TOLERANCE

We hear much about tolerance. All of us who deem ourselves "good people", also presume ourselves to be tolerant. Scratch a little below the surface, however, and we may find ourselves not quite so tolerant as we imagined.

Perhaps our version of tolerance is to appear tolerant outwardly while inwardly we grit our teeth and fume. True tolerance is a very difficult, demanding, but fruitful discipline. Intolerance is a manifestation of our egoism, our self-centeredness. Thus reducing our intolerance lightens our spiritual burden and removes obstacles.

As with all issues of how we relate with people, we work from the inside out, beginning with ourselves, then our family and loved ones, then those toward whom we are neutral and finally those toward whom we bear antipathy.

And as with all sources of disharmony in ourselves, the healing of our intolerance comes gradually through clear seeing. We cannot shed our intolerance before we are ready, although we can prepare by becoming aware of it operating in us.

Intolerance breeds hatred and violence. Milder forms merely waste our precious energies and keep us mired in their poison. Giving up an intolerant attitude is actually a great gift to ourselves. We need to notice intolerance whenever it rears its head in us. To see it clearly and observe its effects on us.

Seeing it as only a visitor to our consciousness and then returning to a practice of tolerance towards ourselves and others.

❤️

Patricia Ventura - FORM-Idea Lisbon, 22nd October 2017.