The Zahir

It’s been a while I didn’t write anything about the books I read. So, here one of it that I like and worth reading.

I picked up this book simply because I had read Coelho's book, The Alchemist. I very much enjoyed The Alchemist. He wrote - Zahir, in Arabic, means visible, present, incapable of going unnoticed. It is someone which, once we have come into contact with them or it, gradually occupies our every thought, until we can think of nothing else – Its novel of obsession.

It’s a journey of a man who is searching for his wife, who has disappeared in odd circumstances. The journey forced him to re-examine his own life and marriage. To find his wife, he must find his own self. At the end of it, I couldn’t help but wonder what was inspired – reality, truth or just fiction.

Taken from ‘the zahir’


That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.

I start leafing through it and suddenly I read something that surprises me: The acomodador or giving-up point : there is always an event in our lives that is responsible for us failing to progress; a trauma, a particularly bitter defeat, a disappointment in love, even a victory that we did not understand, can make cowards of us and prevent us from moving on. As part of the process of increasing his hidden powers, the shaman must first free himself from that giving-up point and, to do so, he must review his whole life and find out where it occured.

We need to forget who we think we are in order to become who we really are

Law of Jante: Mediocrity and anonymity are the safest choice. If you opt for them, you will never face any major problems in life. But if you are trying to be different...