{"collection":"Buddhism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/angu/an5-38.htm","path":"bud/angu/an5-38.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/bud/angu/an5-38.htm","text":"\"When the truly good people in the world show compassion, they will first show compassion to people of conviction, and not to people without conviction. When visiting, they first visit people of conviction, and not people without conviction. When accepting gifts, they will first accept those from people with conviction, and not from people without conviction. When teaching the Dhamma, they will first teach those with conviction, and not those without conviction. A person of conviction, on the break-up of the body, after death, will arise in a good destination, the heavenly world. These are the five rewards of conviction in a lay person.\n\"Just as a large banyan tree, on level ground where four roads meet, is a haven for the birds all around, even so a lay person of conviction is a haven for many people: monks, nuns, male lay followers, & female lay followers.\"\nA massive tree\nwhose branches carry fruits & leaves,\nwith trunks & roots\n& an abundance of fruits:\nThere the birds find rest.\nIn that delightful sphere\nthey make their home.\nThose seeking shade\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 come to the shade,\nthose seeking fruit\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 find fruit to eat.\nSo with the person consummate\nin virtue & conviction,\nhumble, sensitive, gentle,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 delightful, & mild:\nTo him come those without effluent -- \n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 free from passion,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 free from aversion,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 free from delusion -- \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \nthe field of merit for the world.\nThey teach him the Dhamma\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 that dispels all stress.\nAnd when he understands,\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 he is freed from effluents,\ntotally unbound.","title":"AN V.38: Saddha Sutta","type":"page"}