D-We are the Cause of our own Suffering, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying, Embrace the 4 Nobel Truths and Walk the Eight-fold Path...and kick Jacob in the Ass for Ruining My Life!

I had a idea which rang a bell while watching this week's Lost episode, "Dr. Linus"

Doh. Not that kind of a bell (by the way that's Catherine Bell and I'm not sure what's she's doing on a motorcycle or what she has to do with Lost. And not Taco Bell--Bleech!!! I may be suffering from temporal displacement distortion, but I haven't lost my sense of taste yet.

Close enough

1-Previous Idea: all time travel on island a result of donkey wheel falling off axis

My previous idea was that wouldn't it be freaky if all the time/reality travel on the island was caused by the Losties. Starting with the failure of Desmond to press the button, the implosion of the Swan Station, and culminating when Ben turning the donkey wheel and causing the Island to become unhinged in time --- and the Island started jumping around causing the nosebleeds. I believe Lostpedia said there were 15 jumps until Locke reset the donkey wheel on it's axis. What if all the movement in time/reality happened due to the donkey wheel jumping when it gets knocked off it's axis. Is it possible that Jacob used this sequence of jumps to recruit all the Others who ended up as names on his many lists? And did he also use these 'jumps' to manipulate the lives of the candidates?

2-As Revealed in "Dr. Linus": Roger Linus and Ben were on the Island in the Flash Sideways!

In "Dr. Linus", Roger 'workman' Linus confirmed that the dharma initiative existed in this timeline/reality and that Ben and he left the island at some point. So the 'sunken' Dharma town seems to have a more firm link to Jack / Juliet exploding Jughead at the Swan.

3-Possible time paradox where all time travel was caused by Losties but got erased by Jughead explosion
So if  Ben and Roger left during the evacuation (yes I remember that when Jack and Sayid were toting Jughead non-conspicuously through Dharma Town, Roger still had not found Ben, but they had plenty of time for a reunion while Jack and Sawyer were kicking the stuffing out of each other) it might point to a time/reality paradox caused by the Jughead explosion (erasing the very timeline where time travel had occured) and maybe all of Jacob's timeline machinations in the Losties past (Kate and Tom stealing "New Kids On Block" lunchbox; Jack's first major surgery, etc.) may never have happened. And if he had additional manipulations other than the brief incidents we saw, maybe they also were wiped out by the Jughead detonation. (addendum: If the theory I am expounding is correct, then Ben and Roger may have left the island for some reason other than Jughead, because Jughead's detonation -- and this is the paradoxal part -- removed not only time travel but also the Jughead explosion from the timeline.)

4-Jacob the cause of all the problems he fixes
This might be the reason that Dogen and his son are perfectly fine in the other reality. Maybe Jacob caused a lot of the problems he fixed with his 'Faustian' bargins which drew his recruits to the Island to become his "Others".

I think there is a real connection between Dogen's bargin with Jacob and Juliet's bargin with Ben. What if Jacob caused Dogen's accident and also caused Juliet sister's cancer. Then he comes in and saves the people he injured in order to force them to go and stay on the Island and serve him. And why do they stay once there? Well either they can't find a way off or Jacob has told them that if they leave then their bargin will end and their loved ones will die. Alot of the 'chosen' ones from all those lists booked out of the temple pretty quick once they found out Jacob was dead. Maybe they all felt a great collective sigh of relief.

If any of this is true it paints a much darker picture of Jacob.


 
One last bit of minutia: Remember the Hidden Swan Hatch Map? I believe one line on it was "The cure is worse than the disease". This might be a reference to Jacob and the fact that the bargins necessary to receive his 'cure' have alot of strings attached that make the cure worse than the original problem-which Jacob may have caused.
 
 
 
 
Oh, and just one last twist to this cracked pot theory combining a crazy reference to the budhist eight-fold path to the cessation of suffering, and a remarkable observation from a member of the Dharma Initiative concerning the numbers. 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42, we've seen them for 6 years and they have been pounded into our psyches! Just this season we have had a positive connection between the numbers and the characters in Lost thanks to the revelations by F-Locke in the Cave and Hurley and Jacob in the Lighthouse. So currently their are 6 variable but lo and behold, a 7th hidden variable is revealed.

Yes, 51. Kate is still a candidate!

(7th variable revelation thanks to Sgt Draino. Yes, Kate has wormed her way back into the numbers).

PLUS there is possibly an 8th variable to represent = 108, the combination of all their respective actions.

So let's not forget the moral law of karma: Every action (by way of body, speech, and mind) will have karmic results (a.k.a. reaction). Wholesome and unwholesome actions will produce results and effects that correspond with the nature of that action. It is the right view about the moral process of the world.

So 8 total variables representing 8 of the characters in Lost, including the hidden 7th variable and the 8th overarching variable representing the culmination of all our Losties choices and actions.

(And for you doubters, Sgt. Draino so nailed the prediction of F-Locke marching to the Temple and using Said to kill Dogen so he could trash the place. Way to go Sgt Draino!)

So the eight fold path, dharma, and the donkey wheel will be methaphorically and litterally united when the actions of our 8 Lost characters culminate in the season finale!
Budhist Reference:
The eight fold path (Dukkha Nirodha Gamini Patipada Magga) Leading to the Cessation of Suffering:

"This is the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering: it is the Noble Eightfold Path; that is, right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration."

Sure looks like a donkey wheel!

Here's hoping we are all on the right path to Lost's final episode.
Ka is a Wheel and it is turning inexaustably to an ending for Lost...or will the wheel keep turning?!? Maybe every ending is just another beginnig...but whose beginning? Maybe it's staring us right in the face?

take it easy,
it ain't all half-badd
mr badd
p.s. leave me a comment or e-mail me at mrbaddislost@gmail.com -- I guarantee you'll get a response, just can't guarantee it will make sense