The Benefits of Love
The Buddha tells the mendicants not to fear good deeds, because “good deeds” is another name for happiness. He recalls the long-lasting, agreeable results of good deeds he performed over a long time, including seven years spent developing a mind of love, and traces those results to three kinds of action: giving, self-control, and restraint. The closing verses say one should practise only good deeds, naming giving, moral conduct, and developing a mind of love as three things that yield happiness.
A note on this text. The Buddha’s recollection covers past lives as a divinity, as Sakka, and as a king over many eons, and the verse ends with rebirth in a happy world.
The full text
So It Was Said 22 · The Book of the Ones · Chapter Three · The Benefits of Love · translated by Bhikkhu Sujato · public domain (CC0) · about 1 min · on SuttaCentral
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. Having developed a mind of love for seven years, 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 sublime luminosity. As it expanded I was reborn in an empty mansion of divinity.
There I was the Divinity, the Great Divinity, the vanquisher, the unvanquished, 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 thesethree things yielding happiness,that astute one is rebornin a happy, pleasing world.”
This too is a matter that was spoken by the Blessed One: that is what I heard.