AN 4.126 Metta Sutta

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AN 4.126 Metta Sutta : Good Will (2)
"Monks, there are these four types of individuals to be found existing in the world. Which four?

"There is the case where an individual keeps pervading the first direction(1) — as well as the second direction, the third, & the fourth — with an awareness imbued with good will. Thus he keeps pervading above, below, & all around, everywhere & in every respect the all-encompassing cosmos with an awareness imbued with good will: abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will. He regards whatever phenomena(inner tendencies) there that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, distressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. At the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in conjunction with the devas(angels) of the Pure Abodes. This rebirth is not in common with run-of-the-mill(worldly) people.

"Again, there is the case where an individual keeps pervading the first direction — as well as the second direction, the third, & the fourth — with an awareness imbued with compassion... appreciation... equanimity. Thus he keeps pervading above, below, & all around, everywhere & in every respect the all-encompassing cosmos with an awareness imbued with equanimity: abundant, expansive, immeasurable, free from hostility, free from ill will. He regards whatever phenomena(inner tendencies) there that are connected with form, feeling, perception, fabrications, & consciousness, as inconstant, distressful, a disease, a cancer, an arrow, painful, an affliction, alien, a disintegration, an emptiness, not-self. At the break-up of the body, after death, he reappears in conjunction with the devas(angels) of the Pure Abodes. This rebirth is not in common with run-of-the-mill(worldly) people.

"These are four types of individuals to be found existing in the world."

Notes:

1.The east.