The Chinese character 防 means ‘to be cautious’. Why? Could you see its  body language?

What is the first part of 防(fang)？ The vertical stroke represents the edge of the face while the 3-like thing shapes like one of your ears! Yes, in China we call it ‘ear-component ' for many Chinese characters. Then how to understand 方？ You many take the top dot as the flame of the burning candle which can shoot light in all possible directions. In the maths class the teacher told me: ’From one point you can draw countless lines.‘.  万 means ‘ten thousands’. (In many cases we use it as ‘too many possibilities’.  In general it is why 方 means ‘direction’. 

When you practise Chinese martial arts，the master will ask you to take care of any attacking from eight directions(耳听八方(The ears can instantly receive danger-signals around. ）

My dog has powerful hearing ability. It lies on the ground and its ears can sense your footsteps far away. With the radar-like organs, the pet can do a good  job on defense specially at night.