iti.22 Itivuttaka

The Benefits of Love

This was said by the Buddha, the Perfected One: that is what I heard.
“Mendicants, don’t fear good deeds.
For ‘good deeds’ is a term for happiness, for what is likable, desirable, and agreeable.
I recall undergoing for a long time the likable, desirable, and agreeable results of good deeds performed over a long time.
As a result, for seven eons of the cosmos contracting and expanding I didn’t return to this world again.
As the eon contracted I went to the realm of streaming radiance.
As it expanded I was reborn in an empty mansion of Brahmā.
There I was Brahmā, the Great Brahmā, the undefeated, the champion, the universal seer, the wielder of power.
I was Sakka, lord of gods, thirty-six times.
Many hundreds of times I was a king, a wheel-turning monarch, a just and principled king. My dominion extended to all four sides, I achieved stability in the country, and I possessed the seven treasures.
Not to mention regional kingship!
Then I thought,
‘Of what deed of mine is this the fruit and result, that I am now so mighty and powerful?’
Then I thought,
‘It is the fruit and result of three kinds of deeds:
giving, self-control, and restraint.’”
The Buddha spoke this matter.
On this it is said:
“One should practice only good deeds,
whose happy outcome stretches ahead.
Giving and moral conduct,
developing a mind of love:
having developed these
three things yielding happiness,
that astute one is reborn
in a happy, pleasing world.”
This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.