sn.55.2 Saṁyutta Nikāya (Linked Discourses)

The Culmination of the Spiritual Life

“Mendicants, a noble disciple who has four things is a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, bound for awakening.
What four?
It’s when a noble disciple has experiential confidence in the Buddha …

the teaching …
the Saṅgha …
And they have the ethical conduct loved by the noble ones … leading to immersion.
A noble disciple who has these four things is a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, bound for awakening.”
That is what the Buddha said.
Then the Holy One, the Teacher, went on to say:
“Those who have faith and ethics,
confidence, and vision of the truth,
in time arrive at happiness,
the culmination of the spiritual life.”