Dhammapada verses 273–289 emphasize the eightfold path as the foremost way to liberation, seeing the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self nature of all things. Further, the verses mention the relation of meditation and wisdom, They mention restraint, how wisdom through meditation, on cutting off the forest as well as the undergrowth, and making swift effort to purify by the way of practice leading to Nibbāna.

The Blessed One explains the two principles of explaining the Dhamma - 1) ‘See harm as harm’ and 2) ‘Having seen harm as harm, become disenchanted with it, become detached from it, and be released from it.’

Overcome by two kinds of wrong views, some get stuck, while others overreach. But those with vision see.

The Buddha explains the difference between cultivation and lack of cultivation with regard to body and mind, and recounts his own journey to full awakening.

The Buddha contrasts the body’s visible decay with the mind’s instability, which is clung to as ‘self’, comparing it to a restless monkey jumping between branches. He teaches that wisdom arises from understanding the full twelve-link chain of dependent co-arising, which explains the origin and cessation of all suffering.

The Buddha explains to a brahmin that the cycle of existence is without a discoverable beginning, and that it is not easy to calculate the number of aeons that have passed by and gone.

After examining the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and the changing nature of the five aggregates, the Buddha teaches how to see them with proper wisdom, as not being suitable to identify with.

The Buddha explains that those recollecting past lives are merely recalling one or more of the five aggregates. He defines each aggregate and shows how a noble disciple sees them as impermanent, dissatisfactory, and not suitable to identify with, leading to disenchantment, dispassion, and liberation.

The Buddha teaches the Dhamma for the complete comprehension of all clinging through seeing the dependent co-arising of feeling through the six sense bases.

The Buddha shares the importance of recollection of the Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha, one’s virtue, generosity, deities, in-and-out breathing, death, body, and peace.

The Buddha teaches about integrity, gratitude, how one can repay one’s parents, action and non-action, who to make offerings to, persons who are internally or externally fettered, and the importance of right practice and well grasp of the Dhamma. The chapter gets its name from the <a href="/an2.36" class="text-blue-600 hover:underline">AN 2.36</a> discourse.

The Buddha explains the proximate causes of non-regret, joy, tranquility, and other qualities leading to liberation, contrasting how they are fulfilled in a virtuous person versus an unprincipled person.