The brahmin Subha asks the Buddha why humans experience such inequality in lifespans, health, wealth, and birth. The Buddha gives a detailed exposition of kamma, showing how specific wholesome and unwholesome actions—like killing, anger, generosity, and humility—bring their corresponding results in the human realm.

The Buddha describes the six releases of mind, through 1) loving-kindness, 2) compassion, 3) appreciative joy, 4) equanimity, 5) the signless, and 6) the uprooting of the conceit “I am" - that assuredly lead to freedom from 1) ill will, 2) cruelty, 3) dissatisfaction, 4) passion, 5) following after signs, and 6) the conceit “I am" when cultivated and frequently practiced to fulfillment.

The Buddha distinguishes pleasant abidings in the here and now from the way of effacement leading upwards to complete quenching. Effacement is shown as the gradual chipping away of defilements through restraint, cultivation of the noble eightfold path, and diligent training, culminating in the complete freedom of Nibbāna.

The Buddha explains to Jīvaka the circumstances in which meat may be consumed and the demerit of slaughtering living beings for the Tathāgata or his disciples.

The Buddha instructs Rāhula on how to regard the five aggregates as not-self which he immediately applies to practice. The Buddha then teaches Rāhula on how to meditate on the elements, the divine abodes, unattractiveness, impermanence, and mindfulness of breathing to abandon unwholesome mental qualities and cultivate wholesome mental qualities.

The Buddha explains how thoughts of sensuality, ill will, and harming arise from a cause and how to abandon them.