HBO’s hit series “The White Lotus” has wrapped up its third season with a bloody denouement at the Thailand outpost of its titular resort. The show’s use of crashing waves and flying spray as visual motifs is consistent, but the interpretation behind it may be more complicated than intended.
Buddhist monk Luang Por Teera provides insight into what these watery images might represent to his student, offering a theological perspective that diverges from traditional Buddhist teachings. According to Theravada Buddhism, when one dies, they are reborn according to their karma, not enjoying an automatic happy return to the ocean of universal consciousness.
The monk’s words about the ocean may be seen as encouraging suicide and imply that Buddhist teachings could justify such actions. This Western-liberal spin on traditional Eastern religion raises concerns about the show’s portrayal of Buddhism.
However, the actual human drama in Season 3 is heavy with sin and violence, fitting more with actual Buddhist teachings than the New Age gloss presented by Luang Por Teera. The moral and spiritual stakes are existential, and the temptations and consequences are not fleeting bursts of spray against the rocks.
The dissonance between this season’s tone and its predecessors contributes to its uneasy reception. Season 1 was a comedy of manners with an interruption of death, while Season 2 introduced a darker thread with a sinister murder plot. In contrast, Season 3 features almost all characters caught up in violence or potential violence, creating a dissonance between the show’s style and tone.
The monk’s New Age aphorisms don’t feel calming but rather sinister, especially when delivering a message to a man considering killing himself and his family. The final shot of another character slipping peacefully into the “one giant consciousness” doesn’t feel reassuring or comedic; it suggests a nihilistic indifference to human actions while alive.
This dissonance leaves Season 3 morally stranded, between the shallows and the depths. Despite its consistent imagery, the show’s portrayal of afterlife feels flawed, struggling to reconcile its own moral questions with the repeated message of ephemerality.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/opinion/white-lotus.html