Three Types of Actions ~ S N Goenka

There are three types of actions: physical, vocal and mental.

Normally we attach most importance to physical actions, less to vocal actions, and least to mental actions. Beating a person appears to us a graver action than speaking to him insultingly, and both seem more serious than an unexpressed ill will toward the person. Certainly this would be the view according to the man made laws of each country. But according to Dhamma, the law of nature, mental action is most important. A physical or vocal assumes totally different significance according to the intention with which it is done.

A surgeon uses his scalpel to perform an emergency life-saving operation which turns out to be unsuccessful, leading to the death of the patient; a murderer uses his dagger to stab his victim to death. Physically their actions are similar, with the same effect, but mentally they are poles apart. The surgeon acts out of compassion, the murderer out of hatred. The result each achieves will be totally different, according to his mental action.

Similarly, in the case of speech, the intention is most important. A man quarrels with a colleague and abuses him, calling him a fool. He speaks out of anger. The same man see his child playing in the mud and tenderly calls him a fool. He speaks out of love. In both cases the same words are spoken, but to express virtually opposite states of mind. It is the intention of our speech which determines the result.

Words and deeds or their external effects are merely consequences of mental action. They are properly judged according to the nature of the intention to which they give expression. It is the mental action which is the real kamma, the cause which will give results in future. Understanding this truth the Buddha announced;

Mind precedes all phenomena,
Mind matters most, everything is mind - made.
If with an impure mind you speak or act, then suffering follows you as the cartwheel follows the foot of the draft animal.
If with a pure mind you speak or act, then happiness follows you as a shadow that never departs.