The Buddha shares his own journey of seeking the path to awakening, from leaving the household life, to studying under two meditation teachers, to attaining full awakening and an account of teaching the Dhamma to his first five disciples.

The Buddha praises Sāriputta for his “sequential discernment of mental states.” Entering each successive escape from the defilements, Sāriputta precisely identifies every factor present in the jhānas and formless abidings through observing their arising, persisting, and passing away.

The Buddha systematically deconstructs sensory experience into six sets of six. By demonstrating the constant arising and passing away of the sense bases, consciousness, contact, felt experience, and craving, he dismantles the illusion of self, revealing the path to liberation.

The Buddha describes the three elements of escape - renunciation, formless element and cessation.

Beings are infatuated with the four great elements because of the gratification found in them, become disenchanted with them because of the drawbacks found in them, and escape from them because there is an escape.

Only after fully understanding the gratification, drawback, and escape in the case of form, felt experience, perception, intentional constructs, and consciousness, the Buddha declared that he had attained the unsurpassed perfect awakening.

The Buddha describes how beings only become disenchanted with and escape from the five aggregates only when they have directly known their gratification, drawback, and escape as they truly are.

Before his awakening, the Bodhisatta reflected on the gratification in the world, the drawback in the world, and the escape from it.

The Buddha describes his quest for gratification in the world, drawback in the world, and the escape from it. He subsequently experientially realized gratification, drawback, and escape as they truly are, leading to his unshakable liberation.

Beings are infatuated with the world because of the gratification found in it, become disenchanted with it because of the drawback, and escape from it because there is an escape.