Itivuttaka 27

Tipitaka >> Sutta Pitaka >> Khuddaka Nikaya >> Itivuttaka >> '''27. Mettabhavanasuttam'''

Adapted From the Translation by Thanissaro Bhikkhu(Geoffrey DeGraff)

Compared with the Pali Tipitaka at www.tipitaka.org

27. Mettabhavanasuttam (Goodwill )

This was said by the Lord Buddha(Bhagavata), said by the Arahant, so I have heard:

“Monks, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will— surpassing them—shines, blazes, & dazzles.

“Just as the radiance of all the stars does not equal one-sixteenth of the radiance of the moon, as the moon—surpassing them—shines, blazes, & dazzles, even so, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will—surpassing them—shines, blazes, & dazzles.

“Just as in the last month of the rains, in autumn, when the sky is clear & cloudless, the sun, on ascending the sky, overpowers the space immersed in darkness, shines, blazes, & dazzles, even so, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will—surpassing them—shines, blazes, & dazzles.

“Just as in the last stage of the night the morning star shines, blazes, & dazzles, even so, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will—surpassing them—shines, blazes, & dazzles.”

When one develops—mindful— good will without limit, fetters are worn through, on seeing the ending of upadhi(mental acquisitions/attributes). If with uncorrupted mind you feel good will for even one being, you become skilled from that. But a noble one produces a mind of sympathy for all beings, an abundance of merit. Kingly seers, who conquered the earth swarming with beings, went about making sacrifices: <p style="text-align:center;">the horse sacrifice, human sacrifice, <p style="text-align:center;">water rites, soma rites, <p style="text-align:center;">& the “Unobstructed,” <p style="text-align:center;">but these don’t equal <p style="text-align:center;">one sixteenth <p style="text-align:center;">of a well-developed mind of good will— <p style="text-align:center;">as all the constellations don’t, <p style="text-align:center;">one sixteenth <p style="text-align:center;">of the radiance of the moon. <p style="text-align:center;">One who neither kills <p style="text-align:center;">nor gets others to kill, <p style="text-align:center;">neither conquers, <p style="text-align:center;">nor gets others to conquer, <p style="text-align:center;">with good will for all beings, <p style="text-align:center;">has no hostility with anyone <p style="text-align:center;">at all.

See also: SN 42:8; AN 3:66; AN 5:27; AN 11:16; Khp 9