See no evil, hear no evil, do no evil

The monkeys were mostly wrong. We have to see, name, and intervene to stop the evil erupting all around us. We have to listen intently to what we are being told by government and media to see if we aren’t being fed newspeak that drapes evil in the flag of liberty and patriotism. We have to hear what we say to one another and how we say to discover if we are spreading fear and lies stoked by “false news” and conspiracy theories trending on Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. But the monkeys are right about doing no evil. It doesn’t help to oppose the demonizing of one group by demonizing another. As the Buddha taught, “Overcome anger by peacefulness; overcome evil by good,” (Dhammapada 223).