The Door Will Open

By Elizabeth Lesser, "MIND SET: Accept your troubles" - The Times Of India - India
Sunday, March 2, 2008

Learn the alchemy true human beings know.
The moment you accept what troubles you've been given, the door will open.
— Rumi

How do we begin that journey from Once-Born innocence to Twice-Born wisdom? Where do we find the courage to make a big change? How do we use the forces of a difficult time to help us grow?

There are many ways, but the first way, the gateway, is to know that we are not alone in these endeavours. One of the greatest enigmas of human behaviour is the way we isolate ourselves from each other. In our misguided perception of separation we assume that others are not sharing a similar experience of life.

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Rumi wrote poems so alive and clear that even today–eight centuries later–they shimmer with freshness. Their wisdom and humour are timeless; whenever I have an a-ha moment with one of Rumi’s poems, I feel connected to the people throughout the ages who have climbed out of their confusion on the rungs of Rumi’s words.

In several of his poems and commentaries, Rumi speaks of the Open Secret. He says that each one of us is trying to hide a secret–not a big, bad secret, but a more subtle and pervasive one.

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The irony of hiding the dark side of our humanness is that our secret is not really a secret at all. How can it be when we’re all safeguarding the very same story? That’s why Rumi calls it an Open Secret.

It’s almost a joke–a laughable admission that each one of us has a shadow self–a bumbling, bad-tempered twin. Big surprise! Just like you, I can be a jerk sometimes. I do unkind, cowardly things, when I should be doing something constructive. Just like you, I wonder if life has meaning; I worry and fret over things I can’t control; and I often feel overcome with a longing for something that I cannot even name.

For all of my strengths and gifts, I am also a vulnerable and insecure person, in need of connection and reassurance. This is the secret I try to keep from you, and you from me, and in doing so, we do each other a grave disservice.

Moment we accept what troubles we’ve been given, the door will open.

Sounds easy, sounds attractive, but it is difficult, and most of us pound on the door to freedom and happiness with every manipulative ploy save the one that actually works.

If you’re interested in the door to the heavens opening, start with the door to your own secret self. See what happens when you offer to another a glimpse of who you really are.
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(Excerpted from Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow).