Reading guide
Four factors, one recurring formula
Confirmed by direct reading, the four factors are: experiential confidence (aveccappasāda) in the Buddha, the teaching, and the Saṅgha, each elaborated by their own traditional epithets (elided here via “…” but confirmed present in the root Pali), and ethical conduct “loved by the noble ones... leading to immersion” — this project expects this exact formula to recur throughout this saṃyutta, confirmed rather than assumed at each occurrence.
A verse closing a prose statement
Confirmed by direct reading, this discourse's own closing verse compresses the prose formula into four lines: faith, ethics, confidence, and “vision of the truth” leading “in time” to happiness, “the objective of the spiritual life” — this discourse's own title.
Key terms
The text
§1“Mendicants, a noble disciple who has four things is a stream-enterer, not liable to be reborn in the underworld, assured, destined 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, assured, destined for awakening.”
VerseThat 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 objective of the spiritual life.”
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