Duality of Certainty on Truth

In the search for Truth, we must have healthy levels of doubt, yet also have healthy levels of conviction and when the time is right, to be the blacksmith that strikes the iron when it is hot with a level of conviction. We must flow between doubt and conviction in a way that is in harmony with our being, our understanding, and our inner knowing.

We do not want to strike when the iron is not hot. We want to strike at the right moment. That is when we can be certain.

Before that time, we have a moment to think and room to breath, to challenge our beliefs and ways of thinking. To allow possibilities to flourish.

Certainty, is the idea of having a firm conviction that something is the case. The word “certain” comes from the Latin word ‘certus’, which means “fixed, settled, indisputable”.

The word Conviction comes from Latin prefix ‘con-‘ meaning ‘with’ and suffix ‘-viction’ relating to ‘vinces’ or ‘victory’. In contemporary sense, when we act with conviction, we do so with full faith and being towards success or victory.

This is both good and bad, depending on what is actually true. –And truth does not owe itself to conform to our understanding of it. So we must be certain during times of certainty, and be doubtful during times of skepticism. Then we allow our actions to reveal or uncover what is true.

We must dance between the duality of certainty and uncertainty.

Confidence is not competence

Confidence is the prefix “con-” meaning ‘with’ and ‘fidence’ relating to Latin ‘fidelis’ or ‘fidelity’ meaning ‘faith’. The etymology of confidence means ‘to have or be with faith’.

In simple terms, Confidence is faith. The leap of faith from a position of belief -> to knowing. (or at least thinking that we know, an inner knowing)

And having certainty is faith based confidence.

We would do well or be wise in limiting the amount of time spent with 100% conviction, certainty, or confidence. When we have too much confidence, we overestimate our status or being, we become arrogant and pompous. We become blinded in our own ways. We may recklessly charge into something that isn’t true. We may find out what we thought we once know, was actually a lie- and we may learn the hard way.

To question your certainty, allows you to reevaluate and change. To become more competent in your holistic understanding.

Competence meaning “having the necessary ability, knowledge, or skill to do something successfully.” The word ‘Competence’ comes from the Latin word ‘competentia’, which means “meeting together, in agreement and symmetry”.

If we are forever confident, but always wrong. We are not competent. We are not meeting together and agreement in symmetry with truth.

If we are forever lacking in faith, and never act. We are not competent. We accomplished nothing and have proven nothing, like a dullard who stares at a hammer expecting the nail to hit itself.

We have to put theory to practice. We have to test our truth to reality to see what is true.

Only when we have confidence to act, and the ability to adapt, to evolve our truth to reality, are we able to be competent. Competence is earned by doing things successfully, thus we need to adapt our aim and truth to match that of reality.

The phrase ‘Confidence is not competence’ is a saying that goes around. It is not confidence alone that makes one competent.

Balance of certainty

When we are certain that we have everything figured out, that we have no room for any more knowledge or new facts, we become rigid. We become static and fixed in our pet reality. Unable to learn new tricks, unable to adapt to change.

When we become absolute in our certainty, we stop entertaining possibilities.

We must find the middle ground to live life in harmony. To be certain in our belief and faith to do what we must, but also be able to leave room to doubt and question if there’s something more. If we don’t, we may not innovate or change, we fail to learn or adapt.

If you are certain that you know everything, then there is nothing more to learn. Stuck in your ways and operating on an old map of the territory in life. This map may serve you well, or it may lead you to doom. Even the Guided Positional Satellite maps, GPS, get updates. It would be wise for us to update our truth to that of reality. Our map of reality to that of actual reality.

If you are certain that you know nothing, then you may doubt if you’re the person to do anything. Stuck in being a passive object, and not being an actor in the play of life. If no theories are put to test, it becomes a study with no exams. An unexamined life.

“The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates

In the original quote of Socrates, he means the opposite to what I just said (about studies with no exams). He means that it is important to self-examine and self-reflect.

This is also a key thing to note, how a quote can be twisted in the duality of language.

Socrates believed that living a good and meaningful life requires understanding oneself and the world around us, rather than simply going through the motions or blindly following societal norms.

I would like to add, that thinking and spending time only in the world of thoughts and theory is not living life itself. It’s not our shared reality. Thus I want to add to the quote in a sense, that one must live life to have a life. To put theory to practice, to determine what is real in our reality. Lest our theories become unexamined themselves.

I digress.

Certainty breeds action, over certainty breeds arrogance. Uncertainty breeds passiveness which may seem like cowardice.

Often times people fear the unknown, they fear the risks of the uncertain. If they operate based on emotional fear, then they are cowards in a sense. To be so uncertain that we are paralyzed, to overanalyze that we don’t act, to have ‘paralysis by analysis’. We may spend too much time on research or thinking than actually doing the thing we are meant to do. Then actually living life.

Risk takers may gamble, betting their all on not safe bets. Acting as if it’s in alignment with themselves and deluding themselves to force reality to bend to the point that either; the risk taker or reality breaks. Which reveals what is true in the end.

Speech acts

If you are always doubtful, you may never speak.

If you are always certain, you may never listen.

Speech acts are when we act by using speech. When we assert, express, request, or declare ourselves, we are performing an action using our words. Obviously the words themselves aren’t the completion of the action spoken (asking for water), but the act of saying the words are themselves an action.

“He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know.” – Lao-tzu

Similarly to the idea of the old adage; “An empty cart makes noise”

Certainty and overconfidence in overestimating ourselves and our idea of knowledge makes us say foolish things. Having certainty and thinking that we’re right, gives us the false sense of confidence and pride to say something quick revealing where our perspective is on the issue. The empty cart rattles.

Yet we can also say that a loaded cart makes ‘less’ noise. One with much knowledge tends to not say, and allow others to express themselves. To let others reveal themselves and to only add what is necessary from their loaded inventory of knowledge.

We have to find the balance to act and speak our truth, to not let it drown in lies. We have to find the balance to not be so certain that we neglect conflicting information with our truth, that we listen and explore potential possibilities with reality that we might be overlooking.

When we strike the balance, and live in harmony, we grow our evolving truth larger to match that of the actual truth.

As a side note,

Back in the days of being in a metal tube leagues below the sea, we have procedures of doing particular tasks that requires buddy checks and verification. If we act with conviction, we leave no room for doubt and regret. So when I perform these checks, I become very mindful and deliberate, and ensure I fill them with attention to detail and mindfulness. When I am done, I look at my work, knowing it is done, and I have no need to return to it or doubt it being done.

So if you are mindful, and act with conviction, and verify your action is carried out true. Then you don’t have to have doubt on things like ‘whether you left the stove on’ or other decision making steps or actions.

As long as no one else changes things, your reality is as you left it.

Of course, this works if you have a good memory and faith and confidence in yourself. For those that doubt themselves, they might have a low trust of themselves, and that may be something to shadow-work on. They may also lack willpower or memory. So there’s some nuance to this, I’m just sharing what has worked for me in the past. I am, incident free, on my time served on a Submarine.

Epilogue

A beginner’s mind is open and receptive, able to learn and take more information to distill the wisdom and knowledge to form a higher truth.

An Expert mind takes the truth at hand and acts on the world.

I often hear of many Buddhist monk’s and Zen masters recant the ideal of a beginner mind, but I can not fathom the ability for a beginner’s mind to act without the flowstate of certainty behind each belief or interaction.

If I take a step, how am I certain that the floor will hold me? How am I certain that I can move my body?

In one sense, the doubt is but anxiety, and if we remove that, we have just being. Perhaps it’s not about our thoughts, but rather being in the flow of things. To just be. To be in harmony with all that is.

Perhaps we should not cling to the expert mind, for its weight, thoughts, and anxiety can hold us back. Maybe the expert mind is a tool that serves the hand to strike only when the iron is hot.

“Expertise is the brush; beginner’s mind is the artist,” – Zen master Shunryu Suzuki

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few,” – Zen master Shunryu Suzuki

So the beginner’s mind is the foundation, and the expert mind is the hat we wear, the mask we show, or the tool we hold -for the job at hand. We balance between the duality of certainty to live an examined life, as we are examined-and-tested in the trials and obstacles along the way.

I’ve also heard of; “even the master, after a thousand breaths, returns to the breath as a beginner.” -To which, you strike when the iron is hot, but between strikes, you re-evaluate your aim and accuracy to strike where you need to when the iron is hot again.

To strike true, to create a true work. It requires the expertise to do, and the beginner mind to grow.

Also, in terms of speech acts, please pay attention to those that speak and those that don’t. Perhaps those that don’t speak are wiser than they let on, or perhaps they are learner’s and know not of what is being spoken. You might find interesting insights by focusing on the quality of what is being said.

Well, I laid my thoughts to bear and my process with it in the Epilogue. All of what is written and the ideas shared are expressed through words,-

Words (that) mean things