Once the Buddha was trying to find someone to help him cross a river. After a while he found a Hindu mystic who had become so proficient in meditation that, by sheer power of his mind, he could move a boat across the river.
"How long did it take you to perfect your ability to cross the river?" the Buddha asked him.
"Thirty years of long, hard discipline," the mystic replied.
"That does not seem very impressive," the Buddha replied. "I can cross the river without thirty years of long, hard discipline, simply by finding a ferryman to take me in the ordinary way."
