QUESTION: Here is a quotation from Cesare Pavese. "We are all capable of evil thoughts, but only very rarely of evil deeds; we can all do good deeds, but few of us can think good thoughts." Is this true? If so, what are the implications for the relationships between thought, word and deed?
SHORT ANSWER: I don't think it is true, though muych depends on definitions.
LONGER ANSWER: I suppose the frequency of our evil deeds is a function of what counts as an evil deed. Perhaps from the perspective of Pavese it is a fairly restricted, definite category, but from a Buddhist point of view we would have to say that most of our deeds are implicated with at least a tinge of greed, hate and/or delusion and often it is much more than a tinge. In that sense "evil" is normal - it is samsara. Again, from the Buddhist perspective, a truly good deed would be one that carries no karma. Loosely, we might think of good karma and bad karma and certainly some consequences of our acts are better than others, but the truly "good" - what we would call a paramita - is rare.
In the Buddhist way of understanding, thought, word and deed are all acts and what matters with acts is the intention. Now we might have broadly "good intentions", but, as Freud and his followers pointed out, we all have a host of hidden motives as well. We are already caught up in karma from ages past. Of course, there is also a large category of what we might call "conventionally good deeds". These are a matter of conforming to what is thought proper within one's group. When a person steps outside of these that person risks being ostracised or castigated by his or her colleagues, companions or compatriots. Such behaviour - whether conformist or rebellious - has little to do with real good and bad, but it forms the basis of most of the judgements that people pass upon others.
Again, Pavese may, in his system, have a narrow definition of what a truly "good thought" is. Perhaps, only God has truly good thoughts in that sense. In Buddhism, even the gods do not do so - only Buddhas. However, in common speech we would be thinking more broadly, in which case I'm sure everybody has some "good thoughts" in amongst all the other ones. However, I suspect that they are acted upon less often than they occur, so good thoughts might well be more common than good deeds. Deeds take more courage than thoughts.
So, from the Buddhist perspective we can distinguish two different "paths". The first, we can call (following Thich Nhat Hanh) "watering the good seeds". This is the path of relative incremental improvement. The second we can call the path of liberation. This is the path of sudden awakening, breaking free from conditioning and cutting through our karma. This latter may come as a result of insight (very rare) or faith (relatively more common but still unusual).
So, to summarise: In general, our thoughts, words and deeds are contaminated with delusion, attachment and rejection, some more so, some less. Among these are some that are, nonetheless, conducive to the benefit of others and these generate "good karma". However, the true and ultimate path is one of complete freedom, beyond our own capacity for good and bad, in which one relies directly upon the power of the Dharma which generates no karma at all.
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