The Sutra of Golden Light is estimated to have been accumulated around 2000 years ago, and contain an ancient well wishing and expression of metta (4.78-4.92):
May all the beings throughout every world
Become free of suffering and attain happiness.
May all those with incomplete faculties
Have their physical features made complete.
May beings with no protector, and bodies
Weakened by the suffering of their illness,
All have the suffering of their illness cease
And have improved faculties, color, and power.
May those to be executed for breaking the king’s law,
Who are tormented by many sufferings and in extreme misery,
Who are experiencing this unendurable suffering
Without having anyone to protect or save them—
And those who are struck by weapons and bound,
Whose bodies are tortured by various harmful instruments
And are experiencing countless thousands of miseries,
Their bodies in pain and without the slightest happiness—
May all of them become freed from their bonds,
From the beatings, suffering, and torments.
May the lives of those to be killed be saved
And all their many sufferings completely cease.
May beings who are pained by hunger and thirst
Obtain various kinds of the sublime, best flavors.
May the blind see forms, the deaf hear sounds,
The crippled walk, and the mute speak.
May poor beings obtain a treasure of jewels,
Have a treasury that increases and never diminishes,
And may all beings attain sublime, supreme happiness
And never experience suffering.
May they obtain a beautiful, sublime appearance
That all devas and humans will wish to see,
And may they directly experience limitless happiness
And possess pleasures, prosperity, and merit.
May there arise many kinds of perfect music
That are the exact music those beings wish to hear.
If they wish for water, may there appear perfectly cool pools
Upon which float flowers of gold.
May what those beings wish for—
Food, drink, clothes, thrones, and seats;
Gold, silver, and beryl jewels,
And every string of jewelry—perfectly appear.
May beings not hear anything unpleasant
And not see any disharmony between anyone.
May all their physical features be beautiful,
And may each being be kind and loving.
May they obtain, as soon as they think of them,
Every possession and requisite that brings happiness in the world.
May they find wealth and without ever being in need
Divide their possessions and give them to beings.
May incense and perfumes, powders and ointments,
Various flowers of every kind of color
Fall from the trees three times each day,
And may there be happiness from the enjoyments wished for.
May all beings make offerings to the jina lords
In the ten directions; to the three yānas,
The pure and sublime doors to the Dharma; and to the saṅgha of
Bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and śrāvakas.
May they never have a low rebirth
Or fall into the eight unfortunate states,
But gain a supreme human’s riches and freedoms
And attend on the buddhas in the ten directions.
The 8 unfortunate states are: (1) being born in a hell realm, (2) as an animal, (3) as a hungry ghost, (4) as a long-life god, (5) in a borderland or non-Buddhist country, (6) having wrong views, (7) as someone with impaired faculties who is unable to understand the teachings, or (8) in a time or place where no buddha has come.
I sometimes wonder when the path is all about entering the Dharmakaya, the unconditioned, non-dualistic realm, why well wishes are about conditions and conditionality. I think the emotion of wishing others well is crucial when you understand we're all connected, interbeing and all that. You are wishing people well as an act of insight and positive emotion development.
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