Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river." Lao Tse.
The above is a quote from the founder of Taoism. Taoism deals in its simple in two sides, black & white which are interconnected. One cant coexist without the other.
"Without going out of your door, You can know the ways of the world. Without peeping through your window, you can see the Way of Heaven. The farther you go, The less you know. Thus, the Sage knows without traveling, Sees without looking, And achieves without struggle." Lao Tse.
Very reminiscent of how Desmond, Richard etc time travel subconsciously to see the way.
Tao (pronounced "Dow") can be roughly translated into English as path, or the way.
The meaning of dharma is one true way. Another coincidence!
It "refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. The Tao regulates natural processes and nourishes balance in the Universe. It embodies the harmony of opposites (i.e. there would be no love without hate, no light without dark, no male without female.)"
Again we see through this phrase how the island operates, you must give something back to receive. Like Charlie’s guitar for his heroin.
Taoism is most prominent in north America. Portland the base of Mittelos has a high rate of Taoists and is North America.
Tao is the first-cause of the universe. It is a force that flows through all life.
The island represents that cause.
Time is cyclical, not linear as in Western thinking. This is shown in the show by the whole nature of human fate being pre-destined. Locke, Ben , Jack etc all have a path to follow that will be course corrected. Like Desmond pushing that button.
Taoists strongly promote health and vitality. The island leaves everyone healthy like Locke and Rose but when done they get sick, like ben’s tumour and jacks appendicitis. The health has decayed. Their spirits are no longer strong enough to sustain it by their actions. Jack gets sick for betraying the island by allowing Widmore access unwittingly. Ben because he has altered the path of destiny in his own need by not fully embracing that another may come in the form of Locke. The cycle includes the chosen few. Your time as the chosen one runs out. This leads me to believe that Widmore like Ben and locke are all chosen ones as is Christian Shephard and now Aaron and Walt. They are all potential leaders of the island.
Taoists follow the art of "wu wei," which is to let nature take its course. For example, one should allow a river to flow towards the sea unimpeded; do not erect a dam which would interfere with its natural flow.
Widmore has refused to let nature take its course and wants the power of the island back he once controlled. He never accepted Ben as the new chosen one and refers to him as he remembers him as such when he ran the island. Ben still has faith in the island and is why as part of his Taoist belief he will not kill Widmore and by Widmore changing the rules he meant the beliefs they protected in regards what the island stands for. This is also why Ben will never let Widmore find the island, it may have been his to protect at one point but not any longer. Ben has accepted his faith and the islands decision to make him no longer its commander in chief.
One should plan in advance and consider carefully each action before making it. A Taoists is kind to other individuals, in part because such an action tends to be reciprocated.
Ben will reciprocate Widmores action by killing penny. Ben has always been a few feet in front of everybody as he has always considered each action until Alex’s death which further makes him realise his leadership is up.
The ying yang symbol is black and white on either side. Two sides within a circle that represents the cyclical nature.
This is a well known Taoist symbol. "It represents the balance of opposites in the universe. When they are equally present, all is calm. When one is outweighed by the other, there is confusion and disarray."
One tradition states that Yin (or Ying; the dark side) represents the breath that formed the earth. Yang (the light side) symbolizes the breath that formed the heavens.
So not good and evil but the difference in heaven and earth and reference
To the dead people like Charlie & Christian we see appearing. They are
Dead in the dark side but alive in the light side hence charlies” I am dead
But I’m still here line.”
However, since nothing in nature is purely black or purely white, the symbol includes a small black spot in the white swirl, and a corresponding white spot in the black swirl.
Highlights we all have flaws and the likes of Sawyer who can be both a brute as well as kind as we also see with Sayid. Man is capable of all. We are divided into brackets of yin or yang but always retain an element of the other. Like ben when he releases Smokey. He takes revenge for alex even though it not normally his nature.
The Pa Kua are the eight trigrams described in the I Ching; the combinations of whole and broken lines represent the ever-fluctuating elemental forces of the universe:

Now look at the lines and you see they feature around the entire dharma
Hatch symbols. Thay are also laid out in the versions of Confucius which
Goes hand in hand with Taosim.
he I Ching, or Book of Changes, is one of the oldest and most respected works of Chinese philosophy, and influenced Eastern philosophy for millenia. The I Ching was composed more than three thousand years ago, by a student of Taoism, and has influenced a number of important philosophers of the East, including Lao Tse, Sun Tzu and Confucius, who reorganized it into its current form. Today, as in the past, it is often used as a divination device, similar to the tarot in its complexity. Confucius gives divination directions based on the following ideas:
Change has a limit, which produces two polarities; yin and yang. (In this system, yang is represented by a solid line: ; yin is represented by an open line: )
These polarities produce four forms, yin, yang, changing yin, and changing yang. A changing form is one which has neared its limit and is expected to change into its opposite. An illustration of this changing nature is seen in the yin yang symbol, wherein opposing polarities are pictured continually changing into one another:
These forms in turn produce eight trigrams; these determine fortune. The eight trigrams are as follows:
Sky

Lake

Thunder

Fire

Earth

Mountain

Water

Wind


The 64 combinations of these basic symbols, and their respective interpretations, form the body of the Book of Changes. It is traditional to familiarize oneself with the entire book before using the oracle.
Each consultation of the I Ching is accomplished by selecting a pair of trigrams, forming a pair of hexagrams. Symbols are chosen by their relation to factors in the reading, such as personalities or events.
4,8,15,16,23,42

They represent Mang, pi, Khein, Yu, Po, Yi

Combinations of all these feature on the dharma logos.
They themselves represent:
Mang (indicates that in the case which it presupposes) there will be progress and success. I do not (go and) seek the youthful and inexperienced, but he comes and seeks me. When he shows (the sincerity that marks) the first recourse to divination, I instruct him.
Pi indicates that (under the conditions which it supposes) there is good fortune. But let (the principal party intended in it) re-examine himself, (as if) by divination, whether his virtue be great, unintermitting, and firm. If it be so, there will be no error. Those who have not rest will then come to him; and with those who are (too) late in coming it will be ill.
Khien indicates progress and success. The superior man, (being humble as it implies), will have a (good) issue (to his undertakings).
Yu indicates that, (in the state which it implies), feudal princes may be set up, and the hosts put in motion, with advantage.
Po indicates that (in the state which it symbolizes) it will not be advantageous to make a movement in any direction whatever.
Yi:shows that it will be advantageous for its subject in his position to make a great movement. If it be greatly fortunate, no blame will be imputed to him.
Now take all these into context in lost and you can see hurleys with his lottery win, locke walking again, The riches of Widmore, the failings of future jack.
Taoists see the North Pole (and the South) as divine.
North pole, polar bears, bens parka, the gameof risk, why would you attack antartica?
All lost related and ideas for further thought.
Traditional Chinese religion is determinedly polytheistic. Its deities arranged into a heavenly civil service that mirrors the bureaucracy of imperial China. Deities may be promoted or demoted. Many are said to have once been virtuous humans. The particular deities worshipped vary somewhat according to geography, and much more according to historical period (though the general pattern of worship is more constant).
Civil service that include Richard alpert, Ben etc. Ben now demoted, widmore demoted, locke promoted, Alpert a constant.
A number of immortals or other mysterious figures appear in the Zhuangzi, and to a lesser extent in the Dao De Jing. Alpert and Ben are these mysterious figures in lost takes on Taoism interfused with the scientific and stranded core of the show.
Taoism has a form of negative theology which can be shown as, in negative theology, it is accepted that the Divine is ineffable, an abstract experience that can only be recognized - that is, human beings cannot describe the essence of God, and therefore all descriptions if attempted will be ultimately false and conceptualization should be avoided:
• Neither existence nor nonexistence as we understand it applies to God, i.e., God is beyond existing or not existing. (One cannot say that God exists in the usual sense of the term; nor can we say that God is nonexistent.)
• God is divinely simple. (One should not claim that God is one, or three, or any type of being. All that can be said is, whatever God is, divinity is not multiple independent beings.)
• God is not ignorant. (One should not say that God is wise since that word arrogantly implies we know what "wisdom" means on a divine scale, whereas we only know what wisdom means to man.)
• Likewise, God is not evil. (To say that God can be described by the word 'good' limits God to what good means to human beings.)
• God is not a creation (but beyond this we do not know how God exists).
• God is not conceptually definable in terms of space and location.
• God is not conceptually confinable to assumptions based on time.
Time & space not being defined equals lost.
Your thoughts and ideas appreciated!

Very Nice lol I'm to tired to put it any intelligent input but good theory.

I like the thing about how the island punished anyone who it deems necessary. What did Ben do to deserve his tumour?

Really good theory

I really like this theory!!
it all seems to fit together....

Ben got his tumour for swaying from the path. His time was coming to an end. I believed he replaced Widmore and now locke will replace him. The tumour signifies the coming to an end of his era.

An interesting point when Ben confronted charles. He asked when did he start sleeping with scotch beside the bed and widmore said when the nightmares started.
At first widmore dreamed the path like ben has and now locke. That makes me believe the nightmares will come for ben at some time soon.

Hmm very interesting *strokes chin*

Another thing to note is that in Episode 11 *spoiler* Ben mentions to Locke that "he used to have dreams" ,dreams at night not "goals" so maybe the dreams turn to nightmares, like Charles Widmore has???*end of spoiler*

Hanyways, good stuff as always Blacklove, I assume these theory's come to you after one or two or three of your most favourite cocktails??

indeed smokey, i is always on the cocktails.

MAN U TH PREMIERSHIP CHAMPS

I have always seen Locke as Ben's "replacement".
Very interesting.

quote:

At first widmore dreamed the path like ben has and now locke. That makes me believe the nightmares will come for ben at some time soon.

..............

I dabbled with this idea of taoism after playing the untold when Lost first started on channel 4 http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/L/lost/

the black stone and white stone that jack picked up from adam and eve have still to be explained and prob are the key we are looking for...

...it seems to be a constant struggle for balance and equality

quote:

Originally posted by GoodOmen:
...it seems to be a constant struggle for balance and equality

how very deep

cheers for the link Horsey, never saw that before, will give a thorough read

quote:

Originally posted by GoodOmen:

quote:

At first widmore dreamed the path like ben has and now locke. That makes me believe the nightmares will come for ben at some time soon.

..............