The phrase of sanzaru (mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru) is also known as “Three wise monkeys” all over the world, too. In Japan there is a famous (I think) three monkeys’ statue at Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō. I have a view that those three monkeys actually represent our present society quite well. It could be different from the original meaning but “don't see, don't hear, don't speak” seems to show us the situation of the company’s misconduct which has recently been going on.
We often hear those sentences such as “I'll forget I saw it”, “I didn’t hear that” and “I don't ever recall saying that” and so on. Interestingly, people have become to try not to hear, not to see and not to speak when something works against their interest. Even if they receive a bad result from their health check up, they judge it by themselves that they are fine. But as a result of leaving it, later they find themselves that it is too late. It may be because this kind of person didn’t want to accept it (wanted to forget what he saw).
As I explained in the topic of the “five senses”, what I’m concerned about in recent days is that there are many people who are looking at the screens of their cell-phones while walking. They are even looking at them while going up or down the stairs. I wonder what they would do when they, for example, miss a step and get someone else involve in the accident. Or I wonder if they believe that the others will always step out of the way and won’t get involved. When looking at the cell-phone’s screen, you become distracted and not able to pay enough attention to the other things including the pace of walking, don’t you?
Also, there are many people who are staring at those cell-phone screens (playing games) on a train… Even if they are outside of their home, they don’t want to see and hear anything…except their own things and they shut themselves into their own world. They see their own world only on the cell-phone screen and hear only the sound from earphones and become not to be able to communicate with others. They don’t know who are on the train even if they are always on the same train in the same time. They wouldn’t recognize each other.
If you don’t see things around you, you won’t recognize any change in the scenery outside. Even if there is a building on the street which you walk passed every day, you wouldn’t recognize it, and one day you may see it and think “when was that built…? I didn’t know it was there…”
Haven’t you had an experience such as this? You were looking at your cell-phone’s screen at a red traffic light, so because others started crossing the road, you automatically did it, too. But the traffic light was actually still red. The others were actually ignoring the red light.
The red light, if not seen, is nothing to be afraid…? Do you think that the car will stop for you? Don’t you care?
At any rate, present society is becoming the world of “mizaru, kikazaru, iwazaru” (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil). If such a situation continues, it will become irretrievable. Especially if nature has no concern about our matters…Whatever things are (bad things), we have to closely see, hear and tell about them (hand on to the next generation) don’t we?
