A man travels to live at a Buddhist monastery with the hopes of learning to become enlightened.
Upon arrival he meets the head monk and asks “How long will it take me to reach enlightenment?”
“Hmm...”, says the monk, “...perhaps 10 years.”
Feeling this was far too long to wait, the man replies: “But, what if I work twice as hard? Devote myself twice as much to the practice? How long then?”
“20 years,” replies the monk.
“What? I do not understand,” says the man. “If I’m willing to try even harder, surely that should mean I can attain enlightenment faster?”
To which the monk says, “I think for you it will probably require about 30 years.”
I heard this story during a talk from the Audio Dharma podcast. I don’t remember it exactly but this was the general gist of it. Felt relevant here.