lost and the perennial philosophy by Dan Ferrari

Like some of you, for some time I've had a hunch that the mythology of
the show draws heavily from Hinduism, Buddhism and Chinese
Metaphysics. From "Zen and the psychology of transformation":

"The two inferior principles are, according to chinese wisdom, the two
great cosmic forces of the yang (positive, masculine, dry, hot) and of
the yin (negative, feminine, damp, cold) they are also the red dragon
and the green dragon, whose unceasing struggle is the creative motive
power of the 'ten thousand things' (...) The creation of the universe,
such as we perceive it, unfolds in time; that is to say that the
interplay of the two inferior principles is temporal. But these two
principles themselves could not be considered as temporal, since they
could not be subjected to the limitation which result from their
interplay; they are intermediaries, placed between the superior
principle (brahman) and the created universe which is the
manifestation of this principle. Universal creation unfolds, then, in
time, but is itself an intemporal process to which one can neither
attribute nor deny beginning and end, since these words have no sense
outside the limits of time. The most modern scientific theories here
approach metaphysics and attribute to the concrete universe neither
beginning nor end. (...) The collaboration of the two inferior
principles (vishnu and shiva) being necessary for the appearance of
the mass of phenomena, in the appearance of any phenomena, however
small it may be, it's impossible to assign a superiority, either
qualitative or quantitative, to either one or the other of these two
principles"


My take on it is that the island (with its infinite energy potential)
represents the "absolute ground of being" or Self or God as one would
have it. Vishnu or Yang = Jacob and Shiva or Yin = MIB are the forces,
derived from the island = Self, whose interplay (the blackgamon game
that has been played forever and stretches out into infinity) creates
the world as we know it, which in Hindu tradition can be interpreted
as an illusion or maya. In that case, Jacob and MIB are beyond notions
of Good and Evil and are simply entities whose balance is responsible
for the dynamic flow of phenomena. Destruction engenders rebirth in
its wake.


"As in modern physics, Hindu cosmology envisaged the universe as
having a cyclical nature. The end of each kalpa brought about by
Shiva's dance is also the beginning of the next. Rebirth follows
destruction"


So unless Jacob finds someone amongs the Losties to replace him, MIB
will manage to spread through the world at large and perform his
"dance of destruction", destroying the world but planting the seed for
another cycle to begin. And how exactly does he get that? By feeding
his followers with promises of earthly fulfillment and further
attachment, entanglement in illusion or maya. Jacob's way?
Renunciation, sacrifice, letting go, "once they get here, their past
doesn't matter". By that logic, one's tempted to wonder if Rose and
Locke were favoured by the island for their very accordance with that
principle.


Also of interest,


"Indian thought takes the outer cosmology to be mirrored in the inner
cosmology of the human. Therefore, the number 108 is also taken to
represent the 'distance' from the body of the devotee to the God
within. The chain of 108 'links' is held together by 107 joints, which
is the number of marmas, or weak spots, of the body in Ayurveda."


In light of this, we can take Locke's decision to try not pressing the
button after 108 counts in season 2 as a leap of faith that would take
him to the source (his consciousness merging with the ultimate
consciousness or Brahman = Enlightenment). Which also prompts me to
think if that's exactly what happened to Desmond when he turned the
fail-safe key. Is Desmond the enlightened one that will bring
deliverance from suffering to the Lost souls?


How would the sideways world fit in with this scenario though? I'm
wiggling out trying to crack that one up.