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The Three Wise Monkeys - Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil

Posted Tuesday, April 01, 2008 (94 days 19 hours ago.) Viewed 1,190 times.

I recently read an article that referenced the maxim of the Three Wise Monkeys. Now I've had a fascination with these 3 clever little monkeys since I was a young boy, so it didn't take much for me to start researching the origins and meaning behind them.

It is important to note that different historical references have actually shown the three monkeys in various orders which may subtly change the interpretation and potentially the meaning behind their visual message. Perhaps the change in order can even explain some of the confusion and debate that has raged for many years about the exact meaning.

Most commonly the order is quoted as: "Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil", however the oldest recorded reference actually puts the order as: "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Do No Evil". That's right, "Do No Evil".

The actual story of the three monkeys has developed and now revolves around the maxim of "see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil", represented by 3 monkeys; one monkey covering his eyes (Mizaru), one covering his ears (Kikazaru) and one covering his mouth (Iwazaru). In fact in some depictions there is actually a fourth monkey (Shizaru) who "does no evil", symbolized by a monkey crossing his arms or covering his abdomen.

The first depicted representation of the three monkeys enacting this maxim is a 17th century carving over a door of the Tosho-gu shrine in Nikko, Japan. However the original source of the fable is more likely Chinese in origin from a Confucius phrase: "Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety". This phrase was written in the "Analects of Confucius" circa 470 BC and predates any known depictions of the monkeys.

So why use the depiction of the Three Wise Monkeys at all?

It is actually easy to understand why monkeys were used for this phrase. The origin of the monkeys comes from when the phrase was translated into Japanese and the obvious play on words that was used. "Mizaru", "Kikazaru", "Iwazaru" and "Shizaru" literally translate as "don't see, don't hear, don't speak and don't do".

In Japanese, "zaru" an archaic verb conjugation in the negative (ie don't) is vocalised in the same way as the suffix for "monkey" (saru), so when the phrase was translated someone used the clever play on words, relating it back to monkeys doing these actions (monkey see, monkey hear, monkey do) which is another well known phrase and variation of the same theme more commonly quoted as "Monkey see; monkey do".

However it started, there is no doubting the longevity of the maxim, the value behind the meaning or how widely known it has become.

As to the exact meaning of the phrase, well that is a point long debated. I tend to think it was meant to represent the power we can have over evil. If we do not allow evil to speak to us, ie influence us ("hear no evil"), if we do not allow those evil acts that we see to change us ("see no evil") and if we do not perpetuate the evil that we are exposed to ("speak no evil") then it will have had no power over us.

There are many possible meanings and we'll probably never know exactly what was meant, but if you can take something positive from this visual maxim of the 3 monkeys then whatever your interpretation, it is surely a good one.

If you have a different meaning for the phrase portraited by the 3 monkeys: "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil", then post it below!

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A guilty admission by Ben Jones. I googled my own name: "Ben Jones"

Posted Wednesday, March 26, 2008 (100 days 21 hours ago.) Viewed 429 times.

I always figured my name was an easy one to remember, because everyone seemed to be able to remember it. Every party I ever went to, there was always someone available to take great delight in greeting me by name.

What's wrong with that you ask?

Nothing really, except I'm pretty sure I don't know that many people and invariably, the greeter at said party would be grinning away at me like a chesire cat, while awaiting my friendly retort, replete with mnemonic appellation, i.e. for me to remember their name.

Have you ever had to fumble out one of those tired, old and obvious responses? "Oh hi, great to see you again"... whoever you are.

Now I'm pretty sure I'm at a disadvantage, because "Ben" is about as easy as it gets: Three letters and none of them tricky. Sure, the "B" can be a little sneaky hiding away silently in such words as doubt and lamb (English spellings of course). However, as it happens, it isn't silent in "Ben" or even in "Benjamin", at least not the way I spell them.

Oh to be called Tiberius or even Mahershalalhashbaz (the longest name in the Bible, Isaiah 8:1). Then I'd certainly make a more serious effort to remember people, just so I could rush up to them at parties and greet them by name with a big grin on my face. That would sure teach them a lesson!

Anyway, the other day I decided to do a search on Google to see just how common my name was and how many other poor Ben Jones' are out there struggling through the same terrible social party afflictions that I am. As it turns out I'm as common as muck because there's an awful lot of us around.

To be precise, Google returned 10,600,000 listings for the search phrase "Ben Jones". Seriously!

Now, I've done a few searches in my time and that seemed like an awful lot of results to me. So as a point of comparison, I punched in 3 of my friend's names just to see what would happen and all of them were under 1 million results. I win; no contest, yeah for me!

Naturally, I started looking through the 10 billion or so results to see if I could find a page that was actually about me. Come on, admit it, we all do it. Beside, it's perfectly natural, as long as you don't get caught doing it!

Let's just say that I got bored pretty quickly (about 20 pages into the Google results) from looking at all the cool and impressive things the other Ben Jones' are up to, especially considering how I'm not doing any of those things. To be honest, they seem to like rubbing it in my face what with all their fancy web pages coming up so early in the Google results.

So where's the so called camaraderie I ask you, the unifying spirit between us kindred names? My advice is, don't trust anyone that has your name, because, as hard as this is to believe, not one of those Ben Jones' even mentioned me on their websites or blogs. Even worse than that, I couldn't find a single reference to me, their name buddy, on any of their fan sites either. Oh did I forget to mention that most, if not all of the other zillion Ben Jones' around seem to be famous?

Rather than wallow in my own self pity or think about how incredibly unfair the world is to people with the name Ben Jones, unless of course you happen to be one of the other 10,599,999 Ben Jones' in the world, I decided I'd be the bigger man and mention some of my more prominently achieving name sakes. Here's just a few of them and what they're known for:

Ben Jones - American actor (nice going), politician (oh dear), playwright (back on track) and best known for his role as Cooter Davenport on the Dukes of Hazzard TV show (Ok a lost cause, let's move on).
Ben Jones - Associate Professor of Business Management & Strategy (sounds impressive!)
Benjamin Jones - Successful painter and artist (maybe I could get him to come out and paint my house?)
Ben Jones - Director of Admissions and Director of Communications for the MIT Office of Admissions (can anyone say " Bureau Of Redundancy Bureau" )
Ben Jones - Cartoonist (I like cartoons too)
The Ben Jones 4tet - Swing and Jazz band (wow, they named a band after me!)
Ben Jones - UK screen actor and voice over talent (I wonder if he does voices for cartoons, I like cartoons)
Ben Jones - Novelist (bragger)
Ben Jones - Radio DJ (Good morning, this....is Ben Jones, and now a word from our sponsor, the ever friendly toilet duck)
Ben Jones - Won second place in a beauty pageant (Ok yes, that one was me)

Thus I urge anyone who hasn't already, to type their own name into in a search engine and see how much better everyone else is doing that has your name. Then at least I wont be the only one who feels like they're under achieving!

I guess it's perfectly clear to all of us by now; if you're going to have children and you want them to be famous, call them Ben Jones. Alternatively, if you want them to be cool, calm and collected at parties, then call them something much more difficult to remember.

Oh and one final note to any of the gazillion Ben Jones' out their reading this article, quit making me look bad!

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Impress Your Children With Some of the Cutest, Corniest and Appallingly Bad Kids' Jokes Ever.

Posted Thursday, March 20, 2008 (106 days 19 hours ago.) Viewed 99 times.

Remember the first time one of your kids told you a joke? Wasn't it just the cutest thing ever? Remember the 100^th time they told you the same joke? Yeah, the joke's on you!

It turns out, kids will be kids and apparently it's our job to laugh at their jokes, at least until they turn into teenagers! Hey, maybe that's why teenagers get so moody?

At any rate, here's your chance to start getting some of your own back. Trust me, kids won't give you many of those. Below is a list of some of the cutest and corniest children's jokes around. A mix of the old, the new and the appallingly bad. Enjoy!

Why was 6 so scared?

Because 7 8 9!!!

How did the Vikings send secret messages?
By norse code!

What's brown and sticky?

A stick of course.

Here's the best homework excuse ever…
Teacher: Where is your homework?
Student: I lost it fighting this kid who said you weren't the best teacher in the school.

Why did the radish blush?
Because it saw the salad dressing.

What happens when you throw a green stone in the red sea?
Duh! It gets wet.

Why is Alabama the smartest state in the US?
Because it has 4 A's and only one B!

How did the farmer fix his jeans?
With a cabbage patch!

Why didn't the banana snore?
It didn't want to wake up the rest of the bunch!

What lies at the bottom of the sea and shivers?
A nervous wreck!

What has a bottom at the top?
Your legs!

What did the fireman's wife get for Christmas?
A ladder in her stocking!

Why was the nose sad?
Because he didn't get picked.

Why doesn't Dracula have any friends?
He's a pain in the neck!

Why are graveyards so noisy?
Because of all the coffin!

What do you call a skeleton who won't get up in the mornings?
Lazy bones!

What kind of critters do secret agents like?
Spy-ders.

Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?
To get to the bottom.

What did one wall say to the other wall?

Meet you at the corner.

Why do gorillas have such big nostrils?
Because they have such big fingers!

Are your kids inundating you with other appallingly bad or incredibly corny jokes? Share the pain and post them below for everyone else!

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All Posts by Ben Jones

The Ben Jones Express: Where Ben Jones Expresses his Very Ben Jones Opinions!

The Three Wise Monkeys - Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil

A guilty admission by Ben Jones. I googled my own name: "Ben Jones"

Impress Your Children With Some of the Cutest, Corniest and Appallingly Bad Kids' Jokes Ever.

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