First, unrelated to the primary subject of this post I wanted to mention a You Tube channel, No Nonsense Spirituality, that someone recently pointed out to me via an email, as he liked this woman's style. It's worth a look, based on my quick browsing of some videos. Here's what's said about a Welcome video:
Welcome to No-Nonsense Spirituality! If you're feeling lost in a world filled with competing beliefs and overwhelming choices, you’re not alone. In this video, Brit Hartley, an atheist spiritual director with advanced theological training, guides you through the process of deconstructing your beliefs about God, faith, and meaning. You’ll discover practical tools from the science of well-being and wisdom traditions that can help you create a life worth living, even in the face of uncertainty and nihilism. Here, you don't need to subscribe to any faith or dogma—just an open mind and a desire for authenticity. Join Brit every Monday as you explore how to navigate the challenges of life without the need for spiritual crutches, empowering you to rise above the harsh truths of reality.
Now, on to a discussion of what the third season of HBO's The White Lotus, which is set in Thailand, has to say about Buddhist truth. In short, not much. I say this because there isn't a single Buddhist truth, just as there isn't a single Christian truth, or a single truth about any other religion, mystical pursuit, or spiritual path.
In the appendix to his book, Why Buddhism is True, Robert Wright says:
While I was writing this book, I didn't have in mind the title Why Buddhism is True. But after I finished writing it I realized that the book did amount to an argument for the validity of what I consider the core ideas of Buddhism -- or, at least, the core ideas of the "naturalistic" side of Buddhism, the side that "Western" Buddhism is mainly concerned with.
Today New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote an opinion piece, "How the 'White Lotus' ran aground." Douthat is a devoted Christian who wrote a book that I've criticized in several posts, Believe: Why Everybody Should Be Religious. So it isn't surprising that I found his opinion piece annoying.
For one thing, my wife and I heartily enjoyed the third season of The White Lotus, considering it the best, while Douthat started off his piece with:
Crashing waves and flying spray have been the most consistent visual motifs in Mike White’s HBO hit “The White Lotus,” which just wrapped up its third (and by general agreement, weakest) season with a bloody denouement at the Thailand outpost of its titular resort.
Well, the Rotten Tomatoes site says that Season 1 got 90% positive critic reviews, while Season 2 got 94% and Season 3 86%. So calling Season 3 weakest, by general agreement, is a bit of a stretch. Leaving that aside, Douthat doesn't like the Buddhist philosophy in Season 3.
And midway through the season we received a direct interpretation of what that watery imagery is supposed to represent from the lips of Luang Por Teera, a Buddhist monk and an ajaan, or teacher, with whom the daughter of one of the wealthy hotel-going families hopes to study.
Queried by the young woman’s father, Tim Ratliff, a North Carolina businessman who is contemplating suicide — indeed, murder-suicide — after discovering that he may be ruined and even headed to prison, about what awaits us after death, the monk answers: “When you are born you are like a single drop of water, flying upward, separated from the one giant consciousness. You get older, you descend back down, you die, you land back into the water, become one with the ocean again. No more separated, no more suffering. One consciousness. Death is a happy return, like coming home.”
When I heard the Buddhist teacher say this in one of the final episodes, it sounded fine to me. After all, this is a freaking HBO show, not a Buddhist scripture. I don't expect realism from a show designed to entertain, not to inform.
However, Douthat wants people to believe in the traditional teachings of one of the major world religions, not some watered-down version. So he doesn't like that the Buddhist monk in The White Lotus talked about merging with one consciousness after death, while traditional Buddhism speaks of karma causing people to be reborn in some form depending on one's mixture of virtues and vices.
Douthat cites an article by Matthew Gindin, who used to be a Buddhist monastic, called "The Buddha in 'The White Lotus." Gindin makes some valid points about the show not being in line with traditional Theravada Buddhist teachings, but again, this is entertainment, not a class in Buddhist orthodoxy. And Gindin ends his piece with a fairly positive view of The White Lotus.
If I knew nothing about Buddhism watching The White Lotus, I would come away with the idea that it is a peaceful religion that promotes stilling the mind, non-violence, and acceptance of life as it is, and whose meditation teachings are commensurate with the pop-mindfulness stuff one can hear in any yoga class or meditation app. I would also believe that it promotes spirit above form, and detachment from self, and that it promises that all beings come from one universal consciousness to which they will return at death in a peaceful homecoming. Not the worst presentation of Theravada Buddhism, to be sure, but far from a wholly accurate one.
When it comes to the plot, however, the show delivers Buddhist insights in spades, serving up hefty doses of teaching about the perils of violence, along with the poisonous nature of greed, hatred, and delusion and the chaotic consequences of killing, stealing, lying, unethical sex, and intoxicants. The show might not be true to Thai Buddhism, but it’s true to life.
Good enough for me. And good enough for Robert Wright, the author of Why Buddhism is True.
The point is that when we speak casually of a scientific theory being "true," what we mean, strictly speaking, is that it has substantial corroborating evidence in its favor and has not yet encountered firm evidence that is incompatible with it. That's what the title of this book means in referring to core Buddhist ideas as "true."
...But I certainly think the core of Buddhism's assessment of the human condition -- its basic view of why people suffer and why they make other people suffer and, more broadly, its conception of certain basic aspects of how the mind works and of how we can change how our minds work -- warrants enough confidence to get the label that the title of this book gives it.
Wright then lists twelve Buddhist truths. None of them involve karma or rebirth.
"..an atheist spiritual director.."
?
To direct the spirit where?
Oblivion?
Atheist concludes there is no soul/spirit. Maybe wine spirits, or maybe losing 'mindful' mind cells?
On the other hand Pope was feeling fine on Easter Sunday and world leaders were proposing a Russian truce, and Ukrainian 30 day ceasefire. Nothing supernatural about that
-of course not.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/pope-francis-makes-surprise-easter-appearance/vi-AA1DhAWV
Posted by: Karim W. Rahmaan | April 21, 2025 at 12:10 AM
Just got done fixing stuff.
And just heard of the Pope's death:
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2025-04/pope-francis-dies-on-easter-monday-aged-88.html
May Baba Ji keep your spirit from having to return to the physical realm. 🙏
Posted by: Karim W. Rahmaan | April 21, 2025 at 04:44 PM