# Practical Saintliness One of the biggest challenges in developing spiritual character is learning how to appropriately balance the practical and the transcendental. We have to appropriately respond to real situations in the world, but we also have to live in a higher, almost other-worldly, state of mind. Embracing transcendence, but simultaneously down-to-earth. Consider the following situations. *1) You are walking down the street and you witness someone hurling racial abuse at an elderly man. How would **tolerance** be applied?* *2) There is a huge natural disaster in Japan and you are asked to present a response in a public forum. How would **compassion** be applied?* *3) You can see that someone is doing something self-destructive, but they probably won’t accept any feedback from you. How would **truthfulness** be applied?* Most individuals struggle to imbibe these qualities, while some endeavour to but without really helping the situation. A rare few manage to intelligently apply the quality in the most progressive way possible. How may one respond if: a) They neglect the quality b) They superficially embrace the quality, but don’t benefit the situation c) They intelligently imbibe the quality and progressively improve the situation **Your ‘To-Be’ list:** What are the five qualities that you would like to imbibe in your thoughts, words and actions? Display these five qualities in a prominent place and ensure you spend a few moments every day (ideally early in the morning) meditating on them. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://gita3.keshavaswami.com/12.-make-a-to-do-list-or-make-a-to-be-list/practical-saintliness.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.