Itivuttaka 27
This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard: “Monks, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will–surpassing them–shines, blazes, & dazzles.
“Just as the radiance of all the stars does not equal one-sixteenth of the radiance of the moon, as the moon–surpassing them–shines, blazes, & dazzles, even so, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will–surpassing them–shines, blazes, & dazzles.
“Just as in the last month of the rains, in autumn, when the sky is clear & cloudless, the sun, on ascending the sky, overpowers the space immersed in darkness, shines, blazes, & dazzles, even so, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will–surpassing them–shines, blazes, & dazzles.
“Just as in the last stage of the night the morning star shines, blazes, & dazzles, even so, all the grounds for making merit leading to spontaneously arising [in heaven] do not equal one-sixteenth of the awareness-release through good will. Good will–surpassing them–shines, blazes, & dazzles.”
When one develops–mindful– good will without limit, fetters are worn through, on seeing the ending of acquisitions. If with uncorrupted mind you feel good will for even one being, you become skilled from that. But a noble one produces a mind of sympathy for all beings, an abundance of merit. Kingly seers, who conquered the earth swarming with beings, went about making sacrifices: the horse sacrifice, human sacrifice, water rites, soma rites, & the “Unobstructed,” but these don’t equal one sixteenth of a well-developed mind of good will– as all the constellations don’t, one sixteenth of the radiance of the moon. One who neither kills nor gets others to kill, neither conquers, nor gets others to conquer, with good will for all beings, has no hostility with anyone at all.
https://www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/KN/Iti/iti27.html
Copyright: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ The author of www.dhammatalks.org also states: “There is some uncertainty about the meaning of ‘Commercial’ with regard to the CC NonCommercial License. For example, some consider the sale of content to support a non-profit entity to be ‘NonCommercial.’ The author and copyright holder of the content on this site considers any sale, including by non-profit entities for non-profit purposes, to be ‘Commercial’ and a copyright violation.“