There Is No Quick Way

"When I was young," the Dalai Lama tells us, "I was very short-tempered, but at the age of sixteen, I started to take serious interest in the study of dharma. I can say through my own experience, yes we can change the mind. You can become a much more calm person, much happier.

"But always in America someone will ask me, 'What is the best way, what is the quickest?' " He pauses, smiles again, looks directly at his American audience. "But you see, there is no quick way. It takes effort."

He wraps up quickly after that, checking his watch a few times, then saying, "So that is about my time. If you think some of my points are interesting, please study and analyze them. If you think these points are nonsense, then just forget it."

---Dinty W. Moore, in The Accidental Buddhist---