Reform the Self Above All Others

Here's some more RUMI to help those who may be experiencing some frustration in our current state of affairs:

O you who treat others badly simply because of your high status; know that you're digging a hole for yourself to fall into.  Don't weave a cocoon of false pretenses around yourself like a silkworm; you're digging a hole for yourself!  Don't dig so eagerly!

Many of the evils that you see in others are really just a reflection of your own evil in them.  In their reflection, all your hypocrisy, evil, and arrogance are made apparent.  You're the real wicked one!  You're aiming blows at yourself and laying curses upon your own head at every turn.

You don't recognize the evil within yourself at all, for if you did you would hate yourself to the very core.  You're assaulting yourself, you fool, like a deceived lion who rushed at himself upon seeing his reflection in a pool.

O you who see bad reflections in the face of your uncle, your uncle is not the bad one, it's you, so don't run away from facing your own self.

The Prophet said that the faithful are mirrors of each other.  If you hold a blue colored glass before your eyes, then the world appears blue to you.  Unless you're blind, you must recognize that this blueness comes from within your own self.  Speak of the evil within yourself before you ever speak of the evil in others.

Mathnawi I, 1311-1312, 1319-1324, 1327-1330