Today is the first anniversary of the Rubber Ducky Buddha of Joliet’s enlightenment. His Bodhi Day!
I believe this is the first photo I took of Rubber Ducky after this enlightenment.
Here is a little story from a few days after Rubber Ducky’s enlightenment. I think it was November 6, 2017.
When I got “home” from an incredibly fun day with my new friends … I thought I lost Rubber Ducky. I know Rubber Ducky was in my pants pocket as usual when I got in the car to come home. But he wasn’t there as I changed to go to bed. I hadn’t been home long, so there weren’t many places he could be. I looked through the car first, then along the path from the car to the house, rifled through stuff I brought in, my backpack, grocery bags. No Rubber Ducky.
It seems like folks who become enlightened soon leave this realm and I thought that was the case with Rubber Ducky. Well, if Rubber Ducky did leave, it was a day of fun suitable for his last day.
Then I thought I’d check the car one more time. I put on my shoes, jacket, got the keys, and there he was in one of those “compartments” by the gear shift. That’s not too odd, but I really don’t remember taking him out of my pocket.
He said it was a test of losing my dukkha. At least for this test, I guess I did very well. I readily accepted that Rubber Ducky moved on. “Is that so?”, as Hakuin would say.
However, counter-intuitively much more impressive, is that when I found Rubber Ducky, I was equally accepting as when I thought I lost him. This part is hard to grasp that it sounds like life is supposed to be this even-keeled, dull, thing lacking incredible rushes. But there is a Universe of difference between the freedom not-clinging brings and the very temporary high of a victory, that “dopamine rush” (or whatever) or even a “meth high”.
Lastly, I wrote a new post on our sister site, The Teachings of the Eternal Fishnu, titled, I’m a Buddha Trapped in a Man’s Bodhi. It’s dedicated to the 1st anniversary of the Rubber Ducky Buddha of Joliet’s enlightenment,
Bodhi Day 