APOPHAINESTHAI TA PHAINOMENA
(To let what show itself be seen from itself, just as it shows itself from itself applied to man, world, God and myself)
by: Peter Miles


Life is a journey into a mystery in which life itself is a baffling thing. The mystery of life is a dynamic path on which each of us is journeying into the unknown recesses of our own being. We are cruising life’s highway searching and hoping to find some answers to the various questions that have been puzzling us. So I thought, that life is always this way, a continuous search for meaning and solutions for the many questions that come our way.
And so, we pack our bags, making ourselves ready for a journey of a lifetime, to find meaning in this road called life. Hence, crammed in our life’s luggage are questions like: Who am I? Why am I here? Is there meaning in this thing called life? If so, how can I find it? What am I going to do with this life? What has life to offer me? Where am I going? What happens when I die? Is there something we can look forward to after this life? Is there somebody out there? Is there God? These are only some of the questions we stuff inside our luggage in the journey to life.
Thus, here I am, scouting for answers in life’s busy highway awkwardly because of the several heavy baggages that I am carrying in this journey. So in the midst of the hustles and bustles of life’s pathways, I grow tired and preoccupied in my search for answers that I miss the joy and excitement of the journey. I stop by the roadside of life and start reflecting on what I am doing. I am too engrossed seeking myself that I realize I am just creating a self that is unfamiliar and strange to me. Realizing that it’s not me anymore, it comes to my senses that in order to fully grasp who am I, have to let go of myself and allow it, in its time to unfold before me. To let my true self be shown from itself, just as it show its realness from itself. In order for me to see my true self, I have to see it as it unfolds and opens in front me. I realize that in not searching for the answers to the questions in life, the answers came to me. Sometimes we are so much engrossed in looking for the answers that we forget what the question is. Through the revelation of myself, my life becomes the answer to its own question. In my dealing with other people, I do the same, instead of having a constructed and conclusive idea about someone, I should allow other people to reveal themselves to me just as seen from itself. I believe that in this manner I would see their true self unfold before me, leading me to understand them better and deal with them without biases and prejudices.
It’s also the same way of how I understand the world around me. Since reality to me seems to be very mysterious, I made my own concept of reality, my own worldview, making the world fit to my own needs and cares. Slowly I understood that this is not the world I am looking for and I found my life meaningless in this made-up, make believe world of mine. So I pondered, that in order to find the true meaning of this world, I should forego my own concepts of the world, living this reality here and now as it slowly reveals itself to me. Life is best understood if I allow myself to be absorbed and subsumed by its whole. As reality overwhelms me, I become part of that reality and gradually its very essence seeps in the recesses of my own being. Therefore, making me fully aware of Reality as it is, being seen from itself, just as it shows itself from itself. As always, on my way of searching for the meaning of life, I end up seeking God. But as my journey of looking for God continues, the more I get lost in the way. In my journey of finding for answers of who God is, I wind up lost in the different ideas of God that I found, leading me farther and farther away from the real Supreme Being. For the more I discover something about Him, the more I become confused. Thus in the midst of my confusion, I dismiss my preconceived ideas about Him and permit Him to seek and find me instead. As I allow him to dawn into my life, His light is like the wonderful aurora enveloping the evening of my life, lighting up my morning. For instead of me seeking Him, He searched my heart and revealed Himself to me. I know that He came into my life, for my life has become fuller than ever. I experience this fullness of life only through Him, with Him and in Him. For He came and shared his life to me, for this I have come to know Him in His fullest for He has found me and revealed Himself to me as seen from Himself, just as He shows Himself from Himself.