“Bhikkhus, these five benefits come to a clansman endowed with faith. What five? (1) When the good persons in the world show compassion, they first show compassion to the person with faith, not so to the person without faith. (2) When they approach anyone, they first approach the person with faith, not so the person without faith. (3) When they receive alms, they first receive alms from the person with faith, not so from the person without faith. (4) When they teach the Dhamma, they first teach the Dhamma to the person with faith, not so to the person without faith. (5) With the breakup of the body, after death, a person with faith is reborn in a good destination, in a heavenly world. These are the five benefits that come to a clansman who has faith.
“Just as at a crossroads on level ground, a great banyan tree becomes the resort for birds all around, so the clansman endowed with faith becomes the resort for many people: for bhikkhus, bhikkhunīs, male lay followers, and female lay followers.”
A large tree with a mighty trunk,
branches, leaves, and fruit,
firm roots, and bearing fruit,
is a support for many birds.
Having flown across the sky,
the birds resort to this delightful base:
those in need of shade partake of its shade;
those needing fruit enjoy its fruit.Just so, when a person is virtuous,
endowed with faith,
of humble manner, compliant,
gentle, welcoming, soft,
those in the world who are fields of merit—
devoid of lust and hatred,
devoid of delusion, taintless—
resort to such a person.They teach him the Dhamma
that dispels all suffering,
having understood which
the taintless one here attains nibbāna.