Four Wise Monkeys, The
| Category: | Scout Oath |
|---|---|
| Notes: | Have the Scouts do the poses with you: hands over eyes, hands over ears, hands over mouth, then arms folded across the chest. Good before a campout, after a rough patch of teasing or gossip in the troop, or when talking about phones and what Scouts watch and share online. |
Everybody show me the three wise monkeys. (Lead the Scouts through the poses.) Hands over your eyes: see no evil. Hands over your ears: hear no evil. Hands over your mouth: speak no evil.
Those monkeys are nearly 400 years old. They're carved over the door of a stable at a shrine in Nikko, Japan. In Japanese, their names are Mizaru, Kikazaru and Iwazaru, which mean "see not," "hear not" and "speak not." It's a pun, because "zaru" sounds like "saru," the word for monkey. The carving is part of a set that tells the story of a life, and the three monkeys stand for a child learning to keep bad things out.
See no evil. You can't always stop bad things from showing up in front of you, but you can choose whether you keep looking. That goes for the screen in your pocket, too. What you watch over and over is what your mind gets used to.
Hear no evil. Sometimes it's a mean joke, sometimes it's gossip about someone who isn't there. Walking away or changing the subject is a way of covering your ears without anybody noticing.
Speak no evil. Words are hard to take back, and a text or a post is even harder. Before you say it, ask whether it's true, whether it's kind, and whether it needs to be said at all.
But here's the thing: a monkey with its hands over its eyes, ears and mouth can't do anything at all. It can't see someone who needs help or hear a friend who's in trouble, and it can't speak up when something is wrong. That's why some later versions of the monkeys add a fourth one, sometimes called Shizaru. His arms are folded across his chest. (Fold your arms.) Do no evil.
The first three monkeys are about what you let in. The fourth is about what you do, and that's the one that counts most. In the Scout Oath, we promise to keep ourselves morally straight. That doesn't mean closing your eyes to the world. It means keeping your eyes and ears open, choosing your words, and then doing what's right with your own two hands.
So the next time you see those three monkeys, remember the one who isn't always in the picture, and be that monkey.