Our past clings to us like our own shadow ... like our shadow our past is sometimes behind us out of sight ... sometimes our past is in front of us in full view ... but never disconnected from our being.
When I say "our past" I am speaking of memory. We cannot rewind and replay our life experiences ... our past is only available to us via memory. I'm also referring to memory in the broadest sense ... not restricted to memories of our personal past in our current lifetime. Rather, memory of a "past" that includes our entire genetic(DNA) lineage... individual and collective.
How old is our individual genetic history? Science tells us ... via DNA analysis ... that homo sapiens survived the last ice age ... about 12,000 years ago. Logic tells us our DNA must be connected to the DNA of the relatively few homo sapiens who survived the ice age ... that's a long genetic lineage.
Bill Gates says ... “DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.”
Astronomer Fred Hoyle says ... "Is software something that arises by accident? We have direct experience with many “programs” that are encoded; each and every one was intentionally conceived to perform a task. (One can presume that in the case of DNA the task is first to survive, and then? To awaken?) It is akin to the notion expressed by astronomer Fred Hoyle that to consider the possibility of DNA arising by chance would be like a tornado going through a junk yard and assembling an aircraft. (Hoyle said this about Life – DNA is the software of life)."
Rachel Yehuda ... professor of psychiatry and neuroscience claims ... "Genetics describes DNA sequencing, but epigenetics sees that genes can be turned on and off and expressed differently through changes in environment and behavior."
According to Yehuda we are the fruit of our genetic history (DNA) plus the influence (cross generational) of some of our life's experiences. What a tangled web we weave!
Memory is "consciousness" ... awareness ... awakening. Active memory is in the light of consciousness ... passive memory is in the shadow ... the darkness ... of consciousness waiting to travel into the 'light'. We are born with some active memory ... some consciousness in the light ... for example our survival instinct. Our active memory grows as we travel through time and space ... we expand our memory (consciousness) through observation, education, relationships, culture and so on. We expand our consciousness through our personal experiences ... the wisdom gained through personal experience is far superior to the knowledge learned through observation and education.
The above suggests that we are born with complete consciousness ... awareness of the entire universe. The "Gordian Knot" is how can we bring the 'consciousness' that resides in the darkness ... like a seed in the ground ... into the light of day ... like the seed that germinates and forces it's way through the surface and into the sunlight. The simple answer is we can't!!
Our individual expansion of consciousness is programmed into our individual DNA ... we are not able to go beyond our personal DNA boundaries.
What evidence exists to support my claim?
Let me start by repeating my favorite quote from Isaiah 25:7:
When I say "our past" I am speaking of memory. We cannot rewind and replay our life experiences ... our past is only available to us via memory. I'm also referring to memory in the broadest sense ... not restricted to memories of our personal past in our current lifetime. Rather, memory of a "past" that includes our entire genetic(DNA) lineage... individual and collective.
How old is our individual genetic history? Science tells us ... via DNA analysis ... that homo sapiens survived the last ice age ... about 12,000 years ago. Logic tells us our DNA must be connected to the DNA of the relatively few homo sapiens who survived the ice age ... that's a long genetic lineage.
Bill Gates says ... “DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.”
Astronomer Fred Hoyle says ... "Is software something that arises by accident? We have direct experience with many “programs” that are encoded; each and every one was intentionally conceived to perform a task. (One can presume that in the case of DNA the task is first to survive, and then? To awaken?) It is akin to the notion expressed by astronomer Fred Hoyle that to consider the possibility of DNA arising by chance would be like a tornado going through a junk yard and assembling an aircraft. (Hoyle said this about Life – DNA is the software of life)."
Rachel Yehuda ... professor of psychiatry and neuroscience claims ... "Genetics describes DNA sequencing, but epigenetics sees that genes can be turned on and off and expressed differently through changes in environment and behavior."
According to Yehuda we are the fruit of our genetic history (DNA) plus the influence (cross generational) of some of our life's experiences. What a tangled web we weave!
Memory is "consciousness" ... awareness ... awakening. Active memory is in the light of consciousness ... passive memory is in the shadow ... the darkness ... of consciousness waiting to travel into the 'light'. We are born with some active memory ... some consciousness in the light ... for example our survival instinct. Our active memory grows as we travel through time and space ... we expand our memory (consciousness) through observation, education, relationships, culture and so on. We expand our consciousness through our personal experiences ... the wisdom gained through personal experience is far superior to the knowledge learned through observation and education.
The above suggests that we are born with complete consciousness ... awareness of the entire universe. The "Gordian Knot" is how can we bring the 'consciousness' that resides in the darkness ... like a seed in the ground ... into the light of day ... like the seed that germinates and forces it's way through the surface and into the sunlight. The simple answer is we can't!!
Our individual expansion of consciousness is programmed into our individual DNA ... we are not able to go beyond our personal DNA boundaries.
What evidence exists to support my claim?
Let me start by repeating my favorite quote from Isaiah 25:7:
"And He will destroy on this mountain
The shroud that is cast over all peoples,
The sheet that is spread over all nations;
He will swallow up death forever."
The shroud that is cast over all peoples,
The sheet that is spread over all nations;
He will swallow up death forever."
Isaiah is talking about memory. Isaiah is talking about consciousness. Isaiah is talking about that part of our consciousness that lies beneath the shroud ... behind the veil. Paraphrasing his words "Destroy the shroud that is cast over all peoples" ... Destroy the shroud that is censoring the consciousness of all peoples ... open a window to universal consciousness. ... all truth will be revealed.
Let's look at what St Augustine says about memory:
"This power of memory is great, very great, my God. It is a vast and infinite profundity. Who has plumbed its bottom? This power is that of my mind and is a natural endowment, but I myself cannot grasp the totality of what I am. Is the mind, then, too restricted to compass itself, so that we have to ask what is that element of itself which it fails to grasp? Surely that cannot be external to itself; it must be within the mind. How than can it fail to grasp it? This question moves me to great astonishment. Amazement grips me. People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.”
St Augustine is struggling to know and understand personal memory ... he can't find his memory's boundaries ... he is convinced the boundaries must be in his physical mind. St Augustine uses vivid language to express his frustration and amazement with his question.
Let's look at what St Augustine says about memory:
"This power of memory is great, very great, my God. It is a vast and infinite profundity. Who has plumbed its bottom? This power is that of my mind and is a natural endowment, but I myself cannot grasp the totality of what I am. Is the mind, then, too restricted to compass itself, so that we have to ask what is that element of itself which it fails to grasp? Surely that cannot be external to itself; it must be within the mind. How than can it fail to grasp it? This question moves me to great astonishment. Amazement grips me. People are moved to wonder by mountain peaks, by vast waves of the sea, by broad waterfalls on rivers, by the all-embracing extent of the ocean, by the revolutions of the stars. But in themselves they are uninterested.”
St Augustine is struggling to know and understand personal memory ... he can't find his memory's boundaries ... he is convinced the boundaries must be in his physical mind. St Augustine uses vivid language to express his frustration and amazement with his question.
Today, we are not so sure ... we have the Jesuit priest ... as well as a world-class geologist and paleontologist ... Teilhard de Chardin's notion of Noosphere that suggests all human history (memory) is like a "cloud that envelopes the earth" ... a space beyond the Earth's atmosphere ... and all individuals have a conduit to this "cloud" ... albeit access seems beyond our personal control ... seems it is by invitation only. As Isaiah says ... "He will destroy the shroud that is cast over all people".
Today, I assume few people are even aware of Teilhard's theory and of those who are aware ... few embrace his theory as fact. For me, recent developments in communication technology support Teilhard's theory ... for example, Apple's iCloud. We need to keep in mind the human mind is far far superior to anything created by the human mind. Reminds of a recurring thought ... the human mind is recreating itself in our physical reality
Today, I assume few people are even aware of Teilhard's theory and of those who are aware ... few embrace his theory as fact. For me, recent developments in communication technology support Teilhard's theory ... for example, Apple's iCloud. We need to keep in mind the human mind is far far superior to anything created by the human mind. Reminds of a recurring thought ... the human mind is recreating itself in our physical reality
Few people are aware of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Garabandal in the early sixties ... I only learned about them a few weeks ago. The early sixties were dangerous times in the world ... e.g. the Cuba Missile Crisis. The cult of the "hippies" also started in the 1960's. Simon and Garfunkel penned their classic song "The Sound of Silence" ...
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”
In reading about the Garabandal apparitions I was struck by something one of the seers said many years after the apparitions stopped ... "The Warning will be a correction of the conscience of the world."
At the time, the seer was speaking in English ... which is not her mother tongue. She used the word "conscience" ... if she was aware of the English word 'consciousness' would she have used it?
Sounds a lot like the quote from Isaiah above ... "He will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples."
Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
‘Neath the halo of a streetlamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare
Disturb the sound of silence
“Fools” said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said “The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence”
In reading about the Garabandal apparitions I was struck by something one of the seers said many years after the apparitions stopped ... "The Warning will be a correction of the conscience of the world."
At the time, the seer was speaking in English ... which is not her mother tongue. She used the word "conscience" ... if she was aware of the English word 'consciousness' would she have used it?
Sounds a lot like the quote from Isaiah above ... "He will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples."
I just had a "scarab" moment ... a really scary moment! I went for a smoke break ... I smoke at a window in the stairwell of our apartment and the window is always open. I'm standing there smoking and sipping on my coffee ... my favorite pas-time ... thinking about what I just wrote and what I should write next. I should note that I am also in the middle of washing the dishes ... something I haven't done for a long time ... I should be ashamed!
Out of no where this bug comes flying toward me and lands on my finger ... the abruptness of his arrival startled me and I shook it off. It landed on the window sill and just sat there peacefully. Seems I was startled and scared but the bug certainly wasn't. I took a close look at the bug ... wondering what kind of bug it was ... the first thought was that it was some kind of beetle. A few seconds later I thought ... yikes this might be a scarab. I don't know what a scarab is but I remember reading some of Carl Jung's writings where he described his 'scarab' experience to support his theory of archetypes and his notion of synchronicity.
"The psychologist, Carl Jung, used the concept of archetype in his theory of the human psyche. He believed that universal, mythic characters--archetypes—reside within the collective unconscious of people the world over."
My first thought was that Carl Jung was trying to encourage me to include his theory of archetypes in this article ... Hmmm!
I shared the following experience with a Jesuit priest in Guelph ... he looked at me and said we call your experience "synchronicity".
Here's my synchronicity experience:
"During my stay on Kibbutz Erez I befriended a young man from France. He told me at one point that he felt drawn to me the first moment we met. After many twists and turns we would leave the Kibbutz together on our way to Medugorje where we planned to meet up with my son Kevin. He was kicked off the train near Kosovo. Mysteriously I was given a Visa for travel through Macedonia and I learned later because he was a French citizen he was denied this privilege. We would exchange one letter after this time but never see each other … living … again.
Several months later while staying in Medugorje for the third time I would be directed to his funeral. How did this happen?
At this time I was again penniless ... had just spent about 3 weeks in Medugorje ... 3 very peaceful weeks. I had some RRSP money back in Canada but it was tied up in a fixed term investment ... maturing in a couple of weeks. My only option was to find a free ride out of Medugorje. I spent several days checking out the possibility of hitching a ride with a 'caravan' that was returning home ... relief supplies of all kinds arrived regularly by the truck load ... and the trucks returned to their home base empty. All of my efforts were unsuccessful ... my agitation growing with each failed attempt to find a ride out of Medugorje. What was pushing me?
One night I was sitting at home ... a local family's residence ... and someone knocked at the door. Since the visitor only spoke French I was asked to try and help him. He was an elderly man who was looking for his friends ... he had just arrived in Medugorje with a group of people from France. Somehow he got separated from the group and was knocking on doors trying to find them.
I invited him in for a cup of tea ... at some point during our conversation the subject of St Therese came up ... he mentioned that he had a letter at home that St Therese's sister Celine had written to him many years earlier. Wow! ... that's a pretty close connection to St Therese eh!
I escorted him to the church where he found his group ... he thanked me and said something to the effect ... "you will be blessed for your kindness". I learned that he was a retired priest ... we would meet again!
A few days passed ... still no luck finding free passage out of Medugorje. I had almost given up when an acquaintance mentioned there might be a possibility with some people from France. He suggested I attend the French mass and make some enquiries after mass. I had already gone to mass that morning ... and was in no mood to attend another mass. Something seemed to push me into the church.
The priest may have mentioned my plight after his homily ... in any event outside the church after mass a gentleman approached me and asked me if I was interested in a flight to France. I politely explained that I was penniless ... certainly couldn't afford a plane ticket to France. He went on to explain that it would be entirley free ... the bus ride to the airport and a flight to Lille France. Wow!! A gift from Heaven. Now I'm excited ... really excited. It turns out one of their group cancelled at the last minute and there would be an empty seat on the plane. What group? Yup! ... the group with the retired priest ... the elderly man I helped a few nights earlier. Go figure eh! The story gets more mysterious ... read on.
At this point I have no idea where in France the city of Lille is located ... and I really don't care ... I was thinking I would find my way to where Jean Francois lives ... a young man I met on the Kibbutz in Israel ... and hang around with him for a while. While sitting on the plane I remembered that Jean Francois had written his address on the inside cover of my Bible. I retrieved my Bible and asked the person sitting beside me if he recognized the name of the village where Jean Francois lived. He consulted with his neighbours and in a few minutes I learned that Jean Francois's house was only 10 kilometres from the airport in Lille. Unbelievable eh! ... I can walk to Jean Francois's house. What a mysterious journey!
We land at the airport late at night ... too late to call ... decide to hang around the airport until the next morning. I walk to a store where I buy a couple of croissants and ask to use their telephone. I call the number Jean Francois gave me ... I believe his mother answers the telephone. I explain who I am and she replies ... "you are too late ... he's dead" Can you imagine how shocking this news is to me? I don't believe it! This can't be true!
Let's review how I got here ...
1) The sudden change of mood in Medugorje ... from peaceful to serious anxiety
2) The frustrating efforts to get out of Medugorje ... exacerbated by the fact that I had no money
3) Meeting the retired priest and getting a free plane ticket to France from his group.
4) While still in Medugorje thinking I would visit my friend Jean Francois ... learning on the airplane that I could walk to his village from the airport.
5) Call his home and his mother tells me he is dead ... nothing more.
Where is St Therese taking me?? ... on with my story ...
A few hours after the shocking telephone call I decided to visit Jean Francois's grave site. I asked a few people in the village about the location of the graveyard ... and also asked if they knew Jean Francois. No doors opened.
Walking down the street I noticed the local church ... and the door was open. I met a gentleman just inside the door to the church ... I asked about Jean Francois. Perhaps my French was inadequate ... seems he spoke the local dialect ... in any event I felt I wasn't making much progress. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small plastic case that contained a rosary ... one of the many souvenirs I had purchased in Medugorje. I gave it to the gentleman and asked him to pass it on to Jean Francois's family. Suddenly everything changed ... the gentleman became quite animated ... he motioned me to come along with him. We got in his car and he took me to where Jean Francois lived. Yikes! ... what next? ... seems the rosary just opened another door!
On entering Jean Francois's home I was greeted by his sister Monique and his mother. After explaining who I was his sister asked me ... "Why are you here? It's not to help Jean Francois ... he is dead". I learn he had committed suicide the day or so before I arrived. Yikes!! Double Yikes!!
Is it possible that my agitation in Medugorje was somehow connected to what Jean Francois was going through just before he committed suicide? A scary thought!
I stayed with his family for a few days ... slept in Jean Francois's room ... and attended his funeral. His family and neighbours were so kind and friendly ... I felt that we had known each other for a long time. Apparently Jean Francois had changed considerably after his return from Israel and he had spoken kindly of me to his family and friends.
Where would I go now? My money in Canada was now available ... so I headed for Lisieux ... to finally meet St Therese. The visit to Lisieux was pleasant and mostly uneventful ... met another devotee of St Therese and we spent several hours together. We were walking down a street in Lisieux when this acquaintance pointed out a street named ... Caen Street. I believe this is where I got the idea to take the ferry from France to England a few days later ... I had no idea of the local geography of France or it's proximity to England. A few more surprises were waiting for me ... this trip isn't over yet. :-)
I decided to visit two friends in England ... met them at the same time I met Jean Francois at the Kibbutz in Israel. My memory told me they both lived near London ... so I planned to take a train from where ever the ferry from Caen docked in England.
Walking onto the ferry ... had no idea where to go ... so I followed the passengers in front of me. They lead me to the entertainment lounge ... wasn't really in the mood for 'noise' but decided to sit down and have a beer. There was live entertainment in the lounge ... a couple of singers. The only words I heard were: ...
"If you don't know me by now
You will never never know me"
I started to cry ... it felt like St Therese was talking directly to me ... saying that if I didn't know her by now ... after all that happened in the previous week ... I would never know her. Yet ... I was in for a few more surprises before this trip ends ... read on ...
The ferry docked in Portsmouth ... and the security guard there really hassled me ... as it turned out ... thank goodness! I suppose he took me for a vagabond ... and perhaps with good reason. Here I show up in Portsmouth ... with a Canadian Passport ... only a few British pounds in my pocket ... no return flight to Canada ... no credit card ... yikes! I explain to him that I have my bank debit card which gives me access to money. Seems he has never seen a bank debit card ... he takes me around to several people ... asking them if they recognize my bank debit card ... no luck! I start to worry that he may send me back to France.
Eventually he asks me who I will visit in England ... he wants details ... names, addresses etc. Yikes!
Fortunately, I have their addresses in my backpack ... I rummage around and eventually produce them. He writes down the particulars and seems ready to let me enter England. At this point I ask him for directions to get to my friends place ... I'm still figuring that I have to go to London. He tells me I can take a taxi. What? ... a taxi? Yup ... it turns out one of my friends lives in Portsmouth ... can you believe it? What a trip?
I have a short ... but pleasant visit with this friend ... can't remember her name ... shame on me! She brings me to the train station and I head to London to visit Donna. I eventually find her home ... in some suburb north of London ... and she is not home. I get the feeling it's time to head back to Canada. I find a travel agent not far from where Donna lives and manage to buy a ticket to Canada ... for the next day ... for 73 pounds! A one-way ticket to Canada for 73 pounds ... couldn't believe it. What a way to end this trip!! What an introduction to St Therese."
I decided to check out scarab on the net ... yup! ... the bug was a scarab ... yikes! Still feeling a bit scared I decided to check out "Animal Speak" for scarab ... and here is what I found. Is this an example of passive consciousness trying to make it's way into the light? Sure feels that way at the moment ... more on this journey of consciousness to the light later.
SCARAB BEETLE
Open the door to lives long gone.
Show me the door with the spiritual key,
The door to my past, to the lives that I lived.
My spiritual pattern I need to see.
Resurrection
The Scarab is a symbol of the sun and an emblem of Egyptian god Khepera,
the god of the Sun and immortality.
Their image was placed with the mummified remains of the dead
as a source of new life in the next world.
In the Middle Ages, alchemists drew the scarab in diagrams of the double spiral,
which leads to the center of the universe.
The Scarab brings new life and vitality.
It can teach you how to pace yourself through the seasonal changes of the year.
Also, gives insight into past lives and spiritual enlightenment.
This article is so vibrant ... so full of life ... so high voltage ... I can hardly keep up with the emerging thoughts and relevant memories as I continue writing this article. My writing may not be coherent but it certainly contains a lot of good stuff. :-)
In the quote about Carl Jung a few words back are the words "collective unconscious" ... the same words that were part of my "biggy" experience while walking across France in 2004 ... and just now I realize that my peculiar observations and contemplation of the fresh cow dung on that back country road may be of particular importance as well. Scarabs are intimately associated with dung ... Hmmm!
My biggy from 2004 ... paraphrasing
Humanity is moving from a long period of collective unconscious into a period of collective consciousness which will lead to a period of collective will.
Collective unconscious ... in Jungian psychology ... is the part of the unconscious mind that is derived from ancestral memory and experience and is common to all humankind, as distinct from the individual's unconscious.
This article is all about consciousness ... individual and collective.
Collective consciousness ... for a scholarly article on collective consciousness click here . "Apart from the individual consciousness that everyone has, there's also a collective consciousness. This can be looked at as a sort of invisible field that surrounds the planet, in which all gathered knowledge is available."
In the quote about Carl Jung a few words back are the words "collective unconscious" ... the same words that were part of my "biggy" experience while walking across France in 2004 ... and just now I realize that my peculiar observations and contemplation of the fresh cow dung on that back country road may be of particular importance as well. Scarabs are intimately associated with dung ... Hmmm!
My biggy from 2004 ... paraphrasing
Humanity is moving from a long period of collective unconscious into a period of collective consciousness which will lead to a period of collective will.
Collective unconscious ... in Jungian psychology ... is the part of the unconscious mind that is derived from ancestral memory and experience and is common to all humankind, as distinct from the individual's unconscious.
This article is all about consciousness ... individual and collective.
Collective consciousness ... for a scholarly article on collective consciousness click here . "Apart from the individual consciousness that everyone has, there's also a collective consciousness. This can be looked at as a sort of invisible field that surrounds the planet, in which all gathered knowledge is available."
Jesus said I am the Alpha and the Omega ... the beginning and the end.
Teilhard de Chardin's theory of the Omega Point ... the time when man meets God one on one ... no intermediary ... face to face so to speak ... sounds a lot like the Garabandal apparitions warning. Teilhard said it may take humanity a million more years to reach the Omega Point. The Garabandal apparitions suggest it may happen much sooner!
For additional information concerning the Apparitions at Garabandal warnings click here.
Teilhard de Chardin's theory of the Omega Point ... the time when man meets God one on one ... no intermediary ... face to face so to speak ... sounds a lot like the Garabandal apparitions warning. Teilhard said it may take humanity a million more years to reach the Omega Point. The Garabandal apparitions suggest it may happen much sooner!
For additional information concerning the Apparitions at Garabandal warnings click here.
For a brief biography of Teilhard de Chardin and his notion of the Omega Point click here. I am comforted to know that even as a Jesuit priest Theilhard was banished from Europe as a young adult and spent much of his adult life in China. Seems self evident that much of his thinking developed while living and working in China. Reminds me of another Jesuit ... an Italian missionary who came to China as a young man and spent the rest of his life here ... Matteo Ricci. Many years after arriving in China he suggested to the Vatican in Rome that the ancient Chinese already knew the Christian God. Needless to say, that would have went over like a shit sandwich in Rome. He was subsequently banned from sainthood for almost 400 years. His case for sainthood was reopened in 2010 ... click here. Nonetheless, within a century of his death ... Leipzig ... a world class mathematician and philosopher ... had a sympathetic ear for Bouvet ... one of Matteo Ricci's successors in China ... here.
What do the Chinese think of Matteo Ricci? For some interesting history click here.
The Chinese built the Millenium Monument in Beijing about 15 years ago as a tribute to the 5,000+ years history of Chinese civilization. There is a large circular room with a wall sculpture depicting the heroes of China's past. Included in this large circular sculpture story are two foreign faces ... Marco Polo and Matteo Ricci. For a photo of the sculptures click here.
What do the Chinese think of Matteo Ricci? For some interesting history click here.
The Chinese built the Millenium Monument in Beijing about 15 years ago as a tribute to the 5,000+ years history of Chinese civilization. There is a large circular room with a wall sculpture depicting the heroes of China's past. Included in this large circular sculpture story are two foreign faces ... Marco Polo and Matteo Ricci. For a photo of the sculptures click here.