Explore comes from Ex and Plorare, Ex means “out” and Plorare means to “utter a cry.” The origin of this word is at the very heart of the intent of The Books of Magra in regard to Consciousness. 

 

    To cry out is to extend beyond oneself while Listening. This is to reach out and draw in simultaneously, thereby making a sound to hear how it exists, changes, moves, and how it is received in the context and within oneself. In the simplest terms, this is a characterization of every moment of life, the experiential continuity of expressing and receiving, but it is also at the heart of exploration.

 

    In human history, the larger reasons for exploration have been to survive, to conquer, to find comfort and to entertain, and so the intent to explore itself has been little more than a requirement or byproduct of these more pressing intentions and actions. But exploration, as its etymology suggests, in the creation of The Books of Magra is intent on dialogue, communion, seeking and joining, encountering and engaging. In this respect exploration evokes participation and play, an attitude that is directed by “Being Of” All as opposed to being foreign to it, against it or at its mercy. The reaching out and drawing in of experience and discernment that this approach to Exploration suggests is the personification of the implicit cyclical nature of All, it is a process of growth, for deepening experience and crafting discernment.

        

    With an explorational spirit, as new discoveries and new relationships emerge, comes a propensity for definition and classification, which may serve the process, but The Books of Magra is not concerned with such outcomes alone. And so the perspective and intent in regard to Consciousness is not about saying what it is or why it is, but exploring it, in a spirit of deepening experience and bringing about greater understanding so that humanity may be in greater concert with All.

 

    For some, there is a belief that we are placed where we find ourselves, that a human being is introduced into the universe or the world as a foreign element - they are something added. But in The Books of Magra, a human being arises out of All. And so, it is not for a human being to meet or engage with the world, with Nature, or with phenomena, but to align with all of these as they are already a chorus in motion. To cry out then, is not a characteristic of a lone voice, or a will or awareness detached. It is a multi-functional and multi-dimensional expression of All. Just as a cry will echo and go where it may depending on the contours and composition of the space, that echo will also penetrate and echo within the crier.

 

    The exploration of Consciousness is equally outside of us as it is within us.