receive each message as an email, as a digest (aggregate of emails once a day or so), or never--that means you need to use the website to see the messages and information.

There are some older posts on this group because it was originally set up for the development discussions of Buddha Jewel Monastery in Seattle. You may read them or ignore them. This group is now expanded to discuss issues relevant to both Sunnyvale and Buddha Jewel.

Ten Commandments and Eightfold Path for Inter-religious Dialogue

Shifu attended an South Bay Interfaith meeting today, and in part of the meeting we discussed the "Ten Commandments for Inter-religious Dialogue". It was quite interesting. Here they are:

First Commandment: The primary purpose of dialogue is to change and grow in the perception and understanding of reality and then to act accordingly.

Second Commandment: Interreligious dialogue must be a two-sided project—within each religious community and between religious communities.

Third Commandment: Each participant must come to the dialogue with complete honesty and sincerity.

Fourth Commandment: Each participant must assume a similar complete honesty and sincerity in the other partners.

Fifth Commandment: Each participant must define him/herself. Conversely—the one interpreted must be able to recognize him/herself in the interpretation.

Sixth Commandment: Each participant must come to the dialogue with no hard-and-fast assumptions as to where the points of disagreement are.

Seventh Commandment: Dialogue can take place only between equals, or par cum pari.

Eighth Commandment: Dialogue can take place only on the basis of mutual trust.

Ninth Commandment: Persons entering into interreligious dialogue must be at least minimally self-critical of both themselves and their own religious traditions.

Tenth Commandment: Each participant eventually must attempt to experience the partner’s religion “from within.”

This is called "Dialogue Decalogue" written by Professor Leonard Swidler. This is a good beginning. Now can you come up with a "Four Noble Truths" or "Eightfold Path" of inter-religious dialogue and, more importantly, cooperation? That is, after fruitful dialogues, how do we apply the ideas of Eightfold Path to bring different religions together to work on projects of common human interest?

Morality in animals and stress reduction

How are these two topics related?
By Buddhism, of course!

In the sutras Buddha have told stories of all animals can help or even sacrifice themselves for others. Sounds incredible? Well, more and more evidence shows that animals are indeed capable of doing that. A monkey and a rat would rather starve themselves than obtaining food at the cost of hurting another of their kind. Chimpanzees have drowned themselves trying to save others. Dolphins gathered to carry shipwrecked humans to safety. These are real stories reported by scientists that seem obvious to Buddhists but incredible to those who believe that only humans have intelligence and ethical behavior. Here are a couple of links: New York Times article, a book by a U. of Colorado professor Marc Bekoff, "Wild Justice".

On another thread, CNN just reported on a West Virginia University study that identified the benefits of mindfulness practice on reducing stress.

they found those who received the mindfulness training "had significantly less daily hassles, psychological distress and significantly fewer medical symptoms" -- like lower blood pressure and fewer aches and pains -- than those who were handed a pamphlet.

Waugh says she was thrilled to find that after practicing mindfulness techniques, the back pain that had plagued her for almost a decade went away. She also said she "communicated better with fellow employees and actually had a better attitude towards my job." ...

Mindfulness is not new. It goes back to the time of Buddha, who believed that the mind should always be fully in the present -- not looking back at the past or anticipating the future. Being mindful of the here-and-now, Buddha said, reduces stress and brings inner peace ...

According to the study, even 10 minutes of meditation can help. "[Meditation] can take the anxiety out of a stressful workday," said Williams.

West Virginia University is not the first -- or only -- institution in the country that has tested the effects of mindfulness techniques on stress. UCLA completed a study a few years ago that found the same thing the WVU study found: Mindfulness exercises are excellent stress-busters ... Yale University is recruiting patients for a smoking cessation study that includes a mindfulness training component.

Sugar in soft drinks

This is a really cool idea: let us visualize the amount of sugar in the soft drinks, compared with everything we eat.

Here is the website.

One World (music by U2 - "One")

This video was created for our Thanksgiving dinner gathering, where over a hundred people joined us at the Zen Center for vegetarian hotpot dinner and we shared green tips to help the environment.



(click on the title link or the picture to see the video)