Three-monkey statue

I have a small bronze statue I bought 23 years ago in Nara, Japan, depicting three monkeys sitting close together.

Each of them covers either its eyes, ears or mouth with its hands. I bought it because I thought it was funny, but then I was told that tells us a moral message.

Each of us is expected to say and do: "I do not want to see, hear or speak any ill or evil thing."

The message is loud and clear; we should live a life of good conduct. We know however, that the reality is not like this because humans are both good and evil.

Where evil such as greed, hypocrisy, fraud, corruption, collusion, self-righteousness, arrogance etc., become mainstream values and the ends justify the means, the statue may take on an opposite meaning for some people.

Instead of avoiding evil, these people may tell themselves that we can avoid evil by saying: "I do not see, hear and or speak any ill or evil."

Such people are playing blind, deaf and dumb, a dangerous and unethical game as they are deceiving others.

They are also cheating themselves. By ignoring evil acts one commits other people suffer. Evil people are apparently not afraid of God's wrath. The blind, the deaf and the dumb game may, sooner or later, end up in a series of blows which affect many of us. This dangerous and unethical game must cease immediately.

Pursuing righteousness should be our first concern. Only by doing so may we maintain the status of men endowed like God.

How many of us are still playing blind, deaf, and dumb?

H.W. PIENANDORO

Bogor, West Java