Revolution's end

Whereas throughout the course of the history of humankind, revolutions have tended to be brutal and violent, the most important, lasting, and profound revolution that can ever take place is the conscious change that you undertake within your own self.

I know you all like to think that mere change and revolution are two different things, but when it comes to oneself, a conscious change is the same as a revolution. If you fundamentally, truly, change yourself ... the way you view the world, the things in which you believe; if you consciously decide to be different than you are, to act in a different way, you have most certainly changed the world.

John the Baptist's message was simple: change the way you think (metanoia) and the Kingdom of God will be realized on earth. Jesus' message was the same, only he provided us with a couple of guidelines in which direction we might consider changing in a worthwhile manner. They cut off John's head, according to the story, and we all know what they did to Jesus. Has it ever struck any of you why whoever it was, whenever it was, would have resorted to such drastic measures for such as simple statement: change the way you think?

It's not all that difficult, really. Should we stop talking about how much we love Jesus and believe in him and start acting like he did, the world would change in drastic and radical ways. Or, just for the contrast, we stop talking about Buddha and start acting like he did, we would recognize our true selves and the world would change in drastic and radical ways. Or, just for laughs, if we stop talking about the Tao and start acting like Lao-Tzu admonished us to act, we would change the world in drastic and radical ways. And the same is true no matter who I call as witness. We love to talk about a lot of things, but in the end, we're reluctant to do anything at all.

For you non-believers or atheists among us: you're not off the hook. I, personally, don't care if you believe in God or Allah or Nothing or everything. I don't care if you think religion is a bogus pyramid scheme that needs to be eliminated. If you're so fixated with eliminating the "evil" influences of religion, how about simply acting in a way that others might find worth emulating. Set a good example.

What we think and what we say is all very nice. I would hate to think that those who are saying and thinking nice things should be ignored. But, in the end, when you get right down to it, what you say matters very little compared to what you do. The real revolution would be a revolution of action, of doing: saying what you mean, and meaning what you say; doing that which is necessary to support what you say; doing as you do, not only as you say. If we could get just this far, we'd have taken a huge step forward.

Unfortunately, as is so often the case, there are more than enough folks who are simply all show, and no go; folks who can talk the talk, but can't walk the walk. The final question is obvious: where are you in all of this? Are you the revolution's end, or its beginning?