coming home

I think it's been two years since I've been to PA. My little sister just had a baby, though, so the time has come. I'll be in PA from August 8th to the 24th, visiting family and friends in Pittsburgh and Phoenixville. There are a lot of people there I've not seen in a long time. 

It would be great to see you. Call me if you would like to get together. 415-318-9696.

Trevor.

5:59 AM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

this is interesting

"In the Holocaust, and less extreme examples from ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />India to Birmingham, nonviolence failed to sufficiently empower its practitioners, whereas the use of a diversity of tactics got results. Put simply, if a movement is not a threat, it cannot change a system based on centralized coercion and violence, and if that movement does not realize and exercise the power that makes it a threat, it cannot destroy such a system.. In the world today, governments and corporations hold a near-total monopoly on power, a major aspect of which is violence. Unless we change the power relationships (and preferably, destroy the infrastructure and culture of centralized power to make impossible the subjugation of the many to the few), those who currently benefit from the ubiquitous structural violence, who control the militaries, banks, bureaucracies, and corporations, will continue to call the shots. The elite cannot be persuaded by appeals to their conscience. Individuals who do change their minds and find a better morality will be fired, impeached, replaced, recalled, assassinated.

..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> 

"Time and again, people struggling not for some token reform but for complete liberation – the reclamation of control over our own lives and the power to negotiate our own relationships with the people and world around us – will find that nonviolence does not work, that we face a self-perpetuating power structure that is immune to appeals to conscience and strong enough to plow over the disobedient and uncooperative. We must reclaim histories of resistance to understand why we have failed in the past and exactly how we achieved the limited successes we did. We must also accept that all social struggles, except those carried out by a completely pacified and thus ineffective people, include a diversity of tactics. Realizing that nonviolence has never actually produced historical victories towards revolutionary goals opens the door to considering other serious faults of nonviolence."

- Peter Gelderloos, _How Nonviolence Protects the State_, page 22 (last two paragraphs of chapter one, "Nonviolence is Ineffective").

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I wrote a book.

I’ve been writing haiku since October, and with the passing of the spring equinox I decided to put some of the better ones into a little book. The book is now completed. I’m pretty excited about it, as it’s rare that I actually create something. I’m also a little nervous b/c I wrote all these haiku in privacy, alone, for myself.

I would love to give one to everyone I know. If you would like a copy, send me a message with your mailing address and I will send one to you.

The book is called, "Too Bright to See."

I hope to hear from you,
Trevor.

7:08 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

spring equinox

Hey there, modern rockers.

Yeah, haven’t been writing in this thing much lately. Haven’t even been using the computer much, really. Often don’t check my email more than once a week. 

Things are going well, I think. Work is ok, living at Zen Center is pretty satisfying. Sewing my ordination robes. My teacher, Kosho, is in India on a pilgrimage of sorts, ’cuz he’s a bad-ass man of the Way. Been writing a lot of haiku, and with the passing of the Spring Equinox, I think it’s time to colect a bunch of the better ones into a little book to give to my friends, so I’m going to get started on that little project. Everyone I know will hear about it, once it is completed. Everyone. 

I’m running now. I try to go five times/week, but it usually ends up as four. The route I take is a little over three miles, and it takes me just under a half hour.

Haven’t been listening to music at all lately. I keep my computer put away, and my speakers in the closet, even. When I want to hear something, I turn on the classical station or NPR. I guess I’m in a stage of solitude, collecting, inwardness. It’s been nice.

I think the big news is that another member of the sangha at San Francisco Zen Center died. Good ol’ Rev. Marvin. He was 80 years old, and he died just a few days after a heart attack. I wasn’t there, but I heard that when the doctors stopped artificial life sustaining measuers, there was about 20 people around him, chanting and praying for him. He died peacefully, surrounded by friends, covered in Buddha’s robe. His body is currently on display at the temple. He’s lying there, covered in his kesa, and folks come in and sit with the body, as is the custom amongst Buddha’s disciples. 

This makes the fourth death since the beginning of the year. Feel free to send condlence cards addressed to the sangha. 

All the best, my friends. Feel free to send a letter. I know I owe a few a of you some replies, most especially the exceedingly lovely Laura Seeley, and my bro-in-law, Ian.

2:46 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

update

Ah , much has happened since I last wrote in this thing, much has changed.

I have a job for the next two years. I'll be working for Zen Center. After talking it over with my teacher and religious superiors, I'm convinced that it will be good for my training as a priest. The career can wait two years. While I can, I should focus on my ordination, as that's a lifelong vocation. I can't say I'm super-amped about working for Zen Center; the pay is negligible (even if I factor in the free room and board), and my whole life will be focused in this big dusty building at 300 Page Street. But so far in my Zen training, I've not had to do anything I don't really want to do, so I'm up for it. It will be boring, challenging, frustrating, fun, rewarding, and maybe even enlightening. Ugh. I'll be starting as the head of the kitchen crew once my good friend Jared leaves in the end of December or so. Until then, I'll be working in the kitchen. The director and I are going to talk about how long I'll do that, when I'll be able to move into a position of even more responsibility. 

I'm still with Karolyn, which is really something given my track record of the past year. She's really quite fantastic. I feel very at ease about her and our relationship (usually I'm crazy anxious). Dare I say that I feel like this relationship has more promise than any other relationship I've been in? We have a lot in common, similar lifestyles (read: quiet). And are you ready for this? She's moving into Zen Center in February! Crazy, huh? Will that count as "living together"? I've never "lived with" a girl before... Anyway, I'm excited for her, as I am for anyone who decides to take up the Buddha's practice of liberation, and I'm looking forward to her being around, to getting to know her in the context of our community/practice. She's done spiritual training in the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta tradition. She told me that she first heard about SFZC when she was fifteen and reading a lot of Allen Watts.

I bought a new bike! I got it used, a Canonndale from the late '90s or so. Good deal. Compact frame. Fits me well. Very fast. Handles in a noticeably different manner than my Panasonic, which I sold to my friend Melissa. Today I got a rack that clamps onto the seat post with a quick-release lever, which is convenient. I've been thinking that I would like to ride more often, since I don't want to pay for a gym membership on Zen Center stipend, and then I went into this funny used bike shop on a whim and there it was. I've always wanted a Canonndale. 

Tonight we are going to a poetry reading, a Tibute to Phil Whalen, at City Lights Bookstore, with readings by Michael Rothenberg, Joanne Kyger, Michael McClure, David Meltzer, Norman Fischer, and Leslie Scalapino. Whalen was a beat poet, Zen priest in my lineage, abbot of Hartford Street Zen Center here in SF. Quite a guy! And Norman Fischer is a former abbot of SFZC. Maybe this shindig will inspire me... I'm still trying to write...

Later, friends.

5:10 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Really, they’re more senyu than haiku.

THE DAILY HAIKU PROJECT          :::..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

10/21/07

Wine glass in left hand,

Blue-eyed baby in right arm

Snuggled against tattooed shoulder.

10/22/07

Making love all morning –

On the way out,

Smashing a vase.

10/23/07

Sleeping through the night

Sleeping through zazen

Sleeping through the morning

Or

Sleeping through the night

Dozing through zazen

Napping through the morning

10/24/07

Firemen rush in

Firemen rush out

Quick coffee break

10/25/07

Hipsters search for Halloween costumes

Others root for clothes

Goodwill

*

Hipster looks for Halloween costumes

Older black guy finds new shoes

Goodwill in October.

10/26/07

Sauna steam so thick

Faint flash of polished steel

Was that a cock ring?

10/27/07

Rolling down the driveway

Blood on the pavement

No more family dog.

10/30/07

Chubby toddler entranced

By the young man sweeping the floor

Fresh mind in awe

11/3/07

Laughing, talking, smoking, drinking

Young men outside the liquor store

Warm Fall Friday night.

11/5/07

Fifth of the month -

Rent is due

Until death.

11/6/07

Maze of streets

Gunshots and sirens

Tear the night.

11/9/07

Old man in rainbow suspenders scowling

as he rides the bus, but then,

"Thank you very much, driver."

11/11/07

No one knows.

If they say they do,

Run away.

(not actually a haiku at all, but what'reyougonnado?)

11/12/07

"We're getting a divorce."

Silent friends stare.

Pain, then determination.

11/15/07

Wasted day with Karolyn.

What better way to waste a day?

::

One week since the oil spill,

A mentally retarded man asks me,

"Does this bus go to ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Ocean Beach?"

::

The oil spilled a week ago.

Mentally retarded man asks,

"Does this bus go to Ocean Beach?"

::

Old man with a change cup

Telling the suits walking by

That they can rot in Hell.

::

Old man with a change cup

Telling the suits walking by,

"Rot in Hell."

11/16/07

Girlfriend snoozes quietly

Midnight breeze rustles curtains

Car alarm sounds far away

11/21/07

Men and women in their finest clothes

Sluggishly stepping into the subway

No one talks to each other

Walking into offices

I see how alone I am.

I wonder: What am I doing?!

11/23/07

:::

Beer bought by a friend

Books of beautifucl poetry –

Still, I complain of something.

:::

Calling my parents to tell them

What I am doing with my life.

Thank God there's no answer.

:::

These difficulties –

I create them for myself.

Do I need them?

:::

Thirty dollars spent at the cinema.

On the way home, so many times,

They asked me for spare change.

:::

Woman with a Russian accent

Gossiping over beer with friends;

"She needs to be buried face up. Face up!"

:::

Everything she owns

Packed into a grocery cart.

Thin. Strung-out. Pregnant.

:::

Back in my little room

After the 3D IMAX action blockbuster,

Watch some videos of Nat King Cole.

:::

I think maybe I should go back to my place,

But why?

I'd just read and write there, too.

:::

My room –

Three statues of Buddha, three of Kuan Yin, a painting of Achala

And Me.

:::

My room –

Three statues of Buddha, three of Kuan Yin, a painting of Achala

Temple within a temple.

:::

Beginner's Mind Temple, room 42

(etc.)

:::

Thanksgiving Day –

I tell that cop,

"Be careful tonight, Officer.

"Hey, thanks."

:::

Thanksgiving Day –

"Be careful tonight, Officer."

"Hey, thanks."

:::

She and I sit in the park

Talking and reading poems,

Watching skyscraper lights flicker.

:::

Our table doesn't have a flower,

So I grab one from another,

Then our candle burns out.

:::

"Does this sweater look OK?"

"Yeah, you look fine –

Don't worry about it."

:::

Welcome to San Francisco,

Where even your dog

Can take a yoga class.

:::

Swami!

Now there's a good name for a dog.

"Don't eat that, Swami! No!"

11/24/07

:::1

I buy a cheap crucifix

The Taoist proprietor

Gives me five Mexican jumping beans.

:::2

With my new jumping beans

I wonder

Do I really need a goldfish?

:::3

These jumping beans,

Clicking around in their clear box –

Kind of disturbing…

:::4

The bugs inside

These jumping beans

Just want to be happy.

:::5

Jumping bean bugs –

Are they missing out

On the star-scattered sky?

:::6

Paper towel dispenser reads,

"Remember! These come from trees."

I dry my hands on my jeans.

:::7

Sitting idly at a café,

One of my favorite past times.

Thich Nhat Hanh says, "Don't do it."

:::8

Two more years at this temple –

Fills me with a sense of dread.

I pour it into sewing my kesa.

OR

Two more years at this temple –

Fills me with a sense of dread.

It shows in every stitch of my kesa.

:::9

The "Action Board" at the leftist café –

Times like this

Seems like it shouldn't be empty.

:::10

"I don't want to fall into the trap

Of thinking these are special time."

"No special, but very serious."

                                    (Thanks, Ryumon.)

:::11

Just a romantic fantasy?

This wish to live

As a poet priest.

11/25/07

"The Decembrists' tour has been cancelled."

Wonder why? I'll have to check their website.

No, wait… I don't care.

7:15 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

We’re screwed, and so are our kids.

U.N. panel releases comprehensive research on global warming

Jane Kay,David Perlman, Chronicle Staff Writers

Sunday, November 18, 2007

 

If the nations of the world continue to pump tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from smokestacks and tailpipes, the world will suffer catastrophic droughts and heat waves and rising seas that could kill millions of people, according to the most exhaustive work ever done on planetary climate change.

The arid and semi-arid lands, including the western United States, would be hit by runaway wildfires, have less drinking water from shrinking snowpacks, and face unpredictable ocean conditions that would upset the feeding cycles of krill, fish and other sea life.

But if the United States and China, the two top greenhouse gas producers, work with other countries to improve energy efficiency and invest in alternative technologies, the worst effects of global warming could be forestalled on Earth, according to a Nobel Peace Prize-winning U.N. science panel that released its final report Saturday.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 2,000 scientists from 140 countries, has over the past several months been releasing volumes of its work on global warming. The report released Saturday is the synthesis of that work, a six-year endeavor to measure most of what is known about global warming and its effects on human health, the oceans, wildlife and how the world might adapt, among other topics. The first of the five-year assessments came out in 1990 and was used as the basis for the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The summary report released Saturday is geared toward policymakers who will meet in Bali, Indonesia, next month to begin forging a treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Since 1970, global greenhouse gas emissions have grown by 70 percent, and are causing global warming, according to the report.

Maintaining today's rate of emissions from power plants, factories, vehicles and other sources could raise global temperatures 10 degrees by the end of the century. That would mean the extinction of more than half of the world's plant and animal species, creation of super-intensive hurricanes and melting of glaciers, according to the panel.

To limit the increase in global temperatures to 4 degrees - which would limit sea level rise to between 15 and 55 inches over the century - the world needs to cut emissions by 50 to 85 percent by 2050, the panel said. That reduction is close to what California law requires.

Over the past century, global temperatures rose 1 to 2 degrees, and the global average for sea level rise was 6 inches.

Some of the effects of global warming, such as melting land and sea ice, intense hurricanes and an increase in wildfires, are happening now and can occur with greater intensity as temperatures rise even a few degrees, the scientists said.

That should send a strong, clear message to policymakers around the globe, said climatologist Stephen Schneider, co-director of Stanford University's Center for Environmental Sciences and Policy. He was returning to the Bay Area on Saturday from the five-day panel sessions in Spain.

"The warming of the 20th century is unequivocal," Schneider said.

"The warming in the last 40 to 50 years is very likely due to human activities, mostly from our smokestacks and tailpipe waste and deforestation activities, which have increased carbon dioxide by 35 percent" since the Industrial Revolution, he said. "Although some risks are already unavoidable, there is still time to reduce the likelihood of really catastrophic impacts like melting ice sheets and massive species extinction."

Possible solutions include enlisting private industry to develop alternative technologies that are less emitting, according to the report. Government officials also could use tax incentives and subsidies, levy a tax on companies or people who emit greenhouse gases, or develop market-based systems in which people pay extra for the right to emit more greenhouse gases than otherwise allowed, the summary report said.

Despite the exhaustive work by the U.N. panel, much is still not known, the scientists said.

For example, it is not clear whether the planet is more likely to be 2 to 3 degrees or 10 degrees warmer by the end of the century. Other unknowns are the amount of sea level rise and how precipitation will be affected in different parts of the world.

The Carnegie Institution at Stanford University compared cities' annual average temperatures to get a feel for what a temperature increase would mean: Tucson is an average 10 degrees hotter than San Francisco, and Santa Barbara is, on average, 2.2 degrees warmer than San Francisco.

Because a significant portion of carbon dioxide from industrial emissions will remain in the atmosphere for decades to centuries, "it's going to get warmer," said Jonathan Overpeck, professor of geosciences and director of the University of Arizona's Institute for the Study of Planet Earth. Overpeck was the coordinating lead author for a section of the U.N. report.

"We're going to continue to see sea levels go up, to see a continued dwindling of mountain snowpack in the spring when we need it most, and a drying out of the semi-arid West. Water resources are likely to become more limited," Overpeck said.

The summary emphasizes the uncertainty over sea level rise, he said.

"It's clear that scientists couldn't define the upper end of sea level rise by the end of the century. The ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are changing very rapidly in ways we still don't understand," Overpeck said.

Scientists expect a better estimate within the next five years. "An increasing number of scientists are saying we could have a meter or more by the end of the century" if the melting of glaciers in Greenland and other areas is considered, he said.

Kevin Trenberth, head of the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder and a coordinating lead author for part of the summary report, said the scientists also look for improvements in the way that they can predict ocean conditions or precipitation.

Refining and improving predictions is crucial, he said, in helping policymakers make decisions regarding fisheries, forests, water and agriculture.

Trenberth wasn't optimistic that policymakers would take the cautionary advice of the scientists and make deep cuts in emissions.

The United States leads in per capita emissions but has not actively participated in scientific assessments to pull together all that is known about global warming. In some cases, the U.S. government has at times sought to block such science, Trenberth said.

"The U.S. needs to play a substantial leadership role in Bali, and I just don't see that happening with this administration. If they do, I think other countries will be more inclined to follow. China and India are not going to lead in this," Trenberth said.

"The U.S. has the responsibility to lead but has not been doing so in recent years, in my view."

Online resources

Read the report:

www.ipcc.ch

E-mail the writers at jkay@sfchronicle.com and dperlman@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/18/MNGLTEMEL.DTL

This article appeared on page A - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

7:59 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

flash

Occasionally I will have a flash of insight;
I intimately know that I really have no idea 
what this life is all about, 
and niether does anyone else. 


















If someone ever tells you that they have an answer for you, put your fingers in your ears, hum loudly, and run away.

5:35 PM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Nope!

2:26 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

blogspot

First post on http://revoalone.blogspot.com/

Hey everyone. I also keep a blog on MySpace (www.myspace.com/RevoAlone), Livejournal (http://thisistrevor.livejournal.com/), and the Zen Center Friends Network on Ning.com (http://zencenter.ning.com/profile/Revo1979). Now I will be posting here, too. Usually I just write about what I'm up to.

For instance, today I slept until 8:00, showered and shaved for a long time, ate a bagel and read some newspaperage, and this afternoon I'm going to shoot arrows with my friend Catherine. I'll probably read adn write until it's time to meet up with her.

10:23 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment