By Dr. Jonathan Isibor.
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English has defined “Tolerance” as the “Willingness to allow people to do, say, or believe what they want without criticizing them”, or as “the degree to which someone can suffer pain, difficulty, etc., without being harmed or damaged”.
We can also say that tolerance is the extending to others the rights you demand for yourself. Many people regard “tolerance” as one of the most difficult principles to put into practice.
We live in a world of strife where intolerance has had its own share at destabilizing hitherto peaceful existence amongst civil societies.
We can easily find examples of intolerance throughout the world and throughout time. Usually, the issues that can engender the most intolerance range from simple personal habits and mannerisms, to differences in philosophical, moral, political and religious beliefs or opinions of people.
But how can we best deal with intolerance in ourselves or, on the positive side practice tolerance?
This, we can do if we do not form the habit of condemning the judgment of others because it differs from ours.
This attitudinal posture can conduce to peace. Do we actually have a right to judge someone else’s life when we do not know what circumstances and experiences in his or her past and may be even in previous lives have influenced the person to be what he or she is now?
Man in his egocentric attitude is likely to believe that his conceptions alone are the only right and proper ones.
We must recognize that other people have a right to their opinions, for no one has a monopoly of wisdom.
We must recognize the fact that no man is all-knowing or an island unto himself. Within the law, others are as entitled to their own opinions and beliefs as we are.
A sage once said, “No man is free whose mind is not like a door with a double – acting hinge swinging outward to release his own ideas and inward to receive the worthy thoughts of others”
Tolerance, like many other virtues, is a mystical key for the attainment of self – mastery and profound peace.
A story is told of the mystic-philosopher, Socrates, over whose body his wife annoyingly poured some quantity of water and in response, he said to his wife: “Woman, after rains, come sunshine”!
Is this not a lesson in tolerance? In answer to whether or not there is a limit to our extent of tolerance, I would say that tolerance does not mean accommodating indiscipline.
We must allow tolerance guide our thoughts, words and deeds, but never use it as pretext to condone a weakness which would go against our cherished ideals.
What does it really mean to have peace? Does having peace necessarily translate to profound peace?
In the beginning, the state of living that man desired most of all was to be left alone, undisturbed, so he could carry out his own pursuits of growth and development.
However, in the course of time, man learned that isolation was very difficult in a world so diversified. Nature’s main attraction is the diversity of its creations, as this is what adds interest to life. Remember the popular saying that variety is the spice of life.
No political institution, religion, philosophy or science can claim to hold a monopoly of peace. However, we can approach peace by sharing the most noble aspects that each of these disciplines has to offer humanity, which brings us back to seeking unity through diversity.
Ironically, we also know that this diversity – the different individual and group interests can lead to conflicts.
Therefore, if you ask me to define or describe what peace is, I would simply say that it is that condition of harmony where all of the elements or participants work together for a common goal.
Peace is never static, but a condition of controlled activities, always using the central purpose as a guide for needed controls. The mystic-philosopher, Pythagoras emphasized harmony, but it was Heraclitus who indicated that harmony is not static but an ever developing relationship between opposites.
Actually, peace has more of a negative quality than positive. By this, I mean that we arrive at a better understanding of peace knowing what it is not.
Emotional stress, anxiety, disease states, aggravation, upheavals, etc, are immediately accepted as being counter states to peace. We can only experience peace by the effects which follow the removal of perturbance.
The principal obstructions to universal peace arise out of man’s misunderstanding of both himself and of his cosmic relationship.
Peace on earth therefore revolves about a proper balance between the personal compulsion of the ego and the sense of righteousness that includes the well-being of others.
I am very certain that almost all persons reading this article will like to know where on the earth plane one could find peace!
If we desire to experience peace, we certainly will not find it on battlefield or in the insatiable accumulation of material possession or in momentary pleasures which soon fade away and die off, or in far-off places, for the only place where peace can abide is in the mind of man.
It behooves us, therefore, to establish and maintain a state of tranquility in our minds, a state that cannot be disturbed by the petty annoyances of the day, unfulfilled desires or even terrestrial disasters.
What I am saying is that peace is attainable. But if we must achieve and retain it, we must beware of intolerance in our attitude to others; we must beware of indulging in gossips or rumor mongering; we must beware of vanity; we must beware of false judgment; we must beware of inconstancy and insincerity for these are destroyers of the Light within each of us, and can ultimately distort peaceful coexistence amongst men.
Quoting Dr. Kenneth Idiodi, Grand Administrator for English speaking West Africa of the Rosicrucian Order, and Director of the Supreme Grand Lodge of AMORC, “Yesterday our world was a global city, today our world is a global village, tomorrow our world will be a global family”.
While the truth in this injunction is not in doubt, I wish to say also that for our world to achieve the status of a peaceful and global family, a lot of understanding is required from all citizens of the world, because this desired closer relationship will certainly result in an array of conflicting interests, ideas and experiences.
This is the greatest test of tolerance of one kind of people for others. A nation can be at peace only when the individuals in each community are at peace with themselves individually.
Only a nation at peace with itself internally can play an effective and beneficial role in the international community.
I wish to state that the concept of Peace is slightly different from the condition of Profound Peace.
Something is regarded as being profound when it shows strong, serious feelings or has strong effect or influence or shows great knowledge and understanding.
One writer has described it as a silent energy behind the many expressions we find all about us. Profound Peace does not mean the momentary suspension of objective consciousness that we practice in meditation.
Rather, it is the zest (i.e., the eager interest and enjoyment) that comes afterward, the feeling of assurance and competence that accompanies whatever we do when we walk “nine feet tall.” “Peace profound is the liberation of man from the cross of life to the expression of the living soul, in tune with the infinite. Put differently, it is “the harmony of man’s accord with the cosmic which brings a warm glow of contentment throughout one’s whole being.”
If we have truly gained Peace profound within our minds, we are able to face all changing conditions with a philosophic and detached attitude.
Tolerance and other virtues taught in some genuine mystical and philosophical organizations are enough keys for us to open the doorway to that state of imperturbability called Peace Profound.
In summary, in order to practice tolerance as a virtue, we must consider the wisdom in the mystical injunction highlighted in the book, UNTO THEE I GRANT-The ECONOMY OF LIFE: “Condemn not the judgment of another, because it differeth from thine own; may not even both be in an error?”
With this frame of mind, all shall know that tolerance encourages peace and that profound peace is a condition of harmony where all work together for a common goal, and all of us carry the abode of peace within us; we will experience that silent subtle and overwhelming vibration that harmonizes all beings with the infinite.
Dr. Jonathan Isibor is an Associate Professor of Microbiology at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Edo State of Nigeria. He can be reached at: joe_isibor@yahoo.com
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