Tolerance: Its Significance Today

TOLERANCE: ITS SIGNIFICANCE TODAY for life as a whole, these differences can be a great blessing: the good points of one person may compensate for the shortcomings of another person, just as a set of talents in one person may complement a different set of talents in someone else. If people could only learn to tolerate and even accept and celebrate others’ differences, their forbearance would become a great enabling factor in collective human development. The habit of tolerance prevents a person from wasting their time and talents on unnecessary matters. If you are negatively affected by another person’s disrespectful behaviour, your mental equilibrium will be upset. However, if you are emotionally untouched by such behaviour, your mind will fully retain its equilibrium, and, without wasting a single moment, you will continue to perform your work in the normal way and thus be able to move ahead. A policy of tolerance or forbearance enhances your efficacy, while intolerant behaviour reduces it. Tolerance is not an act of compulsion. On the contrary, it is a positive principle of life, expressing the noble side of a person’s character. The existence of tolerant human beings in a society is like the blooming of flowers in a garden. This is relevant for harmonious relations between members of different communities and adherents of different belief systems.