Mettābhāvanā sutta: The Meditation on Love

This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.

“Mendicants, of all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and glows and dazzles.

It’s like how the radiance of all the stars is not worth a sixteenth part of the moon’s radiance. Surpassing them, the moon’s radiance shines and glows and dazzles. In the same way, of all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and glows and dazzles.

It’s like the last month of the rainy season, in autumn, when the heavens are sunny and cloudless. And as the sun is rising to the firmament, having dispelled all the darkness of space, it shines and glows and dazzles. In the same way, of all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and glows and dazzles.

It’s like how, at the crack of dawn, the morning star shines and glows and dazzles. In the same way, of all the grounds for making worldly merit, none are worth a sixteenth part of the heart’s release by love. Surpassing them, the heart’s release by love shines and glows and dazzles.”

The Buddha spoke this matter. On this it is said:

“A mindful one who develops
limitless love
weakens the fetters,
seeing the ending of attachments.

Loving just one creature with a hateless heart
makes you a good person.
Sympathetic for all creatures,
a noble one creates abundant merit.

The royal potentates conquered this land
and traveled around sponsoring sacrifices—
horse sacrifice, human sacrifice,
the sacrifices of the ‘casting of the yoke-pin’, <j>the ‘royal soma drinking’, and the ‘unimpeded’.

These are not worth a sixteenth part
of the mind developed with love,
as starlight cannot rival the moon.

Don’t kill or cause others to kill,
don’t conquer or encourage others to conquer,
with love for all living creatures—
you’ll have no enmity for anyone.”

This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.