Lost/Found by Tina Buck

Rather than see Lost as a Christian parable, it is actually much more of a Buddhist view of life. In a mish- mash of clever winks and nods to art, literature, philosophy and world religions, there is one tenant that runs through Lost, the series. All the stories (using plural here intentionally) show a Hobbesian view of the world, of life as being “short, brutish and nasty” . John Locke, the philosopher believed “enlightenment” get it – we get the light, we conquer the light, we know the light- happened by knowledge is instead determined only by experience derived .

The characters in Lost are all flawed and have to learn to work together to survive on the island. Everything in this story is a metaphor for this, so the island, the world , sideways time etc… are all metaphors for “proving grounds” where the characters have to find the “light” inside of themselves and eschew the “dark” . The characters are LOST spiritually, and evolve over the 6 seasons where they are finally “found”. There are many mysteries they have to solve to figure out the maze (literally) of the island and life and physics (like the work of Daniel Widmore). But it is ultimately the path to ENLIGHTENMENT followed by each individual that leads them to the light.
The basic duality in the show is lost vs found. The question then, is what makes you found? How does one redeem him or herself. The island is just a microcosm of the world. There is good and evil represented by the “light” and the “dark”. Rather than being a Christian view, I suppose this is a Hindu view of reincarnation. No matter how many lives one has, or how many times one dies, we return to live out our character flaws until we get it right. Just returning to the “real world” does not make us found. That is one way that the time travel works in the show. On various timelines, characters continue to work towards “gaining insight or enlightenment”. Then they can move on and are “found.” As Dr. Shephard says in the finale, “some go sooner and some go later” and I suppose some don’t go at all – like Ben who is not ready to go yet.
Perhaps we are bound up across time with certain people (as Vonnegut described in Cat’s Cradle, our Karass—karass - a group of people who, often unknowingly, are working together to do God's will. The people can be thought of as like the fingers that support a Cat's Cradle.) In fact, much of Lost reminds me of the brilliant book , Cat’s Cradle. I suppose rather than look for truths or things to be explained in Lost, like Vonnegut warns us, the narrative (Cat’s Cradle and Lost) are based on foma – useful lies. Therefore though I want answers to the annoying red herrings thrown out by the writers, I do see a “red thread” of continuity in the narrative.
Jack actually doesn’t succeed in killing the smoke monster. He only succeeds in killing Locke, the smoke monster’s vessel. Everyone battles their own internal smoke monster in Lost – mirrored of course, by the external conflict.
Desmond (of the world – in French des monde) or the world, unites us with people who we are supposed to bond with, help, love, avoid, rise above etc… Ultimately we have to leave DES MONDE behind. Excuse me for quoting Wikipedia but finding Nirvana is … “also the "end of the world"; there is no identity left, and no boundaries for the mind. The subject is at peace with the world, has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations.” That is perhaps why the group gains ENLIGHTENMENT at the end by losing their individual identities and just becoming the “Oceanic 6 or 10 “ or however many people ended up en masse (not Mass) at the church.
It evidently is not immortality as such that we are looking for (Richard was not RICH even though he was immortal). It is ESCAPE from DES MONDE, which is literally Nirvana. Getting off the wheel of life is what the lost are looking for to be found.
I also think that Vincent is immortal because he has been drinking from that damn pond where the “guardian” rites take place! I think the whole point of the temple (which was a waste of air time) was to showcase the “pond of immortality” where Sayid was drowned and saved. Once again a metaphor for birth and rebirth. The pond of immortality is no-doubt fed from the same source as the the plug-in-the-whole-light-source pond. Dog of course, is god spelled backwards, which is another fitting pun-filled ending. Jack dies when he finds GOD/Dog.