Reading guide
A title this text doesn't fully explain
‘The Conduct of the Lotus-eaters’ names a detail from the fuller telling of this story — presumably how the family sustains itself once in the forest — that this particular verse text never actually states. As elsewhere in this collection, the title points past what the surviving verses cover.
An objection raised, and firmly declined
When the eldest sibling refuses ordinary family life, the objection is not hostile: friends and parents simply ask him to ‘maintain the family lineage’. His refusal is nonetheless final, described as ‘hard for me to hear, like a heated ploughshare’ — the discomfort running in both directions.
A family that follows rather than mourns
Where Cp 21 and Cp 23 both show crowds wailing at a departure, this story takes a different turn: on hearing of their son's decision, the parents respond not with grief but with a proposal of their own — ‘sirs, let all of us go forth!’
Renunciation as a shared decision, not a solitary one
The story closes with the entire family — mother, father, sister, and seven brothers — discarding their wealth and entering the forest together, a scale of collective renunciation not seen anywhere else in this collection's other stories on the theme.
Key terms
The text
§1“Then again when I was in the capital citadel of Kāsi, a sister and seven brothers were born in a learned family.
§2I was the first-born of them all, furnishing with pure conscience. Seeing rebirth as fearful, I longed for renunciation.
§3Sent for by my mother and father, my friends with one mind invited me to enjoy sensual pleasures, saying: ‘Maintain the family lineage.’
§4The words they said about the ways a householder can find happiness, were hard for me to hear, like a heated ploughshare.
§5When I turned down their proposal, they asked me what I wished for: ‘My dear, what is it that you wish, since you do not long for sensual pleasures?’
§6I spoke to my beneficiaries, wanting what is best. ‘I wish not for the householder’s state, I long for renunciation.’
§7Hearing my words, they told my mother and father . My parents said this: ‘Sirs, let all of us go forth!’
§8So both my mother and father, sister and seven brothers, discarding countless riches, entered the great forest.”
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