Allan Lokos is the founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center in New York City and author of Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living. "It takes patience to develop patience," he says in this thought-provoking book on a virtue that has gotten short-shrift in our speed-oriented society. Lokos taps into his many experiences as a Buddhist practitioner and a spiritual teacher as he explores the relationship between anger and patience.

Sharon Salzberg has written: "Impatience is feeling upset because things are not happening on our timetable, or wanting to be more in control of a process so that we can have something happen the way we'd like to see it happen." The cultivation of patience is not an easy task given the bad habits we have established based on ego and illusion.

In a section devoted to establishing patience with ourselves, Lokos presents meditation as a worthwhile vehicle for change. In a chapter on relationships, he writes about the importance of skillful speech and listening closely to what other people say when they are in your company. At work we are called upon to not give in to our feelings of anger at co-workers or bosses. Lokos turns to Shantideva, a great Buddhist sage, for counsel on a cluster of issues related to the "mental misery" we bring on ourselves by impatience or giving in to the foolishness of anger.

We agree that patience for many people must become a way of life and not just a virtue or an occasional practice. The end result of commitment to moving beyond impatience is a life animated by peace, wisdom, and compassion.