The Licchavi Oṭṭhaddha (Mahāli) visits the Buddha at the Kuṭāgārasālā and reports to him a conversation he had had with Sunakkhatta, who claimed to be able to see heavenly forms, but not to hear heavenly sounds. Mahāli inquires how such a faculty can be acquired, and the Buddha tells him, but explains that it is not for the sake of acquiring these powers that people join the Order. Asking what then is their object, he gradually leads the conversation on to the question of Arahantship, along the Eightfold Path. The Buddha then raises a quite different question, as to whether the soul and the body are identical. The discourse on this again leads to the question of Arahantship (cp. Jāliya Sutta), but it is significant that the Buddha leaves this last question unanswered (D.i.150-8).

Buddhaghosa explains (DA.i.316) that the Buddha raised the point of body and soul, because he knew that Mahāli harboured the heretical belief that a soul exists and that it has form.