[http://www.shambhalasun.com/ ShambhalaSun Magazine (do a search on "Thich Nhat Hanh" for a list of previous articles)]

It is less important, I believe, where you start. It is more important how and what you learn. If the quality of the learning is high, the development gradient is steep, and, given time, you can find yourself in a previously unattainable place.

Previous ideals and values undermine themselves and collapse into nothing precisely as a result of the effort to make them consummate and exhaustive.