THE DISCOURSE ON LOVING-KINDNESS

This is what should be done by one who is skilled in goodness and who knows
the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and
gentle in speech,
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily
satisfied,
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and
calm and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them
not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.

Wishing: in gladness and in safety may all beings be at ease.
Whatever
living beings there may be,
Whether they are weak or strong,
The great
or the mighty, medium, short or small,
The seen and the unseen,
Those
living near and far away,
Those born and to be born, omitting none,
May
all beings be at ease.

Let none deceive another or despise any being in any state.
Let none,
through anger of ill-will wish harm upon another.

Like a mother protects her child, her only child with her life,
So with a
boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.
Radiating kindness
over the entire world:
Spreading upwards to the skies and downwards to the
depths,
Outwards and unbounded, free from hatred and ill-will.

Whether standing or walking, seated or lying down
Free from drowsiness,
one should sustain this recollection.
This is said to be the sublime abiding.

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.