I just received an interesting email question in Japanese and English:
Does 3Yen mean 三猿？
見ざる、聞かざる、言わざる
not seeing, not hearing, not saying
This thought exists all over the world??
It’s a deep thought.
Ha, ha. The 3Yen is not such a deep thought: It’s just my 3 yen’s worth. That is, 3 Japanese yen is a little more than 2 American cents ($0.025805 USD). The 3yen.com is my “two cents worth” and a little more[「何かに対する自分なりの意見・言い分」].
The Zen philosophy of “not seeing, not hearing, not saying” is different in English. From a Western perspective they are just the commandments, “See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil.” In Zen, it is an existential edict for seeing, speaking and hearing—TO DO, NOT TRY.
The Great Buddha of Kamakura (大仏, daibutsu)
Oscar Wilde’s “The Decay of Lying“…
…The Japanese people are the deliberate self-conscious creation of certain individual artists. If you set a picture by Hokusai, or Hokkei, or any of the great native painters, beside a real Japanese gentleman or lady, you will see that there is not the slightest resemblance between them. The actual people who live in Japan are not unlike the general run of English people; that is to say, they are extremely commonplace and have nothing curious or extraordinary about them. In fact the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people…
Aboot that…
Am I the only one to feel like I’m not in a real… Reality… Since being in japan, but more more stuck half awake into some sort of bad dream…
Dooood.
Japan does not exist
I was forced to live here in exile (because of my pre-existing-conditions denied me health insurance in the USA). Now that Fart Bongo Obama has given me clemency, Japan lacks any meaning/reality.
— Kyoto Daily Photo (@KyotoDailyPhoto) November 22, 2014
See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil at Arashiyama Monkey Park (嵐山モンキーパーク).
The Three Wise Monkeys (三猿), Mizaru (見ざる), Kikazaru (聞かざる)and; Iwazaru (言わざる), were made famous by Hidari Jingoro's (左甚五郎) carving at Nikko Tosho-gu (日光東照宮).
The phrase is believed to have originated in the Analects of Confucius (論語), and was probably brought to Japan in the 8th Century with Tendai Buddhism.
Hear. See. Speak.
