Yes! absolutely! Then time passes and we realize,... ops: . But, I'm sure now! Then more time passes and we realize again,... ops: . We crave certainty, especially in those areas of life important to us. Yet that emotional craving deafens us to the voice of our own (or other people's) experience.

Even when we're aware of the folly of past certainty, we cling firmly to current certainty. We don't realize that it is certainty itself, not just mistaken certainty, that is problematic. And so in the battle between reason and emotion, emotion wins every time. The only way to extinguish that fire is to deal with it while it is still nothing. How do we deal with something while it is still nothing? Adopt a tentative, hesitant and murky approach to life by facing - even embracing - uncertainty and change. Following the river of life as it ebbs and flows and adjusting to change which is an inevitable and unknowable mystery. Of course all this has been clearly laid out in the the teaching that uses no words. Although, the more sure we are in our beliefs, the harder it is to listen to that teaching.

Of course, our beliefs support (i.e., rationalize) our underlying emotional needs and fears. We feel stronger, and therein lies our difficulty in resorting to weakness and letting go. As chapter 78 puts it: That the weak overcomes the strong, and the submissive overcomes the hard, everyone in the world knows yet no one can put this knowledge into practice.