WHEN THE ‘NOBLE’ IMAGE DOESN’T QUITE STACK UP
How would you feel if someone you have long regarded as a good person turns out to be full of flaws? Many might want to ask this question to the followers of Thitinart Na Pattalung or Kru Oi, a businesswoman-turned- dhamma writer and life coach who has been at the centre of criticism on social media for weeks.
The author of the best-selling how-to series Khem Tid Cheewit (Life Compass) has been as a Buddhist devotee ever since she survived the serious crisis that hit her 20 years ago — she lost her husband and was left 100 million baht in debt with a baby son.
Stories of how she managed to clear the huge debt within two years and came out of the emotional trauma with the help of Buddhist teachings, her decision to quit business to live a simple life with her son, and her devotion to teaching dhamma and meditation, have been told through her own books, lectures and the media for over a decade. That’s why she has earned quite a strong fan base where everyone looks at her as an idol.
But now her reputation is being shaken as people begin to feel suspicious of her true character. The trigger started from a little conflict with her former students which subsequently led to the revelation of many surprising truths about her.
Thitinart reportedly studied healing science several years back. Upon acquiring certificates in hypnotherapy and neurolinguistic programming, she initiated a series of expensive classes, collectively known as the Compass course, in which instructions are basically influenced by traditional Buddhist thoughts.
She said her lessons can help us remove mental blockages, overcome fear, develop positive thinking, build inner strength and allow us to live a successful life. The course, which comes with hefty fees ranging from 25,000-45,000 baht, is popular among stars, celebrities and wealthy figures, whose images are used in publicity material.
Two weeks ago, however, an actress and a veteran acting coach came out to demand that she stop using their pictures to promote the course. They explained on their Facebook pages that they haven’t attended the course for a long time and don’t have any involvement with the video clips and adverts circulated on social media.
The drama went on for a few days before Thitinart agreed to remove their pictures from all publicity. But negative comments from netizens were already widespread. Most of them accused her of exploiting the fame of her students to promote the course. Some asked how a programme that is aimed to help people could be so expensive? Others wondered why we have to pay a lot of money just to listen to words that come from Buddhist principles?
While many questioned whether she was qualified to conduct hypnotherapy in the first place, several others were sceptical about the way she convinced her students of their capability of achieving success. They believed that those people were simply engaged in what is called “group affirmation”. This theory was supported by famed psychologist Dr Wallop Piyamanotham, who said on a TV show last week that the therapy sessions we saw from the controversial course were only a case of group affirmation.
He said that hypnotherapy can help people overcome fear quite well but it must be performed by an experienced psychologist. “A professional session must be carried out in a clinic but this one is not. It’s a business,” he concluded.
True words. This kind of business is estimated to earn Thitinart at least 100 million baht a year and it is only part of her wealth. Now, everyone knows that she owns a luxury housing project and a sold-out condo project in Bangkok where her lavish penthouse is located. Also, she is a major shareholder of a real-estate firm and many claimed that she often persuaded her rich students to invest in the company’s stocks.
The revelation about her path to wealth came about not long before she complained to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to look into a website which she claimed tried to extort her out of 11 million baht in exchange for a stop to its plan to spread false claims about her personal life. She also tearfully told the media that she was being discredited by a former student who she said was among those people behind the scam.
Whether Thitinart was telling the truth about the money-extortion story or just fabricating it to divert our attention from that moneymaking course, as many believed, remains to be seen. But whatever the result, I don’t think it will make her admirers feel any better.
It’s hard to believe that this is a true story about a person who had kept telling everyone that “money is not everything in life”, that “I didn’t want to cling to worldly things” and that you should “just be mindful of your feelings and you will be free from craving”.
Thitinart was very fortunate to come across dhamma and reap the spiritual benefits from it. We can’t deny that she has done many good things as a Buddhist faithful and a healer. She has made a great contribution to spreading Buddha’s words to console many souls. She has acted as a compass to guide people out of a dark hole and, obviously, she has inspired many to live a moral life.
We can’t deny that she’s only an ordinary person who still has defilement, like all of us. We just can’t expect her to do what she preaches while she still needs a lot more of dhamma practice to refine her own soul.
People are now digging deeper into her personal life. But, I think what we have learned about this side of her life over the weeks is enough to make many feel sad.
Thitinart is a very clever woman who knows how to make the most out of her noble image. She might have done nothing wrong in terms of the law, as of now. She just fails to realise that some kind of her behaviour is considered morally challenging. This is what is ruining her name.