The Dalai Lama on Tolerance and Patience

TOLERANCE

True tolerance is a stand or a response an individual adopts in relation to a particular incident, or towards another person or event. When the individual has the ability to act in a contrary manner as a result of his or her considerations, taking into account many factors and so on, but decides against taking negative action, this is true tolerance. This is quite different from a situation in which an individual has no capacity whatsoever to take such a strong counter-measure. Then he or she is in a helpless position, and can’t do otherwise.

PATIENCE

Many people think that to be patient in bearing loss is a sign of weakness. I think this is a mistake. It is anger that is a sign of weakness, whereas patience is a sign of strength. For example, a person arguing a point based on sound reasoning remains confident and may even smile while proving his case. On the other hand, if his reasons are unsound and he is about to lose face, he gets angry, loses control and starts talking nonsense. People rarely get angry if they are confident in what they are doing. Angers comes more easily in moments of confusion.