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The metaphor of the three monkeys and the good life
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п»ї<title>The metaphor of the three monkeys and the good life</title>
Almost everyone has seen the representation of the three wise monkeys. It contains the figures of a monkey who covers his mouth, another who covers his ears and one more who covers his eyes. It is a wooden sculpture dating from the 18th century and basically alludes to good living, in the broad sense of the term.
The sculpture is located in a stable at the Toshogu shrine in Japan. More precisely in a village on a hill, north of Tokyo. Each of the monkeys has a name: Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru. In their order, these names mean: don't see, don't hear, don't say. But what does that have to do with good living?
Everything seems to indicate that the sculpture was inspired by a maxim of Confucius. This maxim states: "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". So the basic meaning is not to close oneself completely to the world, but to refuse to come into contact with evil. This is part of the art of good living.
"When an evil can be avoided it is foolishness to accept it."
-Terencio-
The teaching of Confucius and the three monkeysConfucius' maxim invites us to refuse to come into contact with evil. But does this make sense? The first thing that comes to mind is that we can refuse to see, hear or speak of evil, but that does not mean that it will disappear from the world. However, we could ask ourselves another question: What does knowing or talking about evil bring to our lives?
There is a paranoid part of ourselves that takes pleasure in this contact with evil. We may say to ourselves that being aware of the wickedness of the world protects us from the threat that is evil itself. For example, if you know that there are many muggings in a certain street, this would allow you to avoid it, thus reducing the risk of falling.
It seems logical, but deep down it is not so logical. Firstly, because evil is the exception and not the norm in the world. It is true that we all have a destructive side, but usually this does not amount to evil. There are many more who live honestly and constructively.
Secondly, it has been proven that being nervous and tense is one of the factors that assailants evaluate before attacking someone. The same could be said for other similar examples. In other words, perpetrators and victims share common codes.
A taste for the bad and the good life
If we can live without knowing about the latest advances in quantum physics, why can't we live without knowing about evil acts in the world? Here it should also be noted that there is reason to believe that witnessing cruel acts, either personally or on television, increases either our destructiveness or our potential victimization.
It has to do with mirror neurons. The brain is not always able to distinguish reality from fantasy. That's why we get scared by horror movies. We know perfectly well that they are fiction and yet they unleash specific emotions in us.
Therefore, seeing, hearing or talking about evil could have a very toxic effect on ourselves. It is possible that this feeds the monster of fear or the monster of the perverse within us. Both are there and can grow if we nurture them. So Confucius was perhaps quite right.
Mental hygieneThe sculpture of the three monkeys is a guide to good living and a basic principle of mental hygiene. Watching, listening or talking about evil is something that could lead us to a state of anguish. We suddenly forget that statistically and mathematically there are more good people than bad people in the world. Instead, we believe the opposite: we feel that we are in a reality where something very bad could happen to us, at any moment.
Many will ask: what if we really are the victims of real evil? In that case, Confucius' approach is still valid. What is conducive here is to work on that experience in order to dilute it and keep it away from us. To prevent it from becoming an axis on which our life gravitates.
The scandalous, the perverse and the cruel are themes that sell. All this is part of a kind of pornography of pain, which terrifies and fascinates human beings at the same time. This terror and fascination are neurotic. The art of good living has to do with working on the perspective from which we approach the world. And in this sense, the decision to refuse to be witnesses or disseminators of acts of evil has enormous validity.
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