[2] The brahmavihārā are: According to the Metta Sutta, cultivation of the four immeasurables has the power to cause the practitioner to be reborn into a "Brahma realm" (Pāli: Brahmaloka).
[11][12] The Digha Nikaya asserts that according to Buddha, "brahmavihārā is "that practice," and he then contrasts it with "my practice" as follows:[11] ...that practice [namely, the mere cultivation of love and so forth, according to the fourfold instructions] is conducive not to turning away, nor to dispassion, nor quiet, nor to cessation, nor to direct knowledge, nor to enlightenment, nor nirvana, but only to rebirth in the world of Brahma....my practice is conducive to complete turning away, dispassion, cessation, quieting, direct knowledge, enlightenment, and nirvana – specifically the eightfold noble path (...) According to Richard Gombrich, an Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit, Pāli, the Buddhist usage of the brahmavihārā originally referred to an awakened state of mind, and a concrete attitude towards other beings which was equal to "living with Brahman" here and now.
[14] In the Tevijja Sutta, "The Threefold Knowledge" in the Digha Nikāya or "Collection of the Long Discourses", a group of young Brahmins consulted Lord Buddha about the methods to seek fellowship/companionship/communion with Brahma.
Even if one is not a disciple, one will still attain the heavenly life, after which, however depending on what his past deeds may have been, one may be reborn in a hell realm, or as an animal or hungry ghost.
[22] Before the advent of the Buddha, according to Martin Wiltshire, the pre-Buddhist traditions of Brahmāloka, meditation, and these four virtues are evidenced in both early Buddhist and non-Buddhist literature.
[23] The Early Buddhist Texts assert that pre-Buddha ancient Indian sages who taught these virtues were earlier incarnations of the Buddha.