By Linda Shaffer
A few weeks back, I saw a catalog with a picture of the Three Wise Monkeys. You might remember them from your childhood. I did. Immediately, my inner brain started chanting, “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.” If I have them in the wrong order, you’ll have to forgive me. I was so surprised that I was able to come up with that information so quickly. So much so, that I decided to research those little guys and write about them.
Turns out that there is a lot more to the three wise monkeys than we knew about when we were kids. I’m not sure about you but I believe my grandparents had a small wooden sculpture of these guys in their home. How else would I know what they meant? As it turns out, there are plenty of ways. These guys are kind of like the Beatles of proverbial history. The really fascinating thing is that there are different interpretations of the messages. In the Buddhist tradition they are advising you to abstain from these behaviors. In the Western world, you can use them to ignore these things rather than dealing with them in a civil way.
Trust that these monkeys had a lot to do with the standards by which I was raised but I’m not sure how they did it. I’m guessing my family chose to accept these as ways to abstain from bad behavior. While researching this subject, I learned that Mizaru (cannot see), Kikazaru (does not hear) and Iwazaru (does not speak) originated in China but eventually made their home in Japan. This makes sense, since they are modeled after the macaques, who also make at least one of their homes there. I might suffer from fleas if I did not mention that Confucious advocated these same policies in his analects from so many centuries ago that we’ll just say it was a long time. When we get to 2nd-4th century material, I begin to get confused.
Most remarkable to me is that in the year 1947, aside from my own birth and maybe yours, there was a poster and advertising campaign featuring Uncle Sam and The Three Wise Monkeys. Guess why? Uncle wanted us to keep our mouths, ears and hearing shut down when it came to the Manhattan Project. OK. Everybody stop. These monkeys came from Japan. The Manhattan Project was targeted for Japan. Therein lies the difference between interpretation. It is an interesting bit of our history if nothing else.
But wait … if you thought I was done, I’m not. History says there was a fourth monkey, Sezaru, who carefully covered his/her genitals with both hands. Finally, a monkey that makes sense. Don’t get me wrong, the others all make good points about being an upright citizen. But, Sezaru could have helped us out over all these centuries by example. I guess the population of planet earth could have plummeted and a lot of people would have been really bored. They might have been spared venereal disease and that could have changed a lot of royal lineage and world history. I give. Though I have to tell you that there is one other version where the monkey is holding his nose. That seems inconsequential now. I like the idea though. It makes scents.
After researching the wisdom of these monkeys, I find that they have had a great influence on my life. Along the way, I was taught to be polite. I was taught not to gossip. I was taught not to make something out of nothing. Of course, there’s a lot more to this but you know. We were raised in a different time. Civility was prevalent…though not always practiced. Did I always live to this standard? No. I tried. I did my best. I also tried to teach my children the set of values I was given. Like all parents, I did my best.
There are no three wise monkey statues in my home. I don’t know why. My guess is that I’ve just now remembered them. When I look at my children and their children and their children, I know that these monkeys have made a difference in my life. I’m crediting my grandma with this and thanking her for my mom at the same time. That’s the way we learn. Lucky us. Who knew monkeys could be part of us?
Have a great week my friends.
