For many years, I’ve found poetry to be a powerful and evocative way into my inner life. Learning poems by heart has been a fulfilling, life-altering practice—giving my often-compulsive mental chatter something beautiful to focus on. Among my favorite poets, like many of you, is the Persian mystic and Sufi, Rumi. One of the first poems that truly took root in my heart is:
You Suppose That You Are the Trouble
by Rumi
You suppose that you are the trouble,
But you really are the cure.
You suppose that you are the lock in the door,
But you really are the key that opens it.
It’s too bad you want to be someone else.
You don’t see your own face, your own beauty.
Yet, no one’s face is more beautiful than yours.
Let’s pause and explore some of the insights and invitations in these words.
“Something Wrong with Me”
Many of us carry an internal image of ourselves as fundamentally flawed or damaged. Perhaps, upon waking at 3:00 a.m., there’s a fleeting sense that “something is wrong with me,” or a quiet feeling of not truly belonging here.
In my work with others over many years, I’ve noticed that beneath the “I’m fine” veneer, there’s often a tender uncertainty—a subtle “embarrassment in being” that lingers.
And that might be healthy. This feeling, as uncomfortable as it can be, often serves as the existential motivation that drives us to deepen into our life’s path. After all, hunger implies searching for food. People who have never felt this kind of disquiet are often disconnected from their inner world and sometimes truly narcissistic.
The Good News: A Beginning, Not an End
You suppose that you are the trouble,
But you really are the cure.
Here’s the good news: While this painful inner sense of inadequacy, of “not enough-ness”, is often where we begin, it need not be the end. With deep listening, wise support and luck, we can overcome it.
Great Zen masters teach that without delusion, there is no enlightenment. Darkness and light require each other—our light-filled nature emerges from the darkness. In letting go of the sense that we are the problem, we realize that we are the very cure to the disease that never truly existed in the first place.
How Does the Door Open?
You suppose that you are the lock in the door,
But you really are the key that opens it.
The door opens when we expand into a larger sense of self. This larger self is the space in which we can observe our habitual tendencies—whether they are self-criticism, self-violence, or criticalness toward others—and disempower them.
What is this “larger Self”? It’s the awareness that sees with both clarity and warmth. Our historic self-identities—whether positive, negative, or neutral—are carried by our thoughts and emotions. We are so much more than the voices in our heads, the shape of our bodies, and the stories we tell ourselves. Can we see all of this with kindness, curiosity, and care, without identifying with any of it?
The Mistake of Comparing Ourselves to an Idealized Self
It’s too bad you want to be someone else.
This verse evokes a humbling heaviness in the heart. We often carry some picture of our idealized self— “who I am without my problems”—and then project this ideal onto others. Big mistake!
True joy and laughter come when we stop believing the comparison game (perhaps 10,000 times) and accept ourselves just as we are—warts and all! Growing this kind of awareness, filled with warmth and clarity, free from judgment is again the key to this transformation. The inner sun shines.
Who Are You, really?
You don’t see your own face, your own beauty.
Yet, no one’s face is more beautiful than yours.
Reading this, tears come, followed by the familiar temptation to say, “But I know I’m not that beautiful.” I look at my face in the mirror and see all the imperfections, wrinkles, scars, a funny nose… the list goes on.
THIS is the deep invitation, with profound, life-altering questions:
– Are YOU really just this body and these habitual thoughts?
– Are YOU really that limited, flawed, confused, problem person?
– Can YOU see Beyond, Before, After, With-in these passing traits?
– Are YOU the trouble?
If you identify solely with your conditioned self—if this is your deepest sense of identity—then, yes, you are the “trouble.” We are here to bring loving awareness to these limited self-identities – to take care of them and unwind the beauty that is hiding within them.
When you see beyond the surface, then there truly is no face more (or less) beautiful than yours.
This poem reminds us that we are not the stories we tell ourselves, the roles we play, or the judgments we carry. We are the warm-hearted awareness that holds it all—and that awareness, when recognized and embraced, is the key to unlocking a life of true freedom and self-acceptance.