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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’s final journey from Rājagaha to Kusinārā, detailing the conditions for non-decline, his illness and relinquishment of the life force, his last instructions to the Saṅgha, his final Nibbāna between the twin sāla trees, the cremation, and the distribution of the relics.

Amidst bitter disputes among the Kosambi bhikkhus, the Buddha teaches six principles of cordiality to restore unity, emphasizing shared loving-kindness, ethics, and noble view. The Buddha then outlines seven qualities that when sought out, lead to the fruit of stream-entry and provide the means to verify it.

The Buddha teaches about the person who has had “a single auspicious night”. One who neither revives the past nor places hope in the future, but diligently discerns present phenomena with insight—without taking them as self, and practices with urgency today without being carried away by presently arisen phenomena, that wise one is one who has had a single auspicious night.

The Buddha offers a stark contemplation of the human body, detailing its internal parts, secretions, and ultimate decay. Recognizing this reality dismantles the illusion of physical beauty constructed by ignorance, leading the wise practitioner to the deathless peace of Nibbāna.

In response to a king’s grief over his queen's death, the Buddha teaches that aging, illness, death, and loss are inevitable. He contrasts the self-torment of an ordinary person who resists these truths with the peace a learned disciple of the Noble Ones finds through acceptance, thereby removing the “poisonous dart of sorrow.”

When venerable Mahāmoggallāna was struggling with drowsiness, the Buddha gave him seven methods to overcome it. Moving beyond wakefulness, the discourse warns against pride and contentious talk, ultimately revealing how letting go leads to the exhaustion of craving and complete quenching.

The Buddha shares the four training guidelines of: 1) accomplishment in virtue, 2) guarding the doors of the sense faculties, 3) observing moderation in eating, and 4) practicing wakefulness, that when undertaken with diligence and cultivated as qualities, lead to non-decline and brings one near to Nibbāna.

Prompted by an elephant trainer's observation on the tangled, deceitful nature of humans compared to animals, the Buddha categorizes humanity into four kinds based on who they torment. He then details the profound path of the fourth person—the one who abandons all harm to attain complete, unburdened liberation in this very life.

The young deity Kakudha asks whether the Buddha delights or sorrows. The Buddha shows that delight and distress arise together, and that a bhikkhu free of both has crossed over entanglement in the world.

Verses depicting a poetic duel between the wealthy cowherd Dhaniya and the Buddha. While Dhaniya boasts of his worldly security, family, and thriving herd, the Buddha counters with declarations of profound spiritual freedom.

The venerable Hemaka dismisses the hearsay and speculation of previous teachers, asking instead for the Dhamma that leads to the destruction of craving.

The venerable Kappa asks the Buddha about the island for those overwhelmed by the flood of aging and death.

The Buddha describes the three experiences that are felt on contact through the sense doors: pleasant, painful, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant.

When asked about the state of peace and the way of practice to reach it, the Buddha describes this state as being steady and unruffled, like the middle of the ocean where no wave arises. He then shares the way of practice to achieve it without delay: guarding the senses, letting go of indulgence, to be a meditator who cultivates wakefulness, and through investigation, abandoning a host of unwholesome qualities.

When venerable Sāriputta meets venerable Puṇṇa Mantāṇiputta, he asks whether the spiritual life is lived for the sake of various purifications—of conduct, mind, view, overcoming doubt, knowing the path, knowing the practice, and knowledge and vision. Venerable Mantāṇiputta explains, with the simile of seven relay chariots, that each stage of purification serves only as a step toward the next, culminating in final Nibbāna without clinging—the true goal of the spiritual life.

A series of questions and answers between the lay follower Visākha and bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā that clarify subtle yet important aspects of the teachings. Topics covered include personal existence, Noble Eightfold Path, intentional constructs, attainment of cessation of perception and what is felt, felt experience, underlying tendencies and various counterparts.

Venerable Ānanda is reciting the exposition and summary about the person who has had “a single auspicious night” to the bhikkhus in the assembly hall.

The deity Candana shares the verses of “One who has had a single auspicious night” with the venerable Lomasakaṅgiya. Lomasakaṅgiya then visits the Buddha, who delivers the full exposition on abandoning the past and future and discerning present phenomena.

The Buddha describes the three experiences that are felt on contact through the sense doors: pleasant, painful, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant.

The Buddha describes the three quests of sensual pleasure, renewed existence, and spiritual life.

The Buddha teaches that one could be far from him despite being physically close, and one could be near to him despite being physically far. When one sees the Dhamma, one sees the Buddha.

The Buddha crossed the flood of suffering without any support and without struggling.

What is the burden and who bears it, what is the taking up of the burden and the putting down of it.

By mapping how suffering dynamically depends on internal conditions—including felt experience, craving, clinging, and perturbation—the Buddha demonstrates that liberating knowledge arises from seeing pairs of principles exactly as they are.

The Buddha answers the venerable Tissa Metteyya's questions about who is content in the world, who is not perturbed, and who has gone beyond the net of existence.

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 venerable Mettagū asks the Blessed One about the arising of suffering and how the wise cross the flood of birth and sorrow. The Buddha shares a Dhamma that is directly visible, revealing that sufferings have acquisitions as their source and showing the path for the wise to reach the far shore, free from craving and untroubled.

The venerable Nanda asks: Is a sage defined by knowledge or by way of life? The Buddha replies that neither views nor observances lead to liberation. Only by abandoning all fixed ways and by completely comprehending craving does one cross over the flood.

The venerable Todeyya asks the Buddha about the characteristic of deliverance of one free from sensual desires and without doubt.

The Buddha explains the distinction between how an uninstructed ordinary person and a learned disciple of the Noble Ones respond to the five unobtainable states of aging, illness, death, perishing, and loss.

When the Buddha asks the bhikkhus on how they cultivate recollection of death, their answers reveal a negligent mindset. The Buddha then instructs to cultivate recollection of death with diligence and keenness, which leads to the wearing away of the taints.

Nibbāna is directly visible in a provisional sense when one enters a jhāna or subsequent meditation attainments. It is directly visible in the definitive sense when one attains the cessation of perception and what is felt.

The Buddha defines ten types of practitioners accomplished in view, dividing them into five who achieve final awakening in this world and five who achieve it after passing away into higher realms.

The Buddha explains why Venerable Pilindavaccha addresses the bhikkhus with the term ‘outcaste’.

After his full awakening, the Buddha surveys the world, seeing beings aflame with passion, aversion, and delusion. He reflects on the nature of the world and the suffering inherent in existence. By seeing the world as it truly is, he points to the path of liberation.

Seeing venerable Sāriputta instructing venerable Lakuṇḍaka Bhaddiya even more, considering him to be a trainee despite his mind having already been liberated, the Blessed One expresses an inspired utterance about the cutting of the round and the cessation of suffering.

The Buddha expresses an inspired verse on the base where there is no coming, going, staying, no passing away, and no rebirth.

After eating his final meal from Cunda the smith and enduring severe illness, the Buddha instructs Ānanda to console the donor regarding the supreme merit of the offering.

After venerable Dabba Mallaputta attains final Nibbāna through the fire element, the Buddha expresses an inspired verse on the complete cessation of the aggregates and consciousness.

Dhammapada verses 383–423 redefine ‘Brāhmaṇa’ (sage) by inner attainment, not birth or appearance. Through effort, a true sage cuts craving, understands reality, and realizes Nibbāna. Fearless, detached, pure, and restrained, they embody non-violence and patience. Free from defilements and attachments, having overcome suffering and rebirth, the sage achieves the ultimate goal, radiating wisdom and peace.