If birth is the sweetest ache of motherhood, then loss of a child must be hell’s torment. Sarah Ruhl’s newest play, The Oldest Boy, touches hell. Premiering at Lincoln Center, The Oldest Boy is the third play in the ongoing relationship Lincoln Center has with the Ruhl universe (the first two were In the Next Room, or the vibrator play and The Clean House). A pastiche of puppetry, music, dance, and Eastern and Western philosophy, the play is an aspirational, if not all too tranquil rendition of Ruhl’s trademark wit and daring. In the piece, an American mother comes face to face with Tibetan monks who claim that her only child, Tenzin, is the reincarnation of a high Lama (a revered Buddhist teacher and high ranking monk). She is confronted with the choice of keeping her child or allowing him to fulfill his spiritual destiny.

We are raised in a culture where mothers single-handedly lift cars off their children to save them. Western heroism and Eastern enlightenment feel at odds here -- the feral attachment of motherhood battles Buddhist indoctrinations of non-attachment and spiritual booms. In the hands of a lesser playwright, this might seem implausible and didactic, but Ruhl’s gift is her gorgeous simplicity with impossible questions. Nevertheless, the play feels like a lullaby instead of a mother’s nightmare due to subdued dramatic tension. Miraculously, we never doubt that Tenzin, the preternaturally bright boy, is a high Lama. This is no small triumph in this; Ruhl sanctions the mother’s choice as the leading conflict rather than the “is he or isn’t he” question.

Celia Keenan-Bolger, a Tony nominee, plays the mother with fervent devotion and rousing ambivalence. The whole cast is teeming with authenticity and tenderness. Director Rebecca Taichman expertly stages the piece with skilled flourish. All the visually stunning and dazzling moments of pageantry and ritual keep the play grounded in ancient storytelling. It’s a quiet heartbreak, the way love must learn to let go. Even a mother’s love must bow down to destiny.

The Oldest Boy is written by Sarah Ruhl and directed by Rebecca Taichman. Sets by Mimi Lien; costumes by Anna Yavich; lighting by Japhy Weideman; sound by Darron L West; puppet design/direction, Matt Acheson; choreography, Barney O’Hanlon; stage manager, Charles M. Turner III; general manager, Jessica Niebanck; production manager, Paul Smithyman. Cast: Ernest Abuba, Celia Keenan-Bolger, James Saito, Jon Norman Schneider, James Yaegashi, Tsering Dorjee, Takemi Kitamura and Nami Yamamoto. At the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater, Lincoln Center, through December 28. For more information and tickets visit https://www.lct.org