[Toleranz]
Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl[1]
A Master of Wisdom says: “Forbearance is patiently enduring what one cannot change, both in oneself and in others, until God decides otherwise,” and the Bhagavad Gita teaches: “One recognizes a sage because he doesn’t allow himself to be disturbed by the three forces of nature, but stands firm in his faith and behaves like an uninvolved spectator who says to himself: “These forces follow their laws.”
This does not mean that one should not make an effort to correct one’s mistakes or help others to correct them, but one must distinguish between the person and his inherent defects, being tolerant of the person but impatient of his faults; for he who is tolerant of evil is intolerant of good, because good cannot appear so long as evil is favored. A gardener who allows the weeds to thrive hinders the growth of useful plants and exercises a misplaced tolerance.
We are tolerant of ourselves when we are intolerant of our evil tendencies. Every evil desire within us is a form of our will that has taken on a form of its own, has rebelled against our true selves and formed a state within a state, as it were. The will is a force. Because we overcome and destroy this form of will, it dissolves and the power from which it was formed returns to its source, it becomes our power again. Thus by every act of self-restraint our will is strengthened, and by yielding to an evil inclination it is weakened. In other words, every matured desire represents a vampire (elemental) that feeds on our blood, and by killing it, its power becomes ours again. But if, in spite of our efforts, we do not immediately succeed in overcoming these vampires, we need not regret it but hold fast to the conviction that the Lord within us is fighting for us.
When we are intolerant of the follies of another, we are not intolerant of himself, but rather take his side against the follies that trouble him. All evils arise from ignorance of truth. This ignorance weighs on no one but on the one who possesses it, and the possessor of it thus deserves our pity and our help, but not contempt and hatred. If the consequences of his folly make us painfully aware, there is no better remedy than to enlighten him and relieve him of his burden. Tacit tolerance is in place only when repeated attempts to get him to put aside his faults have been in vain and he is not amenable to any instruction. It is written: “Resist not evil!” By this is meant that evil is a force, and as every force increases by the resistance it encounters, the evil thereby only increases. Instead of aligning ourselves with evil and fighting it, we must learn to rise above the level on which it operates; then the same thing no longer affects us. It is to this elevation that the realization of the God-Spirit within us and the denial of the lower self leads us. Hell in man is created by his egoism, heaven inside by selfless love. This love expresses itself in joyful submission to the law.
Where the human will ceases to oppose the divine will, the will of God comes into its own, and when this divine will has become our own, then we are free. Anyone who regards all creatures as vessels of the divine will and recognizes its workings in them will easily find the strength to be tolerant towards all others: for he sees his own eternal Self within every creature.
Note
[1] Tolerance [Toleranz. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Theosophischer Wegweiser 6, no. 1 (October 1903), 15-17] {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}