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When his foster mother, Mahāpajāpati Gotamī, offers a robe to the Buddha, he encourages her to offer it to the Saṅgha instead. He then classifies offerings directed to individuals, contrasts them with those directed to the Saṅgha, and explains four kinds of offering purification.

When the Kālāmas, perplexed by conflicting teachers, ask the Buddha how to know truth from falsehood, he advises against blind reliance on tradition or authority. Instead, offering a pragmatic test: reject what leads to detriment and cultivate that which leads to well-being.

When Mahānāma inquires about the frequent abidings of a stream-enterer who has cognized the Dhamma, the Buddha reveals six foundational recollections. A frequent cultivation of these recollections allows the stream-enterer to remain completely steady even when living amidst unbalanced and afflicted people.

The Buddha explains the difference in the results of giving disrespectfully and giving with respect. Recalling his past life as the brahmin Velāma, he shows that inner purity and wisdom surpass even the grandest charity—feeding one with right view, cultivating loving-kindness, or realizing impermanence even for a brief time brings far greater fruit than any lavish gift.

The young brahmin Subha asks the Buddha why human beings experience such vast disparities in lifespan, health, wealth, and wisdom. The Buddha explains that beings are the owners and heirs of their actions. He details specific unwholesome and wholesome behaviors, showing exactly how each shapes future rebirths and human conditions.

Redefining ‘luck’ as the fruit of skillful action, the Buddha outlines the highest blessings that bring lasting well-being and peace.

The Buddha and deities discuss the true value of giving. Practicing the Dhamma and offering a peaceful gift, however small, generates far more merit than massive, grand sacrifices brought about by cruelty, tears, and violence.

The Buddha shares in poignant terms his observations on the agitation all beings experience which led to his urgency to awaken. He then shares on the path to awakening and describes the dwelling of an awakened being.

The Buddha describes eight streams of merit that lead to profound happiness and heavenly rebirth: taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha, alongside observing the five precepts. He frames these precepts as ancient “great gifts” because abstaining from harmful actions like killing and intoxication grants limitless beings freedom from fear, hostility, and affliction.

Verses illustrating the vulnerability of buried worldly treasure compared to the inviolable wealth of merit. Cultivated through virtue and generosity, this spiritual wealth cannot be stolen or lost.

Using the analogy of a capable cowherd, the Buddha outlines eleven qualities for spiritual growth, including understanding, diligent inquiry, self-restraint, and loving-kindness. As a good herdsman tends his cattle, so a wise bhikkhu tends the mind, cultivating the care and discernment that lead to growth, fulfillment, and mastery in the Dhamma and Vinaya.

Two elderly brahmins regret neglecting spiritual practice. The Buddha compares the world to a house on fire with old age and death, advising them to rescue their wealth through giving and moral restraint before life ends.

If both husband and wife wish to see one another in this very life and also to meet one another again in the next life, both should be alike in faith, ethical conduct, giving, and wisdom.

After the lay disciple Nandamātā is visited by the deity Vessavaṇa, she recounts the event to the venerable Sāriputta. She then lists her seven wonderful and marvelous qualities, including profound equanimity in the face of tragedy, her attainment of the four jhānas, and her attainment of non-returning.

The Buddha shines a light on the vital practice of dedicating merit to departed relatives. Unable to sustain themselves through worldly means like farming or trade, they rely entirely on offerings given on their behalf.

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 young brahmin Subha questions the Buddha about whether householders or renunciants are superior and what brings the greatest merit. The Buddha explains that he evaluates actions with discernment, and then teaches the path to companionship with Brahmā through cultivation of the qualities of loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity.

The Buddha shares the results of developing a mind of loving-kindness based on his recollection of past lives.

The Buddha shares the three bases for making merit through 1.) giving, 2.) ethical conduct, and 3.) cultivating a mind of loving-kindness.

The Buddha shares the three kinds of best confidence - 1.) in the Buddha, 2.) in the mental quality of fading of desire, and 3.) in the community of the Blessed One’s disciples.

The Buddha declares that giving, sharing, and assisting with the Dhamma is vastly superior to material gifts. By diligently speaking and listening to the Accomplished One's instruction with a settled mind, practitioners realize the ultimate goal.

The Buddha shares the importance of giving, sharing, assisting and making an offering of the Dhamma.

Where children honor their mother and father, those families are said to dwell with Brahmā.

The Buddha describes how the spiritual life is lived in mutual dependence between monastics and householders for the sake of crossing over the flood and for the complete end of suffering.

A young deity recites a verse to the Buddha about the shortness of life and the importance of doing meritorious deeds.

The Buddha describes the four streams of merit, outflows of good, and supports for ease. The fourth quality is generosity.

Redefining ‘luck’ as the fruit of skillful action, the Buddha outlines the highest blessings that bring lasting well-being and peace.

The Buddha answers the venerable Puṇṇaka’s questions about the sacrifices made by sages and brahmins, the nature of their desires, and who has truly crossed over birth and old age.

The Buddha describes the foremost of his lay disciples in various categories.

The Buddha describes the foremost of his female lay disciples in various categories.

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 AN 2.36 discourse.

Where children honor their mother and father, those families are said to dwell with Brahmā.

The Buddha teaches the laywoman Suppavāsā that giving food bestows life, beauty, happiness, and strength upon the recipient and, in turn, upon the giver. Such generosity, especially toward those accomplished in conduct is very fruitful.

The Buddha describes five suitable times for giving a gift - to a guest, traveler, sick person, during famine, and to the virtuous.

The giver of food gives five things to the recipients - life, beauty, happiness, strength, and eloquence. They also find happiness as a result of their giving.

The Buddha describes the seven kinds of wealth in brief, of 1) faith, 2) virtue, 3) conscience, 4) fear of wrongdoing, 5) learning, 6) generosity, and 7) wisdom.

The Buddha describes the seven kinds of wealth in detail, of 1) faith, 2) virtue, 3) conscience, 4) fear of wrongdoing, 5) learning, 6) generosity, and 7) wisdom. One who possesses these is not truly poor, and their life is not lived in vain.

Migāra of Rohaṇa is a wealthy man, but even his riches are vulnerable to the vicissitudes of life, unlike the seven kinds of wealth the Buddha describes which cannot be taken away.

The Buddha describes the seven wonderful and marvelous qualities of the householder Hatthaka of Āḷavi. When he learns about this from a certain bhikkhu, Hatthaka is concerned if any other householder heard the praise. Learning of this, the Buddha adds contentment as the eighth wonderful and marvelous quality of Hatthaka.

The Buddha explains eight kinds of giving, including giving out of fear, giving to maintain a good reputation, and giving to purify the mind.

Wholesome giving along with faith and a sense of right and wrong is the way of practice that leads to the world of gods.

The Buddha describes eight motivations for giving, including giving out of desire, aversion, and fear.

The Buddha explains eight kinds of rebirth that arise from giving, determined by one’s aspiration and purity of virtue.

Depending on the extent of one's practice of giving and ethical conduct, one is reborn in human and various heavenly realms if one has not undertaken cultivation of the mind.

The Buddha explains the eight gifts of a true person, including giving what is pure, excellent, and at the proper time.

The Buddha likens a person of integrity to a nourishing rain cloud. By practicing generosity and honoring family, friends, and spiritual practitioners, they dispel stinginess and attain an auspicious rebirth.

Emerging from collectedness, venerable Mahākassapa goes for an alms round among the destitute. However, Sakka, lord of the gods, disguises himself as a weaver to trick the elder into accepting his offering.

When a cowherd is murdered shortly after serving the Buddha a meal, the monks report the tragedy. The Buddha responds with an inspired utterance, revealing that a wrongly directed mind inflicts even greater harm on oneself than what an enemy may do to an enemy.