AN 5.38
Saddha Sutta: Conviction
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu

"For a lay person, there are these five rewards of conviction. Which five?

"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. For a lay person, these are the five rewards of conviction.

" 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."

A massive tree whose branches carry fruits & leaves, with trunks & roots & an abundance of fruits: There the birds find rest. In that delightful sphere they make their home. Those seeking shade come to the shade, those seeking fruit find fruit to eat. So with the person consummate in virtue & conviction, humble, sensitive, gentle, delightful, & mild: To him come those without effluent — free from passion, free from aversion, free from delusion — the field of merit for the world. They teach him the Dhamma that dispels all stress. And when he understands, he is freed from effluents, totally unbound.