Chapter Three

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 streaming radiance.

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 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.