In Jain Dharma, simply tolerating pain or illness is not automatically tapa.

Tapa means intentional austerity done with right understanding, self-discipline, and detachment to burn karmas. If a person suffers pain or illness while maintaining equanimity, patience, and absence of attachment or hatred, then that endurance can support inner tapas.

But if one only endures suffering unwillingly, with anger, fear, complaint, or attachment to the body, then it is not true tapa in the Jain sense.

So, in short:

• Pain and illness themselves are not tapa
• Patient, detached acceptance of them can be spiritual austerity
• True tapa requires inner purity, not just physical suffering

In Jain view, the highest point is samata — equanimity of mind.