The End Jack’s Story – my version

This is my first post here, but have been a devout LOSTIE way back to the old website. I did look at some of the posts that are related to my version, but as it was told by Damon and Carlton, there are no complete answers and they want us to post our own thoughts and theories. They wanted us to make these our own and not be influenced by their scripts and debunking our opinions. This is not a theory on the entire series of LOST, but the ending. So here goes and i apologize if I am duplicating anyone else’s posts and the first part is just my emotional release! 🙂

Ok I think I am ready to post. I have gone through all the stages of grief:
1. Denial and Isolation — what? It is impossible to end lost? I think this is a ploy to get more people to watch and then at the last minute, they will throw another season or a Hurley/Ben spin off.
2. Anger. WTF how can they end this show when it is the most intellectually stimulating show I have watched in forever? DAMON CARLTON why, why why? I CAN NOT BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO THIS TO ME!
o 3. Bargaining. If you take LOST away I will never watch another of your productions again, maybe I will never watch TV again. Please please please continue LOST or maybe just email me a story every once in a while that I can debate with friends
o 4. Depression. Ok fine end the series, I have my DVD’s, my “see ya in another life brotha” t-shirt, my “ I saw Jacob” bumper sticker (since season 4), but I don’t understand, you guys don’t understand how sad I am.
o 5. Acceptance. So the series has ended **sigh** I guess I will re-watch the entire series and dissect every line/scene as it could relate to Jack’s path to enlightenment.

So with my ordeal over with and the last time I can give my interpretation (well maybe when I re-watch the series), I give you my theory. I truly was puzzled with the ending, I didn’t know what to think, but think and think I did. I researched, debated, theorized with several people and here is what I got.

I like the ending and believe that this entire show has been Jack’s journey to (I will call it “THE END” for lack of a better word) THE END. The crash is real and somehow pre-destined by Jacob with its occupants. Let me add this first, in my thoughts and reasoning, I STILL do not know what the island is or how it truly fits in the picture, other than the symbolic forces. How does that all fit together? I also feel that I will not ever know, thus a part of my ACCEPTANCE.

Ok, the group in the church has apparently made such an impact on each other during their island time that they must be together to all go to THE END.

So the plane crashes and we have a group of chosen people together to what? Answer an age old question, to continue a game started by Jacob and his twin, to exercise freewill versus fate, good versus evil. It is not about getting Jack to THE END. That is later on. They are together and need to live together, need to survive together. Survival will take away some belief in destiny, survival will make you choose to do things you would rather leave to destiny. As I said earlier, I still have not wrapped my mind around the island and why they were brought there. It is further compounded since I believe that the sideways world is sort of a holding pattern until THE END.
I am typing this now and have several theories on the island and what is going on, but will think about adding it. This is a computer and I can always copy and paste.

Ok ok, Jack’s story and sideways world. Season six is the culmination of Jack’s THE END and how he gets there. Christian says that there is no now, here. They are all dead, some before Jack died and some after Jack died. Is Jack the last of them to reach his end? It must be, if they are all there waiting for him. So why is he last, does it have something to do with all the religious symbolisms in the show, the battles of good and evil, freewill Vs fate, the combination of all of these? Is this what the island represents? Is this humanity? What does Jack have to achieve in order to go to THE END? Is it like Buddhism and reaching nirvana, reincarnation until you can reach nirvana? I think that it is a combination of all of the above. Jack needs to reach his nirvana:

“the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflictive states. The subject is at peace with the world, has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations. This peace is achieved when the existing volitional formations are pacified, and the conditions for the production of new ones are eradicated. In Nibbana the root causes of craving and aversion have been extinguished such that one is no longer subject to human suffering (dukkha) or further states of rebirths in samsara.”

I am not sure about the reincarnation part, but it is possible, since Ben is in the sideways world wanting to take care of some things before he goes. How did Jack reach this? Mr. fixit, man of science, a believer of freewill. Jack came to the island, full of hatred and anger, he is restless, and self confident/conceit. He professed in the pilot, we have to live together or we’re going to die alone. Little does he know that they will come together in THE END even though most have died alone. His Island journey has accomplished his search for this inner peace, this nirvana, this goodness of soul to get to heaven. He continually battled with these “flaws”, this inner evil while he was on the island, not only with current circumstances on the island, but his own past as we see with flashbacks. He left the island before he realized that Locke was right, he was there for a reason a purpose. He should have never of left the island and he must go back. His first sense of this was on the raft, we have to lie. We cannot let people know where we have been, cannot tell them of the Island. This is the first time we see Jack giving in to emotion and to see his inner turmoil boiling over. His time off island is a time where his emotions have consumed him and he battles to get back to the island. He needs to get back to the island, he believes John. He needs to reach his enlightenment, he was not happy off the island; he was not satisfied, not finding his peace. That was not his path, not his destiny. We see John reach this, Mr. Eko, even Charlie overcame many of his own demons. Jacob chose them because of their flaws and it seems their time together has allowed them to reach enlightenment or recognize these flaws and CHOOSE the correct path to enlightenment.

********Some definitions or quotes from my research to help with my ramblings:
dharma
o the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment ( The Universal law of nature )
o the constituent factors of the experienced world (The characteristic of elements)

Buddha-Dharma. This term has no sectarian connotations but simply means “Path of Awakening” and thus conforms to a universal understanding of dharma. The teachings are means of getting the hearer to question their own cherished beliefs and view of life; when through investigation and insight the door to truth is opened, the teaching can be put aside.

Dharma in the Buddhist scriptures has a variety of meanings, including “phenomenon”, and “nature” or “characteristic”.
Dharma also means ‘mental contents’, and is paired with citta, which means heart/mind. In major sutras (for example, the Mahasatipatthana sutra), the dharma/citta pairing is paralleled with the pairing of kaya (body) and vedana (feelings or sensations, that which arise within the body but experienced through the mind).
Dharma means the source of things and Truth.
Dharma is also used to refer to the teachings of the Buddha, not in the context of the words of one man, even an enlightened man, but as a reflection of natural law which was re-discovered by this man and shared with the world. A person who lives their life with an understanding of this natural law, is a “dhammic” person, which is often translated as “righteous”.

The Buddha would teach the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Marks of Existence, and other guidelines in order to achieve the freedom and liberation from suffering.

Bodhi (Sanskrit: बोधि) is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated as “enlightenment”, but frequently (and more accurately) translated as “awakening” or “to Know”.

Enlightenment can refer to many different concepts. In a secular or non-Buddhist context, the word enlightenment often means “full comprehension of a situation”.

In early Buddhist scriptures, the word arahant refers to an enlightened being.
These three awakened beings are classified as Arahant:
1. Sammasambuddha, usually just called Buddha, who discovers the truth by himself and teaches the path to awakening to others.
2. Paccekabuddha, who discovers the truth by himself but lacks the skill to teach others.
3. Savakabuddha, who receive the truth directly or indirectly from a Sammasambuddha.

Sāvakabuddhas (Pāli) is a rarely used term in Theravada Buddhism, identifying enlightened ‘disciples of a Buddha’ as Buddhas. These disciples are those enlightened individuals who gain Nirvāṇa by hearing the Dhamma as initially taught by a Sammasambuddha. They might also lead others to enlightenment, but cannot teach the Dhamma in a time or world where it has been forgotten, because they depend upon a tradition that stretches back to a Sammasambuddha
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So in moments of purity, those in the sideways world reached their enlightenment or clarity.
– Sun and Jin — the ultrasound of their child and touch of love
– Charlie and Claire — the birth of Aaron and touch of love
– Claire and Kate — the bond of women and the birth of Aaron
– Hurley and Libby — the touch of love
– Sayid and Shannon — the touch of love
– Charlie begins this with his near death experience and he shares this with Desmond
– Desmond sees Penny and touches her and passes his knowledge by planning the connections, moving the pawns

Ben remembers but he is not ready, he has not given up all his “sins” still needs to achieve his full enlightenment.

Now that they are all awakened, either showing us on the show or in another time and place, they are waiting for Jack. Back on the island, Jack has learned the guidelines to be freed and liberated from suffering and ready to reach THE END. He needs to be awakened. He needs to accept it. He follows others to their destined path. He gets his last lesson from his father and accepts it; he is awakened to the truth and ready to reach THE END. On the island he dies.

As I researched this and read about Buddhism, it really makes me wonder if the ending is about the Buddhist teachings even though all religions are represented throughout the series.