Everybody seems to be certain


All certainty is false, and only a mediocre mind remains certain. When intelligence starts growing, you become mixed, because the old certainty is no more. In fact you become very hesitant.
Hesitation is the quality of intelligence. Fools are very certain. You cannot confuse an idiot, can you? It is impossible to confuse an idiot, an imbecile. And a greatly intelligent person is always confused, because life is so vast -- how to figure it out? Life is so complex and so tremendously huge -- how can you figure it out? Hence the confusion, hence the mixedness. It is a good quality, a good indication.
Lao tzu says in his tao te ching, 'Everybody seems to be certain -- only I am confused. Everybody seems to be confident -- only I am hesitant.' But that is the quality of intelligence.
Sooner or later the ground from beneath you will disappear, then you will be in the abyss. And there is no bottom to it, so one goes on falling and falling and falling. Then one stops clinging -- clinging creates blocks. One becomes free.