“.. The lion accompanied the hare to the well and looked in. The lion saw his own image reflected in the water, and beside him a plump hare. No sooner did he espy his enemy than he left the hare and sprang into the well. He fell into the pit which he had dug: his aggression recoiled  on his own head.  When he saw himself in the well, blinded by his aggression at that moment, the lion couldn’t differentiate himself from his enemy. He  thought his image to be his enemy.

Many of the faults that you see in others are in fact your own reflected in them! In them you see all that you are – your own hypocrisy, iniquity, and insolence. It is really your own faults that you are criticizing, but you do not see them as clearly in yourself, or you would hate yourself with all your soul. Like the lion who sprang at his image in the water, you are only hurting yourself.”

Rumi – Masnavi I: 1304-9; 1319-24; 1328