Love (2nd) (AN4.126)

Numbered Discourses 4.126

13. Fears

Love (2nd)

“Mendicants, these four individuals are found in the world.

What four?

Firstly, an individual meditates spreading a heart full of love to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of love to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.

They contemplate the phenomena there—included in form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness—as impermanent, as suffering, as diseased, as a boil, as a dart, as gloom, as an affliction, as alien, as breaking apart, as empty, as not-self.

When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in the company of the gods of the pure abodes.

This rebirth is distinct from that of ordinary people.

Furthermore, an individual meditates spreading a heart full of compassion …

rejoicing …

equanimity to one direction, and to the second, and to the third, and to the fourth. In the same way above, below, across, everywhere, all around, they spread a heart full of equanimity to the whole world—abundant, expansive, limitless, free of enmity and ill will.

They contemplate the phenomena there—included in form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness—as impermanent, as suffering, as diseased, as a boil, as a dart, as gloom, as an affliction, as alien, as breaking apart, as empty, as not-self.

When their body breaks up, after death, they’re reborn in the company of the gods of the pure abodes.

This rebirth is distinct from that of ordinary people.

These are the four individuals found in the world.”