The Buddha of Priorities

It is related that Sakyamuni [the historical Buddha] once dismissed
as of small consequence a feat of levitation on the part of a disciple,
and cried out in pity for a yogin by the river who had spent twenty
years of his human existence learning to walk on water, when the
ferryman might have taken him across for a small coin.

—Peter Matthiessen, “The Snow Leopard” (1978)

A favorite book, should be in my profile, but I ran out of room.