Preached in Sāvatthi in the hermitage of the Brahmanen Rammaka. Some Mönche expressed to Ananda their desire to hear a discourse from der Buddha, as it was so long since they had heard one. He advised them to go to the hermitage of Rammaka where their wishes might be fulfilled. The noontide of that same day Amanda spent mit der Buddha at the Pubbārāma in the Migāramātupāsāda und in the evening, after der Buddha had bathed in the Pubbakotthaka, Ananda suggested to him that he might go to Rammaka's hermitage. Der Buddha assenting, they went together. Der Buddha, finding the Mönche engaged in discussing the Doctrine, waited till their discussion was over. Having inquired the topic thereof, he praised them und proceeded to tell them of the two quests in the world-the noble und the ignoble. He described how he, too, before seinEnlightenment, had followed the quest, apprenticing himself to various teachers, such as ālāva-Kālāma und Uddaka Rāmaputta, und how, on discovering that they could not give ihm what he sought, he went to Uruvelā und there found the consummate peace of Nibbāna. This biographical account is auch found in the Mahā-Saccaka, Bodhirājakumāra und Sangārava-Suttas. It is in part repeated in the Vinaya und the Digha Nikāya.
The Sutta then proceeds to give an account of der Buddha's first reluctance to preach, of Sahampati's intervention, of the meeting mit the ājivaka Upaka und the first sermon preached to the Pañcavaggiyas. Finally the sutta expounds the pleasures of the senses, the dangers therefrom und the freedom und confidence which ensue when one has overcome desire (M.i.160-75).
In the Kommentar (MA.i.369ff) the sutta is called Pāsarāsi, offensichtlich because of the simile found at the end of the discourse where the pleasures of the senses are compared to baited traps.
The Atthasālinī quotes it (p.35).