On first glance, tolerance may seem similar to Elias' biggest word acceptance, but he describes it to be quite different. The point seems to be that tolerance still includes judgment and that tolerance is an act of temporarily enduring something which is judged as bad or inacceptable.
**Session #510**:
ELIAS: You view tolerance to be a noble expression. You strive to be expressing tolerance in conjunction with other individuals, and also at times with yourself, and as I have stated, you equate tolerance with acceptance. If you are being tolerant, you are also being accepting, and I shall express to you, these are very different expressions.
You may be tolerating of behaviors or actions or situations, but tolerance is an expression of temporary. Acceptance is enduring.
Tolerance is an area of expression that you may allow yourself to move into temporarily with yourself or with other individuals, and even with situations and circumstances.
You allow yourselves to move in conjunction with certain aspects of your reality and not be struggling against them temporarily with an anticipation or an expectation of an alteration, a change.
You may be tolerating of another individual or hold tolerance in conjunction with another individual temporarily, and also be holding an underlying expectation and anticipation that there shall be incorporated a change of some element that shall allow you to be accepting. Tolerance incorporates expectations and anticipations. Therefore, it is not synonymous with acceptance.
Acceptance is the lack of judgment, and also incorporates a lack of expectation, for acceptance is a genuine expression of ‘it matters not.’ ‘It matters not’ is not incorporated into tolerance, for there IS a mattering in your expressions in the area of tolerance.