friends and colleagues, relatives and family should be encouraged, supported, and established in three things.

who has confidence in the Saṅgha,
and correct view:
they’re said to be prosperous,
their life is not in vain.

The four factors of stream entry.

What do you think, mendicants? Which is more: the little bit of dirt under my fingernail, or this great earth?

The Buddha explains the fruit of Stream Entry.

Once upon a time, I was a seer called Rohitassa of the Bhoja people. I was a sky-walker with psychic powers. I was as fast as a light arrow easily shot across the shadow of a palm tree…

… there’s no making an end of suffering without reaching the end of the world. For it is in this fathom-long carcass with its perception and mind that I describe the world, its origin, its cessation, and the practice that leads to its cessation.

For Venerable Ānanda’s exegesis of this sutta, see SN 35.116.

… the suffering that’s over and done with is more, what’s left is tiny.

For someone who has seen the truth (i.e. attained Stream Entry), the suffering eliminated is comparable to the Himalayas; what remains is just seven bits of gravel.

Astikāya is merely a formal variation of the same word we know as sakkāya. So it seems clear it was a term the Buddha drew from the Jains, or from the ascetic teachers more generally.

Astikāya means “existent substance” or “ontological category”.

We can draw upon this, and keep a broad consistency with the handling of astikāya in Jainism, by rendering sakkāya as “substance” or “substantial reality”, and sakkāyadiṭṭhi as “substantialist view”

… four streams of merit, streams of the wholesome, nutriments of happiness—heavenly, ripening in happiness, conducive to heaven…

… seeking an argument, searching for an argument, thinking: ‘I will refute his thesis,’ it is impossible that he could make that bhikkhu shake…

No-one can refute you if you are well grounded in the four noble truths.

Rather, the breakthrough to the Four Noble Truths is accompanied only by happiness and joy.

Even more than if you’re being tortured with spikes, you should make an effort to realize Nibbāna.

In the same way, a noble disciple has experiential confidence in the Buddha…

Like rain falling on the mountain top, the four factors of stream-entry flow on to the ending of defilements.

This is how a disciple of the noble ones dwells

… the person in whom the factors of stream entry are altogether and in every way lacking I call an outsider

When a noble disciple has these four streams of merit […] his merit simply is incalculable

The four factors of stream-entry—with wisdom as the fourth—are called streams of merit.

… a noble disciple who has four things is said to be rich, prosperous, and wealthy.

The four factors of stream-entry are said to be true prosperity.

Having these six qualities the householder Tapussa is certain

This treatise explains the progress of insight, together with the corresponding stages of purification. It has been written in brief for the benefit of meditators who have obtained distinctive results in their practice, so that they may more easily understand their experience.

Kammaṭṭhāna meditation should be practised so as to reach Nibbāna, thereby escaping from all kinds of misery

A thorough and concise overview of the entire path of meditative purification. A very helpful map, essentially summarizing the Visuddhimagga.

As for the individual who has attained neither internal tranquillity of awareness nor insight into phenomena through heightened discernment, he should approach an individual who has attained both internal tranquillity of awareness & insight into phenomena

On the importance of attending to the wise in progressing on the path. Also notable in this Sutta is the Buddha’s emphasis on developing both tranquility and insight.

… this is the nature of a person accomplished in view. Though they might manage a diverse spectrum of duties for their spiritual companions, they still feel a keen regard for the training in higher ethics, higher mind, and higher wisdom.

The Buddha taught the reluctant, quarrelling monks of Kosambi to develop themselves in love and harmony, reminding them of the higher aspirations for which they ordained.

It is wrong perception that leads to the concepts of being and nonbeing.

Suppose a person was to catch six animals, with diverse territories and feeding grounds, and tie them up with a strong rope.

A mendicant goes to a series of teachers and asks how vision is purified. Dissatisfied with all their answers, he complains to the Buddha, who illustrates his quandary with the famous simile of the Kiṁsuka tree.

Their intentions, aims, wishes, and choices all lead to what is likable, desirable, agreeable, beneficial, and pleasant. Why is that? Because their view is good.

When a person has wrong view, all their path development is wrong. But when they have right view, everything good follows.

Whatever doubts there are…
The meditators give up all these

The Buddha rejoices in Ven. Revata’s diligent meditation.

“It’s incredible, it’s amazing! Who can’t become a stream-enterer these days?”

It’s never too late to practice.