Jailbreak (from Bus to Busted and Out Again) - Page 4

THE SCRIPTURE OF AVALOKITESHWARA BODHISATTVA

When people hear His name, and see His form, And think of Him not vainly in their hearts, All forms of ill, in all the worlds, shall cease. If, wishing harm, an enemy should try to push another in a fiery pit, the victim should, on Kanzeon's great power, think, - and straightway that fiery pit shall be transformed into a cool and silver lake.

At least I would start the day with a braver heart. I thought of Steve McQueen, 'The Cooler King' in The Great Escape. That defiant American POW spent many days in solitary confinement with his grit, baseball glove and ball, bouncing his frustrations off the walls of his prison cell. In my reverie, I heard these words -

"There must be some kind of way out of here," Said the joker to the thief, "There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief."

Imagine my surprise when later in the morning, this apparition appeared. Standing at the jail cell door, a smattering of conversation came to me – "Gringo, Yoga, Gringo, Yoga?" and around the corner from the sergeant's desk station came a man I had never met before. "Are you the Gringo who was doing Yoga in the park and got arrested?" "Sure," I said, "that was me." "Don't worry," this stranger said, "I'll have you out of here in an hour." With that, I went back into the meditation posture and reached again for Great Kanzeon's life preserving power -

When tyrants persecute a man and he stands at the place of execution, Let him only think on Kanzeon's great power – the executioner's sword will broken be. If, bound in chains, in prison, – let a man just think on Kanzeon's great holy power; At once the shackles will then set him free.

An hour later, the door opened. I was given my possessions (backpack, guitar, papers and Kerouac). The sergeant grumbled a gruff apology and I walked into the sunlight, accompanied by my new-found friend.

Freedom

"My name is Mike. This is my girlfriend, Brenda," he said, climbing into the cab of his pickup truck. "Hop in and we'll buy you breakfast." So, off we went to a local restaurant for a meal and an explanation. "So how did you find me?" I asked. "Well I'm an Albanian building contractor here in the city and one of my workmen saw you get jumped in the park. He said you put up a pretty good fight but were overpowered by the police who grabbed you. Now I'd been in that jail before and it's not a fit place for a person to be. So Brenda and I thought we should get you out of there." He later cashed my traveler's check, helped clear my papers at the customs office and got me on a bus out of town. I thought for a minute about helping the other inmates in that jail but knew that it was best if I kept on going. On the Road ... Again.

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