The release and deliverance of the heart

The Blessed One said: 'Whatever grounds there be for good works done in this world, all of them are not worth one-sixteenth part of that love which is the heart's release. Love alone, which is the heart's release, shines and burns and flashes forth in surpassing them.'
Itivuttaka, I. 3, 7, Pali Canon

The purpose of the holy life does not consist in acquiring support, honour or fame; nor in gaining virtue, concentration, or the eye of knowledge. But that unshakable deliverance of the heart--that indeed is the object of the holy life: that is its essence, that is its goal.
Majjhima Nikaya, I. 204, Pali Canon


Translations take from the The Oxford Book of Prayer, edited by George Appleton, Oxford University Press, 1989 printing