Augusto Cury - You Are Irreplaceable: Change the Way You Look at Your Life

You are irreplaceable.

A ll humans experience the turmoil of need. Difficulties present themselves in many ways to many people. Some need more food on the table, others are emotionally impoverishedtheir hunger is in the soul. Some triumph commercially, yet their wealth cannot buy the nourishment of peace and happiness. What areas do you need to nourish?

W hen man has come to understand the workings of the tiniest atom and the hugeness of infinity; when he has claimed to rule the world, then creates technologies greater and more intelligent than himself; when he declares there is nothing left to learn of the physical, it is then he will have time to examine his inner self. Now he will realize his grand mistake. What is that mistake?

H e will realize that, while he may have mastered the outer world, he has come nowhere near to understanding the inner one. The endless terrain of the soul has been left unexplored, and although he may be a giant in the land of science, he is but a tiny and fragile infant adrift in a vast sea of emotion, lost in the interminable landscape of the soul. Unable to navigate a myriad of spiritual cross-currents, storms, and whirlpools, he will be lost to himself.

W hen this happens there will be a new beginning. Man will once again meet his greatest invention, the wheel. The wheel? you ask. Yes, but this time it will be the wheel of emotion. When found, it will enable those territories to be explored and traversed as never before. At the end of this roaming, man will come face to face with what he has always searched for: love. Love for life and for the Author of Life.

W hen he learns to love, man will shed tears. Not tears of sadness, but of joy and happiness. War and injustice will not be the cause of his tears; rather, he will weep at the realization that he has sought happiness in vain, and that God has hidden it in the one place he never thought to searchinside himself.

T hat day meaning will flood into his life like rain onto parched land. A silent revolution will take place in the depths of his being: Pride will be replaced by modesty, judgment by respect, prejudice by acceptance, ignorance and confusion by wisdom; yet that time is still far away. Why?

W e have not yet understood that misery can only be helped on an emotional level. Man dreams of happy days, yet does not know how find them. Great wars have been fought, and great power sought, in the name of happinessarmies have besieged it, weapons have threatened it, but to no availfor happiness does not answer to power.

M agnates try to buy happiness. They build empires, gather fortunes, and adorn themselves with glittering jewels. Happiness eludes them because it is not for sale, and money has no currency in the marketplace of emotion, where beggars live in palaces and the wealthy roam the streets.

S cientists seek to understand happiness. Statistics are gathered, data collected, and the greatest minds on earth employed. They are misled, because not even the most magnificent equation in physics or math can interpret emotion. Therefore the scientist is baffled and is destined to be unfulfilled.

I ntellectuals pore over weighty books of philosophy in search of it, but they seek in vain. Why? Because there are more mysteries lying between emotion and reason than any mind could ever dream. Even though they love the world of ideas, thinkers cannot be truly happy because they dismiss the world of emotion.

F amous people attempt to seduce happiness. They court the public and make themselves exclusive and mysterious, seeking the adulation and envy of others. Happiness wants to wake them up, shouting: I am hidden in the core of simple things! The famous cannot hear this, although often their fame is not working for them. The simplicity of life is lost to them and they live in the worst state of lonelinessbeing lonely among the multitudes.

Y oung people cry out, We hold the key to living! They hold parties and performances; some use drugs and relish living in danger. Happiness shocks them when it says, I am not found in immediate pleasure, nor do I reveal myself to those who undervalue the future and care not about the consequences of their actions.

S ome believe that they can cultivate happiness through solitude. They isolate themselves from others, shunning the world and its troubles in an attempt to banish the difficulties of life. We are trouble-free, they shout. Yet happiness leaves them altogether, saying, I thrive on life and all its complications; I grow out of troubles.

W hy have so many of us failed to attract happiness? We want to smell the roses without taking the time to tend and grow them; we want to stand glorious at the podium, but despise the effort of training hard. We must go to work on happiness and practice sailing the sea of emotions if we want quality of life in this stressful world.