In February 2011, I had borrowed a car to join friends for breakfast in Tucson. We met to discuss what was soon to become the Rosewater farm experiment.
While I was driving, I heard a news report about the protest that was happening in Tahrir Square. I got very excited about the news. I had known that some kind of revolution was brewing for some time--that's what many of my conversations had been about for the previous three years, and that's what Rosewater (that name came later) was meant to be part of.
For the past twenty years now, I have been thirsty for change, eager to create the world I feel good about living in.
The word "revolution" means something different to me, now. I recognize that we are in a constant state of revolution, and it is up to us as individuals to embrace it.
Buddhism is a revolution. 2,600 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama stood up to the world he had been given, and decided instead to search for the world he wanted to call home. Once he found it within, he made friends, traveled, and discussed their discoveries and insights. Without telephones, without the internet, without even newspapers, this is how ideas were spread. 2,500 years later, the ideas had made their way from India to the North American shores.
In 2011, things were able to move much more quickly. Six months after the protests in Tahrir Square had begun, the sparks that would become Occupy Wall Street were catching. Only a year later, so much of the world was on fire.
While cynics may point out that the Occupy movement petered out quickly, a lot has changed as a result of those protests. And a lot continues to: the groups of thousands did not simply disband. They diversified into more specialized groups of hundreds and dozens, still stirring up change.
But revolution did not begin in Tahrir Square in 2011, just like it didn't begin 250 years ago in America, and it didn't begin 2,600 years ago in India.
Revolution began with the very first person who accepted his- or herself, and made an effort to show this to others. Since then, such people have encountered those who saw, those who refused to see, and those who were inspired to do the same, in an unbroken web of interactions, for thousands and thousands of years.
Revolution can occur in anyone's life. You don't need to march down the street with banners and torches in protest. You might not need the kind of change that those kinds of protests initiate. Maybe you just need to have a conversation with a loved one. Maybe you just need other people at the bus stop to understand that you're a human being, too. Maybe you just need to face yourself in the mirror. These might seem like small things, unworthy of the term "revolution," but if you've done them after having difficulty you can't deny the massive change that comes about.
Self-acceptance can be incredibly difficult. Revealing it to others can be, too. For inspiration, we can draw on the strength of millions of people who have made the effort in the past. Embrace the revolution that has continued for so long, and celebrate your role as the warrior who accepts the baton today. This is no small thing. Once you pass the baton, you have no idea where it will go. This was the Buddha's revolution, and it can be yours.
