Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

HEAR NO EVIL, SEE NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL…Lessons From Three Little Monkeys

I am sure that most of you have seen the graphic of three monkeys sitting side by side. The first one is covering his ears with his hands, the second one is covering his eyes, and the third one is covering his mouth. What does this image mean for you? To me, this image conveys so many simple, and yet powerful messages.

It is virtually impossible to be truly objective about our lives, or about situations outside ourselves. Specifically, we observe something and then we take it upon ourselves to comment on the situation, or the event. It seems natural to assign meaning to everything. But is it natural to do this? Or is it something which we have learned from society.

HEAR NO EVIL: What if we were to Hear No Evil? I believe this pertains to hearing gossip or hearing negative information or stories about others. Again, this is an opportunity to disregard the information which may cast a negative light on a situation or person. We have no way of knowing if the information is true, or not. Regardless, if it were true, what is to be gained by acknowledging it? Best to just let it go and move on.

SEE NO EVIL: Let us consider what life might be like if we were to See No Evil. From my own personal experience, I have seen the magic of this, particularly when interacting with ‘challenging’ children. The unwanted behavior that this child may exhibit with others will either not be apparent to me, or if it is, I completely disregard it and as a result, the child will cease the behavior. This could be because they are not getting the attention which they typically get by being troublesome. Who knows? To paraphrase and adapt a quote from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, ‘there are more things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in my philosophy’.

SPEAK NO EVIL: And this leads into Speaking No Evil. What if I have a negative opinion of someone or have read about, or witnessed a negative event? I believe that the message here is to, again, let it go. Sharing information about another that would shed a negative light on them, I believe, would say more about me than about them. And what if I were to share bad news, or even horrific news with someone. I believe that words are power, and so therefore we should use them wisely and only for good.

My wish for you all is to see only good things, to hear only good things, and to speak only good things, and then see how your life transforms when you follow the lead of these three little monkeys.

Mahsi Cho

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