3 Reasons On Why To Be Tolerant in Martial Arts

Why should you have to put up with things you do not like? Obviously, if something is going to hurt you, you shouldn’t have to tolerate it. But what if it’s something that is simply different from what you feel or believe? Or boiling it down more simply, something or someone that’s different?

People are often frightened of the unknown, the different..So they become intolerant of it. Sometimes they even attack it. But there are three big reasons why we should show tolerance towards feelings or beliefs that are different from ours.

The first reason is obvious when you think about it: if someone has feelings or beliefs different to yours, it follows that you must have feelings or beliefs that are different to theirs. So should they tolerate you? And if you don’t tolerate each other, what are you going to do? Fight each other? If everybody tolerated each others’ feelings and beliefs, we could all get on without unnecessary trouble.

The second reason is to do with people who are less clever or experienced than we are. If we are intolerant of them, we’ll discourage and push them away. Imagine if your Sensei treated you in that way. Teaching is to do with encouragement and acceptance, not intolerance. But you don’t have to be a Sensei to be tolerant of people less gifted than you. Encourage them and you will make friends for life.

The third reason is an even deeper one: sometimes the other person might be right, or have a point you hadn’t thought about. How are we going to learn from each other if we don’t have respect for each others’ feelings and beliefs? Because in this world, nobody is right all the time. The most dangerous people are those who think they are. Everybody’s got something to learn and something to share. Tolerance is the path to wisdom and a good life.