The Art Of Driving A Bus Finding Zen In San Francisco Transit

There is much to know about being a bus driver. It takes about thirty-five days to train a new employee. But as Doug points out, some skills come through experience that takes years to develop. This book contains material needed to choose your style on how to pass by the fare box and how to maintain Zen when the bus is full. “The Dao of things cannot be complete without the Dao of driving a bus. I’d ride with Doug all the way to the Himalayas just to listen to the art of his wisdom.” - David Biddle, author of Implosions of America — A Story Collection “Nice read. I like the mix of situational context and life lessons.” - Chad Upham, graduate, Art Center College of Design

Readers are in the driver's seat as Driver Doug takes them through a typical day as a transit operator of a trolley coach. He describes the operator's duties and the typical transit passenger rush that he witnesses and addresses potential problems such as overcrowded cars, lost tourists, luggage, and transit malfunctions to help riders deal with such hassles. Also are golden clues about running time, recovery time, headway time, and leaving times.With his book, Driver Doug provides both a humorous and enlightening view of a transit operator's daily life. He hopes it will educate and entertain readers.Find out where to stand and how to pay!

“Do you have a car?” “Yes, I do, and you’re sitting in it! Today’s car number is 5481. I get a new car everyday, and I can hold up to fifty people at once! I get to take you where you want to go and get paid to do it. I don’t have to worry about parking, because it is free. I don’t have to pay for gas because this car uses free city hydroelectric power. I have a camera to send a bill to someone blocking my parking space. If there is any trouble, help can be here in three minutes. I sold my truck when I moved here and I haven’t had to pay for tires, batteries, gas, parking, or insurance. My employer is my insurance company. The money is coming in, not going out. I am kind of like the ultimate in ride share, without any carbon emission!”

Islands v. Curbs, Avenues v. Streets, Timed Transfers, and How to Catch a Bus: Be careful, they weigh ten tons; don't hurt your back! Driver Doug has your back in Keeping Zen in San Francisco Transit: A Line Trainer's Guide. Doug has been a transit operator for the SFMTA for 19 years, and now you can have what it takes to catch a bus in style.

I am continually inspired by those who: take the bus to work; to play; to get around this exciting city: Students, businesswomen, and tourists: all walks and wheels who enter and exit the bus towards their next destination. Here is the answer to the request I get often, “Driver Doug you should write a book!” Get inside The Trolleybus of Happy Destiny and open a page, a chapter, and see what life is like behind the wheel as a Transit Operator in the City that Knows How: San Francisco!

Maybelle was a cable car a San Francisco cable car. . . She rang her gong and sang her song from early morn till late at night. . . . By recounting the actual events in San Francisco's effort to keep the city's cable cars running, this classic story illustrates how the voice of the people can be heard in the true spirit of democracy. Virginia Lee Burton's original art for Maybelle the Cable Car was retrieved from the archives of the San Francisco Public Library to re-create this edition with all the vibrant charm of the original, which was published in 1952.

A neuroscientist and Zen practitioner interweaves the latest research on the brain with his personal narrative of Zen. Aldous Huxley called humankind's basic trend toward spiritual growth the "perennial philosophy." In the view of James Austin, the trend implies a "perennial psychophysiology"—because awakening, or enlightenment, occurs only when the human brain undergoes substantial changes. What are the peak experiences of enlightenment? How could these states profoundly enhance, and yet simplify, the workings of the brain? Zen and the Brain presents the latest evidence. In this book Zen Buddhism becomes the opening wedge for an extraordinarily wide-ranging exploration of consciousness. In order to understand which brain mechanisms produce Zen states, one needs some understanding of the anatomy, physiology, and chemistry of the brain. Austin, both a neurologist and a Zen practitioner, interweaves the most recent brain research with the personal narrative of his Zen experiences. The science is both inclusive and rigorous; the Zen sections are clear and evocative. Along the way, Austin examines such topics as similar states in other disciplines and religions, sleep and dreams, mental illness, consciousness-altering drugs, and the social consequences of the advanced stage of ongoing enlightenment.

Healing lies at the heart of Zen in the home, as Paula Arai discovered in her pioneering research on the ritual lives of Zen Buddhist laywomen. She reveals a vital stream of religious practice that flourishes outside the bounds of formal institutions through sacred rites that women develop and transmit to one another. Everyday objects and common materials are used in inventive ways. For example, polishing cloths, vivified by prayer and mantra recitation, become potent tools. The creation of beauty through the arts of tea ceremony, calligraphy, poetry, and flower arrangement become rites of healing. Bringing Zen Home brings a fresh perspective to Zen scholarship by uncovering a previously unrecognized but nonetheless vibrant strand of lay practice. The creativity of domestic Zen is evident in the ritual activities that women fashion, weaving tradition and innovation, to gain a sense of wholeness and balance in the midst of illness, loss, and anguish. Their rituals include chanting, ingesting elixirs and consecrated substances, and contemplative approaches that elevate cleaning, cooking, child-rearing, and caring for the sick and dying into spiritual disciplines. Creating beauty is central to domestic Zen and figures prominently in Arai’s analyses. She also discovers a novel application of the concept of Buddha nature as the women honor deceased loved ones as “personal Buddhas.” One of the hallmarks of the study is its longitudinal nature, spanning fourteen years of fieldwork. Arai developed a “second-person,” or relational, approach to ethnographic research prompted by recent trends in psychobiology. This allowed her to cultivate relationships of trust and mutual vulnerability over many years to inquire into not only the practices but also their ongoing and changing roles. The women in her study entrusted her with their life stories, personal reflections, and religious insights, yielding an ethnography rich in descriptive and narrative detail as well as nuanced explorations of the experiential dimensions and effects of rituals. In Bringing Zen Home, the first study of the ritual lives of Zen laywomen, Arai applies a cutting-edge ethnographic method to reveal a thriving domain of religious practice. Her work represents an important contribution on a number of fronts—to Zen studies, ritual studies, scholarship on women and religion, and the cross-cultural study of healing.