Tolerance must be extended to all facets of one's life. After many years of close personal association with my Master, I have come to the conclusion that tolerance is perhaps the most important spiritual quality as it seems to embrace, and emanate out of itself, the other virtues such as understanding, charity, and even love itself. I have often been told that love begets tolerance but, perhaps, the reverse that tolerance begets love, is true. It is an accepted psychological axiom that only those who have hatred for themselves in their hearts project the hatred on the world. Such hatred is self-hatred, and comes out of an inability to accept one's own qualities. In the widest understanding of the word, tolerance implies that everything has a place in the universal hierarchy, and it is the understanding of this basic truth of creation that tolerance reveals. Tolerance thus reveals the correct perspective in the universal scheme of things. We have been taught that good and evil co-exist, that they are nothing but different facets of the same reality. So too have we been taught to regard vice and virtue and all the other opposites of existence. Where one exists, the other must exist. There is no choice. Who, then, are we to revile at the negative (as we label them) manifestations? We are often haunted by the apparent antithesis in persons' characters - a rich man being miserly; an honest man indulging in secret thievery; a virtuous person having a hidden, seamy side to his existence; a religious person with a dark and unsavoury personal life. All this perturbs us and, what is worse, frustrates us in our search for knowledge and understanding. Tolerance can give us that quantum of time which will permit us to probe below the surface and see the underlying truth. This is a minimum benefit that tolerance confers - time to study and understand things. And inevitably when the externals are ignored and we penetrate deeper, then understanding, true understanding, comes and we find that persons are other than what they appear to be. If we are earnest in our endeavour and zealous in our pursuit, a time will surely come when we can see the saint inside the sinner! This, to my Master,is a permanent vision. He sees nothing but the true Reality within.

My Master: Chapter on Tolerance, p. 28-30

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To the creator, all are one. Can a man differentiate between individual ants in an ant hill? To us all ants appear the same. Perhaps they have a government, a social structure, a class stratification, but to us all this is non-existent. How much more must we humans all look alike to a Godly vision from above! When we emulate Master and learn to see all as one, then we too aspire to this godly conscience, to the development of such a divine consciousness in us, and the mere aspiration lifts us up and opens up the possibility of its actualisation.

So, coming back to tolerance, we see and understand how it it is not merely one of the virtues, but is the cardinal virtue; and not merely this, it is the perception of the truth of creation that all men are created equal in God's vision, and we do nothing but destroy the basic value of such creation when we seek to classify and divide what has been created as one. So tolerance is conforming to God's intent and design, and such conformity enables us to swim in the same direction as the current, thus making our journey not only trouble-free but doubly fast. In this lies the possibility of a speedy evolution to our goal within this life itself.

My Master: Chapter on Tolerance, p. 36-37

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The ultimate benefit of this training is that a person is able to see himself as he really is, shorn of all attributes; and the ability to live with oneself develops as we grow to like what we see. After all, which of us really knows himself? But to know oneself one has perhaps to start by knowing and understanding others. Then this trained gaze must be turned from outwards inside. And as we see human beings swayed hither and thither by their attributes, we gain a deep insight and understanding of the mysteries of existence, followed by a tenderness and love which develop spontaneously from such a deeper understanding. Then there is no revulsion, no abhorrence, no villification - because all is as it should be, so long as men and women continue to be as they are. Here begins to dawn the wisdom which says that all change must begin with oneself. As I change and grow, so does my vision, my consciousness. And with this growth a parallel possibility is given, that of helping others to strive for and achieve change and progress in themselves. So, all reform must begin, like charity, at home.

My Master: Chapter on Tolerance, p. 37-38