Today is the third day of Higan week, the three days before the equinox and the three days after. As explained in a Nichiren Shu brochure:

For Buddhists, this period is not just one characterized by days with almost equal portions of light and dark. Rather, it is a period in which we strive to consciously reflect upon ourselves and our deeds.

The today we consider the Perfection of Tolerance.

For the perfection of tolerance, wisdom is the art of understanding when to be tolerant and how. This is why tolerance or patience is a skill of character that is so difficult – it depends on the insight and subtlety of mind to know when it ought to be practiced and when not, and in each case how to practice it to good effect. The appropriateness and effectiveness of patience, like generosity, is context dependent, and the capacity to see these subtle nuances of context takes wisdom. In this way, patience is a matter of balance, wisdom to sense the whole of the situation in which we find ourselves and to act in accordance with just proportion and sound timing.

Both balance and timing indicate to us that it will not always be appropriate to be patient or tolerant. Wisdom guides us to ask – tolerant or patient of what? For what reasons and on behalf of what larger goal? Knowing when to be patient entails knowing how to place this present situation in the context of overriding goals, especially one’s “thought of enlightenment.” Limited practices of patience must fit into a larger scheme of practices aimed at more and more encompassing ends, both personal and communal. There are times, clearly, when it is unwise and unenlightening to wait patiently, times when, for the good of everyone, only direct action will do.