The Satipaṭṭhāna sutta is a most highly revered sutta setting out mindfulness as the one way to overcome suffering.

The Buddha sets out in clear terms the four contemplations that constitute “establishing mindfulness” watching the body, feeling, mind and qualities. The sutta closes with an extended statement on the result of establishing mindfulness – enlightenment or something very close to enlightenment.

In this sutta the Venerable Sāriputta explains how right view can be understood in a number of different ways.

The Buddha differentiates between peaceful meditation and spiritual practices that encompass the whole of life. He lists forty-four aspects, which he explains as “effacement”, the wearing away of conceit.

"Dirty stained cloth takes dye badly, like a dirty stained mind takes one to low states of birth full of suffering. New cloth well washed, on the other hand takes dye well, likewise when a pure mind when good rebirth can be expected. What are the dirt and stains of the mind? Things we know well like covetousness and unrighteous greed, ill will, anger, revenge and so on – these are our stained and dirty states on mind. Getting to know them is good for then they are seen as a source of trouble (dukkha) and so more easily abandoned. As one practises Dhamma and sees for oneself that the defilements are becoming steadily less powerful so one gains strong faith in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. One’s insight eventually reaches to the Noble Paths and Fruits when that faith becomes unshakeable. The Discourse goes on to show how after practising the Divine Abidings (in which one lives like Brahma or God), one then should aspire to Arahantship and attain Nībbāna. No doubt the Buddha was aware that a divine (brahmin) sitting nearby was interested in his discourse as well as being a spiritually capable person, hence his mention of the Divine (Brahma) Abidings. The brahmin’s interest was indeed aroused and he asked whether the Buddha went to bathe his sins away in the supposedly holy river Bahukā. This question has caused the splendid flow of the Buddha’s reply in verse. This ability to speak impromptu verse was much esteemed by the brahmins and it seems as though this and the straightforward content of their teaching reached to that Brahmin’s heart so that he said. “Magnificant, Master Gotama … And the venerable Bhāradvāja became one of the Arahants”. © Nyanamoli Bhikkhu , A Treasury of the Buddha's Discourses

In this discourse the Buddha teaches how, by keeping the precepts, devotion to internal serenity of mind, meditation, insight and seclusion various wishes can be obtained.

The Buddha’s chief disciples, Sāriputta and Moggallāna, use a simile of a tarnished bowl to illustrate the blemishes of the mind and conduct. They emphasize how the crucial thing is not so much whether there are blemishes, but whether we are aware of them.

The Buddha describes what it would be like to live in solitude in a remote jungle resting place free from fear and dread.

Some of the Buddha’s students inherit from him only material profits and fame. But his true inheritance is the spiritual path, the way of contentment. Venerable Sāriputta explains how by following the Buddha’s example we can experience the fruits of the path.

Everyone has troubles and difficulties in this life - all the various aspects of dukkha and these troubles the Buddha shows should be dealt  with in appropriate ways. A Buddhist who knows the Dhamma can thus practice so to rid himself of these troubles in a way which will lead him out if complications, not further into difficulties. No doubt this discourse is directed to those who have most time for Dhamma practice - the bhikkhus and nuns, but lay people can learn much from the Buddha’s words here since they indicate what has to be overcome before practice can succeed. The troubles of wrong view can be abandoned only through insight (vipassanā) and without insight the truth of the Dhamma cannot be verified. As the senses play such a great part in our lives we cannot expect the mind to be stilled until we restrain their wanderings, something that most lay people can only do when engaged in intensive meditation sessions.

The troubles which are overcome through the use of only a few and essential things can be practiced by those gone forth to homelessness easily but with more difficulty by lay people. But the next group, all those those unpleasant, painful things which afflict mostly the body but also the mind can be abandoned through endurance by anyone with or without robes. Avoidance of troubles too can be practiced by all alike as it depends on the good development of mindfulness. The same applies to the taints abandoned by removal, that is, removing the wrong thoughts and intentions. The most deeply rooted taints, of sensual desire, of being and of ignorance (of the four Noble Truths), can only be abandoned by development of the mind-heart through meditation and the prescription given here is the development of the seven factors of enlightenment. So all troubles, inside and outside, great and small, can be abandoned successfully if one uses the correct method. But if wrong method is employed then one’s troubles in life, on the path of Dhamma, can increase and become denser than they are now.

In this sutta the Buddha analyses the thinking process of four different types of people, the untaught ordinary person, the Disciple in higher training the Arahant and the Tathagata. The sutta details the progression from perception and delight because of misunderstanding the true nature of perception to directly knowing, dispassion and release through full understanding.