Noble Ambudhichakra perfected the art of patience
over tens of thousands of lifetimes at the I-5/805 merge.
Despite SUVs the size of Mt. McKinley blocking his view,
blindsiders passing faster than the speed of sound in the right lane,
and rubberneckers slowing traffic to the pace of maple syrup at absolute zero,
Ambudhichakra never laid on his horn or extended his middle finger.
Thus he severed the trailer hitch of past karma,
and the passing lane of nirvana opened before him.

In the nanosecond before stomping the accelerator
he thought of those left behind in traffic.
"Sentient beings commute to earn money for car payments
and make car payments so they can commute. Truly,
they are trapped on the wheel of suffering." Pity moved
Ambudhichakra's heart, and he pulled over into the breakdown lane.
"Let any sentient being, trapped behind a slow-moving semi
or prevented from merging into the exit lane, call my name,
and my compassion will become a wide road that smoothes his path
and steers him from danger."

Just then Indra parachuted from the Channel 10 traffic helicopter,
placed his palms together, and said, "Well done, Ambudhichakra! Well done!"
A great concourse of gods, dragons, yakshas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas,
kinnaras, and mahoragas, as well as thousands of bhikshus, bhikshuņis, upāsakas,
and upāsikas, all in their hybrid vehicles, assembled and touched their foreheads
to Ambudichakra's feet. The bodhisattva's mystic power transformed
the line of brake lights, stretching to North County and back again,
into a rosary of precious rubies, each sliding through his fingers with the recitation
of the sacred mantra "Om Mani Padme Hum" All beings present then
realized their broken-down vehicles were in fact Lotuses in the Pure Land, Sukhavati,
where compassion has cleared all obstructions from the road to enlightenment.

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