The Buddha explains how even small attachments can be strong fetters if not relinquished, using similes of a quail and an elephant, and contrasts between the poor and wealthy. He describes four types of practitioners based on their response to attachment and mindfulness. The discourse also presents gradual refinement of meditative attainments from the first jhāna to the cessation of perception and what is felt.

When the Buddha fails to achieve reconciliation among quarrelsome bhikkhus at Kosambi, he withdraws into solitude and later encounters an inspiring community of monks devoted to liberation. He teaches them the path of inner purification based on his own practice prior to full awakening—discerning and abandoning eleven subtle impurities of mind, developing collectedness in three ways, and realizing unshakable liberation.

Using the role of food as nutriment that sustains and endures the body, the Buddha describes the nutriments for the arising and growth of the five hindrances and the seven factors of awakening.

The Dhamma can be like a snake that bites if grasped wrongly. This discourse tackles the danger of misinterpretation, sparked by a bhikkhu who claimed sensual pleasures weren't obstructions. The Buddha warns that a “wrong grasp” of the teachings leads to harm, while the right grasp leads to liberation. The ultimate goal is to use the teachings like a raft to cross over, letting go of all views—especially the view of a permanent self—to end suffering.

When asked by King Pasenadi of Kosala about the qualities that arise within a person for their harm, suffering, and troubled living, the Buddha lists greed, aversion, and delusion, and explains their effect on the mind with a simile.

When the venerable Nanda is dissatisfied with the spiritual life due to thoughts of a beautiful woman, the Buddha takes him to the realm of the gods and shows him celestial nymphs far more beautiful. Delighted, Nanda consents to continue leading the spiritual life, but is soon mocked by his companions as a ‘wage labourer’ and a ‘bought man.’ Stung by shame, he turns to earnest practice, and before long realizes the perfection of the spiritual life.

True peace is found not through suppression or indulgence, but through understanding. The Buddha teaches how to discern a practice that is a source of conflict and that which is free from conflict, addressing the pursuit of sensual joy, self-mortification, evaluation of different modes of pleasure, and distinguishing between different kinds of speech.

A bhikkhu endowed with two qualities of being moved on occasions that inspire a sense of urgency and by wisely striving when aroused with urgency, dwells in the here and now with abundant ease and joy, and his mind is directed towards the wearing away of the mental defilements.

Greed, aversion, and delusion 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 nutriments for the sustenance of the five hindrances and the seven factors of awakening.

Among those entrenched in views, arguing “This alone is truth,” the Buddha calls praise won by such to be a small matter. Seeing safety in the ground of non-dispute, the wise do not seek purity by precepts and vows or by what is seen, heard, or sensed. The sage ends craving for various states of existence and stands equanimous.

The Buddha contrasts the misdirected and well-directed mind, and explains the importance of directing the mind.

The Buddha expresses an inspired utterance about the qualities of a person who falls under the sway of Māra and of one who overcomes all bad destinations.

DhammaPada verses 33-43 share about the nature of the mind, the drawbacks of an untamed mind, and the benefits of protecting and restraining the mind. Those who restrain the mind will be freed from the shackles of death. Not even one’s own mother, father, or any other relatives can do as much good as a rightly oriented mind can.