And how is the heart’s release by compassion developed? What is its destination, apex, fruit, and end? It’s when a mendicant develops the heart’s release by compassion together with the awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. If they wish: ‘May I meditate perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive,’ that’s what they do. … If they wish: ‘May I meditate staying equanimous, mindful and aware, shunning both the repulsive and the unrepulsive,’ that’s what they do. Or else, going totally beyond perceptions of form, with the disappearance of perceptions of impingement, not focusing on perceptions of diversity, aware that ‘space is infinite’, they enter and remain in the dimension of infinite space. The apex of the heart’s release by compassion is the dimension of infinite space, I say, for a wise mendicant here who has not penetrated to a higher freedom.
And how is the heart’s release by rejoicing developed? What is its destination, apex, fruit, and end? It’s when a mendicant develops the heart’s release by rejoicing together with the awakening factors of mindfulness, investigation of principles, energy, rapture, tranquility, immersion, and equanimity, which rely on seclusion, fading away, and cessation, and ripen as letting go. If they wish: ‘May I meditate perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive,’ that’s what they do. … If they wish: ‘May I meditate staying equanimous, mindful and aware, shunning both the repulsive and the unrepulsive,’ that’s what they do. Or else, going totally beyond the dimension of infinite space, aware that ‘consciousness is infinite’, they enter and remain in the dimension of infinite consciousness. The apex of the heart’s release by rejoicing is the dimension of infinite consciousness, I say, for a wise mendicant here who has not penetrated to a higher freedom.