Beginning last pieces ofknowledge that Mauro ponders

Beginning last pieces ofknowledge that Mauro ponders

Beginning this book one might think that it is the ruminations of acommon cartographer. Quickly as the chapters flip by one finds a learnedscholar and also spiritual sage in this cartographer. Fra Mauro’s world iswithin his quarters at San Muchele di Murano’s monastery. He was frequentedby explorers whose transient existence embraced the lands and peoples ofdistant places.

Hearing of the monk’s vision of a map that encompassed allof the world and its essences, these explorers would travel to the monk’scell to unburden themselves of not only the unique sights they hadwitnessed, but of the inevitable moral and religious dilemmas that suchalien forays presented. Pages read slowly flip by now. Mauro’s wholeperception of the world and his own morality is questioned. There was more”meditative knowledge” than he expected. He brings forth several issues onthe entity of knowledge.

One is the thought that knowledge can only betruly obtained through a “combination of the senses of the body and thefaculties of the soul.” He likens this to a tree’s leaves and fruit. Theyboth need each other for the most ample nourishment.

Also, there is thefact that knowledge was gathered and sought after through many trials andtribulations by our ancestors. And after all of their hard work to achieveenlightenment, the generations following slowly desecrate or dilute whatwas achieved.Mauro started to believe that every man’s observations of the earthcontribute to part of its growth. This makes the world “a place entirelyconstructed from thought, ever changing, constantly renewing itself throughthe process of mankind’s pondering its reality for themselves.” But whatthey do see limits them. Most cannot get past his or her own observationsand experiences. They will never realize the wholeness or the invisibilityof a greater substance.

He also states that the imagination of man can besomething unstable if not coupled with intelligence. One could destroyimagination or intellect if not jointed together. One of the last pieces ofknowledge that Mauro ponders over is the thought that it is impossible toseparate a spirit from its “place of growth.

” The spirit and the earth areinseparable. “They both thrive on one another as a seed does in the earth.”This monk started to find these parcels of cognitions more importantthan the actual coastlines, mountains, and oceans islands placed onto maps.These ideas collaborated to produce the world we live in, our mental andspiritual realities.

“It is a realm known only to those who have an eye toseeing what is invisible, or to those who are prepared to elevatethemselves above the light of understanding.”