Zahir

“The Zahir stands for beings or things which have the terrible power to be unforgettable, and whose image eventually drives people mad.” Jorge Borges. Zahir has a demonic influence? Perhaps behind the coin is god?

For a person as intellectual and thought provoking as Jorge Borgas was, why does the thought of a mere coin entrap him? If it was some other person with much less knowledge as him could have obtained that same coin and not given it much thought to it and any more meaning than that of its monetary value and maybe on what they were going to spend it on after obtaining it. But why does such a simple object get such power to cause this very knowledgeable man such disturbing trouble? Is it the power that he gave it as he realized what it was called and what the meaning of that same word meant? Then in turn subconti9ously captured his thought and continued to relish in the fearfulness of the satanic symbolism that word carried? Did his constant pursuing to find the root of his disturbance cause him to be more and more disturbed as he linked more and more of the scent of the experience right before receiving that troublesome coin to the coin its self. We can train our mind to form illusions and with repetition believe that those illusions can actually be true, and physically find them true, at least to the person that is experiencing the disturbance of said such illusions.  Just like a person who lie’s and then continues to repeat that same lie enough to the point of convincing themselves, even if they cannot convince others, that what they are saying and continue to say is actual fact, when it isn’t. Another example could be a person thinking themselves sick. The individual could have very much pain and truly be suffering but when the physician conducts all forms of tests to try to find out what is wrong with that patient and cannot find anything it could be said that the person, could maybe be thinking themselves sick. I have heard, “Mind over matter.” That if we train our mind to think ourselves well we can probably help avoid getting sick or a much lesser type of sick, meaning  how we view and react to a cold or t flu. Know I suffer from really bad migraines and the physicians cannot find anything wrong with me. Does that mean that I think myself sick, I think to myself this is going to give me a headache and bam there it goes, I get a piercing headache? NO! I don’t think about it, even when I get a migraine, one of my eyes might close-up because the pain is too much and the light that comes into that one eye is bothersome, depending of what side of my head is in pain. Somehow I continue about my responsibilities attempting to overcome the knowledge and sense of that pain because I believe I will not let the pain overcome me, but I will overcome it. Hold on, don’t athletes think in those same steps? Why couldn’t this very knowledgable man overcome his mind from repeating an undesirable image or sensation? We learn by repetition, attempting to engrave knowledge, understanding and the functionality of things, why wouldn’t the opposite be true? The less you think of something and occupy your mind and time with something else, eventually the thought and image will be forgotten.