Dhammapada verses 306–319 warn of the suffering that follows false speech, misconduct, and wrong view. The verses highlight the danger of negligence, hypocrisy, and slack effort in spiritual practice. Those who cultivate right view, ethical conduct, and firm effort attain a good destination, while those who embrace wrong views and harmful actions fall into misery.

The Buddha describes the abandoning of illusion as a security for non-returning.

One is incapable of ending suffering without directly knowing and completely comprehending illusion, without the mind detaching from it and without abandoning it. One is capable of ending suffering by directly knowing and completely comprehending illusion, with the mind detaching from it, and by abandoning it.

The Buddha describes the barrier of ignorance as the most significant obstruction, by which beings continue wandering on in cyclic existence.

The Buddha lists the three roots of the unwholesome - greed, aversion, and delusion, and explain their effect on the mind with a simile.

Whoever has not let go of passion, aversion, and illusion is said to be bound by Māra, ensnared by Māra’s trap, at the mercy of the Evil One, and subject to his will.

Whoever has let go of passion, aversion, and illusion is called one who has crossed beyond the ocean—with its waves, currents, whirlpools, lurking with fierce animals and monsters.

Greed, aversion, and illusion are internal impurities that act as one’s internal enemies. Though they obscure clarity and injure one from within, most people fail to recognize their true nature.

The Buddha describes the fires of passion, hatred, and illusion which consume beings who cling to a self. The wise cool these flames with wisdom, loving-kindness, and perceiving unattractiveness.

A lay disciple asks the Buddha why greed, aversion, and illusion still occupy and remain in his mind. The Buddha explains the importance of cultivating discernment of the gratification, drawback, and escape in the case of sensual pleasures along with cultivating the joy and happiness apart from sensual pleasures. He then recounts a conversation with the Nigaṇṭhas on this topic.

The Buddha explains the four cases of taking up practices, based on whether they are pleasant or painful now and whether they ripen as suffering or a pleasant abiding in the future.

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 answers the questions of the reputed brahmin Caṅkī's learned student, who asks the Buddha on how there is preservation of truth, awakening to the truth, final arrival at the truth, and what is most helpful for the final arrival at the truth.

The Buddha explains the cause and condition by which a person comes to be recognized as aggressive or gentle. He illuminates how the presence or absence of passion, aversion, and illusion determines whether one is susceptible to provocation and reacts with anger, or remains unshaken.

A headman of performers asks the Buddha about a belief that those who entertain by distortion of truth are reborn among laughing deities. The Buddha explains that such a mind leads to hell, and even holding such a belief is wrong view, resulting in rebirth in hell or the animal realm.

A warrior asks the Buddha whether dying in battle leads to rebirth among heroic deities, as taught in warrior tradition. After initially refusing to respond, the Buddha explains that a mind driven by violent intent leads not to heaven but to hell. Even holding such a belief is itself wrong view, resulting in rebirth in hell or the animal realm.

The Buddha explains the faults concerning this life and the next life, the strivings for laypeople and those who have gone forth, the things that cause regret and do not cause regret, the importance of not resting content with wholesome qualities, the two things that cause regret and do not cause regret, the two dark and bright qualities, and the two occasions for approaching the rains retreat.

The venerable Nandaka teaches Sāḷha and his friend about how to independently verify the unwholesome and wholesome mental qualities.

The Buddha explains the three unwholesome roots and the three wholesome roots.

The Buddha explains how misunderstanding and not penetrating four principles - 1) ethical conduct, 2) collectedness, 3) wisdom, and 4) liberation - has led to wandering on in cyclic existence for a long time.