The Religion of Lost by TheFlow

O.K., I know there have been lots of discussions so far about religious themes, that can be found in “Lost”. Every time some points out something like “Lost was inspired by Christian/Buddhistic/Egyptian theology”, the discussion always ends in someone stating, that these are general themes that can be found in any religion (e.g. the eternal fight between good and evil respective black and white). But what if it was the other way round? This sounds confuse? Well, read on…

THE ISLAND INSPIRED ALMOST EVERY RELIGION IN THE WORLD

Huh, sounds weird! But: we know that the island can travel in time AND space. It seems that it can not only materialize in water but also in/on solid ground (remember when Daniel said after the penultimate time flash in S5, that this last flash felt like an earthquake – how else should it feel, if the island just appeared in solid ground?). So it is likely to presume, that throughout thousands of years, people from everywhere in the world came to the island (and some of them left it again). Now, if someone from the stone age or ancient Egypt/Athens/Rome (even from medieval times) would see the wonders and powers of the island, what would he think about them? He couldn’t explain them for his lack of scientific knowledge, thus he would explain them in a religious/mythological way.

So this is, where the connections to all the known religions is. When people from Egypt came to the island, they learned, that something with death, being judged for your life and maybe even being reborn (I will work that last one out later in the text) was happening on the island, which resulted in the installation of the Taweret cult. Taweret is the goddess of birth as well as rebirth and she eats the souls of those, who fail to pass the spiritual judgements after death. And she also fights demons, which in Egyptian mythology sometimes appear as black clouds (Smokey?)

Also, the island has inspired Jewish/Christian mythology. The really nice thing about it is, that the island could have been a prototype for the garden of Eden as well as for the purgatory. Some people have even names from Christian mythology (Jacob!). And there have been lots of other connections to these religions throughout the Lost seasons.

But the most striking connection is the one to Hindu/Buddhistic mythology. It starts with the word “Dharma”:

Dharma is (in simple words) a system of rules and ethics. These rules can’t be broken – they apply to the whole world. If you fulfill the rules, this affects your karma. Now karma is very much connected to “Samsara”, the circle of reincarnation. According to the good and bad karma you have gathered in your last reincarnation, you will be reborn in one of 6 “Lokas”, the six realms of existence (can be explained as some kind of stages):

1.
The “Devas”: they are gods or god-like beings, but they are still in the circle of reincarnations. Thus, it is not desireable to become a deva, for their live is happy and without struggle (they even have god-like powers and can become very old), which results in a lack of desire to gather good karma for the next reincarnation. They can also appear in the form of a bright light. But Devas are not ranked so high as the “real” gods, the still have to justify before them (“Even Jacob reports to someone”). For visitors to the island, Jacob could have been a role model for a Deva.

2.
The jealous gods, also called “Asuras”: they always interfere with the devas, trying to take their place. There is an endless war. Because of that, they do not have time to practice the hindu/buddhistic lessons, resulting in a loss of good karma for the next reincarnation. They were once gifted with truth and lie, but have given up the truth. They are shapeshifters and can take the form of any being. But they can break their circle of reincarnation, if they are killed for the good by a god or a Deva.
Smokey/MiB could have been a role model for the asuras. And Dogen said, that Smokey is “incarnation evil”.
(side notes:
a) once, one Asura stole the “Amrita”, the elixir of immortality and healing from the Devas and drank it – a reference to the spring?
b) in Japanese Buddhism, the spelling is “Ash-Ura” – a reference to the fact, that Smokey can’t cross ash? (O.K., this might be a little far-fetched…))

3.
The humans: Though they have to suffer, though their life is an eternal struggle (remember what Locke told Charlie about the moth!), this loka is the favorable, if you seek to leave the circle of reincarnation, for you can hear the lessons and reflect them for yourself.

4.
The animals: they cannot reflect their own situation, they have to follow their instincts. But under certain circumstances and with guidance from “higher” reincarnations, they can learn and maybe break the circle of reincarnation too (is that the reason, why the DI also brought animals to the island??)

5.
The hungry spirits, a.k.a. “Pretas”: these are the ones, that were greedy and mean in their last reincarnation. They wander around, always hungry and thirsty, unable to sleep. Could maybe the whispers on the island have inspired this loka? (O.K., the whispers could as well be spirits of people recently deceased, who haven’t been reborn yet).

6.
The hell creatures: they are tortured as long as all the bad karma they have gathered has gone.

6 Lokas + 6 Candidates = room for speculation here…

The reincarnation circle is symbolized by a wheel. In Hinduism, this wheel has 6 radii according to the 6 Lokas. In Buddhism, this wheel has 8 radii and is called the “Dharma Wheel”. Look at this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dharma_Wheel.svg Doesn’t it very much look like the frozen donkey wheel?

When someone is reborn, it is assumed, that he loses all the knowledge about his recent reincarnations. But if he somehow realizes, that he has lived before, he has taken the first step to enlightenment and will soon be released from the circle of reincarnation. Maybe Jacob’s touch is also a first step into realizing the true nature of your existence (this can be a gift as well as a curse).

After you have broken the circle, your “Atman” (i.e. the eternal soul) will reach “Moksha” (in Hindu mythology) or “Nirvana” (in Buddhistic mythology), meaning, that your sould will be united with “Brahman”, the infinite soul of the world. It only ends once, until then, every reincarnation is (somehow) progress!

Before you die for the last time, you have reached “Arhat”, which means, that you have broken the chains, that bound your Atman to the rules of Dharma. (Didn’t John say to Richard “It is good to see you out of these chains”?)

So, how do you break the circle: it is not the point to gather good and avoid bad karma. You must come to a point, where you can let go all desires at FREE WILL, after you have learned, that everything on earth is unimportant. You must become aware of your reincarnations and seek enlightenment. To get there, there are three paths: faith, knowledge and sacrifice. To “speed up” your way on these paths, you can also also become an advisor for those, who haven’t realized the true nature of the world yet (Richard?).
We have seen Jack – a man of science – becoming a man of faith too. Maybe that’s why Jacob said, Jack has to learn, why he is special – he is very close to enlightenment. I wonder what Jack will have to sacrifice in S6…

So now for the big point:
We have all wondered, what’s it all about with the numbers. I think, that they show, in which reincarnation you are in. “4 Locke” means, that John is currently in his 4th reincarnation. So Hugo is in his 8th reincarnation and so on…
Which leads us to Jack. In WHH, he (presumed, my conclusion is correct) is in his 23rd reincarnation. In FSW, he doesn’t sit in row 23 of Oceanic flight 815 any more, but in row 24. Could it be, that FSW is the next reincarnation of the Losties?
In FSW, life seems to be much better for some of them – exactly for those, who have gathered lots of good karma in WHH (Hurley, Ben (after his last decision, not to follow Smokey) etc.). For those, who haven’t changed so much in WHH, life is not or only slightly better in FSW (Sayid, Kate).
The people Jacob has brought to the island through all those years were reincarnations of the same Atma. Our Losties have – in some way – been on the islands several/lots of times before. And he brings them there again and again, until the right Atmas in the right reincarnations have been brought together.
He does it and teaches people, because teaching others the lessons of enlightenment can also be a way to break the circle in Hindu believes.
The actions of our Losties that are still to happen in the remaining episodes will help Jacob to break his circle, thus he doesn’t appear in the FSW any more.
Maybe also, what we see in FSW is not the definite reincarnation of our Losties. If someone (e.g. Jack) will break the circle in WHH with his further action, he might suddenly vanish from FSW. Or at least, further actions to gather good karma in WHH will result in a change of life for the better in FSW. O.K., this is highly speculative, but I think, it still can be…

That’s my theory in general. You may stop reading now, if you desire. But I still have a bonus for you:

THE EXTRA:

If you have read my theory “The island is an Einstein-Rosen-Bridge”, you might wonder, how my new theory fits into it. (If you haven’t read it so far, you should do so under http://theoriesonlost.blogspot.com/2010/03/island-is-einstein-rosen-bridge-by.html ,
otherwise the following will make no sense to you. Please do also read the very well written comment posted by “lostinhouse”, who points out some important details).

I’m not sure about all the details, but I’ll try to make an explanation (feel free to correct me in the comments):

Until jughead exploded, people were brought to the island reincarnation after reincarnation following normal timeline. But after the explosion, there was an open hole between two universes, allowing the Atmas of our Losties to be reborn into the same person again, only under different circumstances. So not only time and space drain from one universe into the other, but also the Atmas.

Maybe the DI’s primary goal was to change the past in order to change karma for certain people who will (in the future) be responsible for the end of the world. Or they wanted to change current karma of people in the FSW, who will be responsible for the end of the world there – as it seems to be a mirror universe, it is likely to presume, that if the world ends there, it will also in WHH.

Or is the end of the world just meant to be the end of ALL reincarnation circles, the day of final judgement?

“lostinhouse” explained, that the two universes drift apart from each other (at least in time). Is there a way to stop this? Merging the universes (or at least creating a point, where you can travel in both directions again) like in Daniel’s allegory of the small stone and the huge boulder thrown into a river? So that maybe the Atmas can return to the WHH universe, to preserve the mirror?
Or will all Losties (or at least those, who have been touched by Jacob) have to die in the end, so that their Atmas can be transferred into FSW universe, into their next reincarnation (I’m sorry, but I tend to answer this question with “Yes”).

If the theory, that pushing the button every 108 Minutes “vented” time from the WHH universe, is correct, this could also explain, why it was impossible to give birth on the island. If time shifts back and forth all the time, the “persons” being most affected would be the youngest creatures in the vicinity of the valve, which couldn’t develop normally any more. As we saw, that it was possible to give birth in early Dharma times (before the valve had to be installed), this must be a problem that first occurred after 1977.

I have also said, that maybe Jacob and MiB are sentinels from both sides of the black hole. I still think, that is an interesting idea, but maybe they aren’t and they aren’t Deva and Asura either. Hindu mythology also provides the concept of Brahma (the creator god) and Shiva (the destroyer god) – so maybe the several theories, that have said, that Jacob and MiB are Brahma and Shiva, are correct? In that case, we would need a third entity representing Vishnu (the judge) – maybe the island is this entity?
Or is it Desmond? What about his special abilities? Or are they just a and indication, that he’s also on the path of enlightenment; in his case due to the stream of karma he was exposed to, when he turned the key?

Still lots of questions open – I can’t await to read your comments and suggestions.

But the point is: there is no completely SCIENTIFIC explanation as well as there is no completely THEOLOGICAL/SPIRITUAL explanation of “Lost”. We have to have both in mind – and we did so throughout all those years of discussions and theorizing.
But without combining both, you cannot come to explain the WHOLE thing (ignorance has never brought you very far). Even in our daily life, with all our science, we still cannot explain everything (e.g. What is the soul/conciousness? Is it really just a collection of cerebral tissue and neuroelectric energy? Or is there more about it, something that maybe never can be explained completely?).
This is the lesson, Lost teaches us. We had to become men of faith as well as men of science. And we sacrificed a lot of time watching and discussing. As a reward, we soon will be enlightened, finding all the secrets revealed…