[Mahasi] [Ledi] [Other] [Pesala] [Suttas]

Discourses

Buddha’s Words on Loving Kindness

1. This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness
   and who wants to follow the path to peace:
   One should be able and honest, perfectly honest,
   Easy to instruct and gentle, humble and not conceited.
    
2. Contented and easily satisfied,
   unburdened with duties and easy to support.
   Serene and discreet, modest and unattached to families.
    
3. Let one not do anything that the wise would criticise.
   May all beings be happy, secure, and contented.
    
4. Whatever living beings there may be,
   whether they are weak or strong,
   the great or the mighty, medium, short, or tiny —
    
5. the seen and the unseen, those living near or far away;
   the born and those to be born - may all beings be at ease.
    
6. Let none deceive another nor despise any being in any state.
   Let none through anger or ill-will wish harm upon another.
    
7. Even as a mother protects with her life her only child,
   so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.
    
8. Radiating kindness over the entire world:
   Spreading upwards to the skies, and downwards to the depths;
   Outwards and unbounded, freed from hatred and ill-will.
    
9. Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down,
   free from drowsiness, one should sustain this recollection.
   This is called the sublime abiding.
    
10. By not holding to fixed views,
    the pure-hearted one, having clarity of vision,
    being freed from all sense desires,
    is not born again into this world.