*If you think you have it, you don’t.. If you don’t think you have it, you may..

MAnvi wasn’t sure if she was ready for a discussion with her thAthA on the second part of the saying – If you don’t think you have it, you may.. However, it was so constantly on her mind that she wanted to discuss on it and not think so much about it.

MAnvi: thAthA, the first part of the saying was easier to talk about. The second part seems clear and yet not!! If you don’t think you have it, you may.. Let’s again discuss from the perspective of knowledge? If you don’t think you have knowledge about something, then you aren’t thinking about it at all.

thAthA (interrupting her): What you don’t think you have, doesn’t affect you.

MAnvi: And if you don’t think you have it and you realise that you may, that’s when you surprise yourself.

thAthA: Only surprised, MAnvi?

MAnvi: Hmmmn. I guess it is also a feeling of being shocked, thAthA.

thAthA: I wonder why either of these feelings?

MAnvi: In my view, it could be because we aren’t aware of what we know; and when we know we know, we are either surprised or shocked.

thAthA: MAnvi, what if I rephrase the second part of the saying to – ‘If you think you don’t have it, you may’?

MAnvi: That’s a twist to the second part, thAthA. I think the context changes. If you think you don’t have the knowledge, then you don’t make an effort to know whether you know. This is because you have already decided that you don’t have the knowledge. You are then blocking knowledge that you can access. This is a bit similar to the first part of the saying ‘If you think you have it, you don’t’ – here also you are blocking knowledge.

thAthA: That’s interesting, MAnvi.

If you think you have it, you don’t – you think you have it and so you are blocking the knowledge that you can access – and you don’t access it..

If you think you don’t have it, you don’t – you have already decided that you don’t have it and so you are blocking the knowledge that you can access – and you don’t access it.

If you don’t think you have it, you may – you are not thinking anything and you are not blocking anything either – and you access the knowledge that is here.

The second part of the saying is a preferred state to be in, thAthA. So much knowledge is there (or rather here) that can be accessed. One question stays though – Can you train yourself to not think you have it?

As MAnvi’s thAthA left the room, he smiled and asked, “Should you, is my question.” 🙂

*Credit – This saying was shared in the Ninjitsu class.