Creating the Perfect Circle (a Zen Proverb)

One day a small boy was playing near the river when he saw an old man with a long beard seated in the sand. The boy moved closer and watched as the old man drew a perfect circle into the sand.

“Hey, old man, how did you draw such a perfect circle?” asked the boy.

The old man looked at the boy and said, “I don’t know, I just tried, and tried again…here, you try.”

The old man handed the stick to the boy and walked away. The boy began drawing circles in the sand. At first his circles came out too w...