Everyone was dead in The End.
It is just a question of fact, metaphysical, spiritual or cosmic, when each character actually died.
But they all died.
Then one must ponder if that is the ultimate truth, that everyone dies, what was the show's belief system towards death?
In The End, all major religious symbols were contained in the stain glass. But the series as a whole had no deep moral, right or wrong, punishment for sins or crimes lessons. It had an atheist tone even though there were clear religious themes like faith versus science, etc.
There were three main religious philosophies that were in the series. First, there was a deep connection to the ancient Egyptians. The first great civilization had extremely detailed religious death rituals, embodied in the Book of the Dead and other tomb hieroglyphs. In order for a dead person to reach paradise in the afterlife, the deceased body and soul would be separated upon death. The dead would be reanimated in the underworld, where there would be numerous tests, dangers and conflicts. If at the time of judgment, one's heart weighed less than a feather, that person was fit to move on to the afterlife, to be reunited with its soul in paradise.
The ancient Greeks also had a similar view of the after life. In it, they believed that a dead person's soul would be re-established with speech and movement in the after life realm, where the person would be subject to punishment and purification. After this stage was completed, the dead person would be "reborn" in the realm of the gods.
Then there was the Buddhism-Hindu elements. Buddhism follows the basic Hindu doctrines of reincarnation and karma, as well as the notion that the ultimate goal of the religious life is to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. Buddha asserted that what keeps us bound to the death/rebirth process is desire, desire in the sense of wanting or craving anything in the world. Hence, the goal of getting off the endless wheel of reincarnation necessarily involves freeing oneself from desire.Nirvana is the Buddhist term for liberation. Nirvana literally means extinction, and it refers to the extinction of all craving, an extinction that allows one to become liberated. Individuals do not possess eternal souls. Instead of eternal souls, individuals consist of a "bundle" of habits, memories, sensations, desires, and so forth, which together delude one into thinking that he or she consists of a stable, lasting self. Despite its transitory nature, this false self hangs together as a unit, and even reincarnates in body after body. In Buddhism, as well as in Hinduism, life in a corporeal body is viewed negatively, as the source of all suffering. Hence, the goal is to obtain release. In Buddhism, this means abandoning the false sense of self so that the bundle of memories and impulses disintegrates, leaving nothing to reincarnate and hence nothing to experience pain. It is imperative that the dying individual remain fully aware for as long as possible because the thoughts one has while passing over into death heavily influence the nature of both the after-death experience and, if one fails to achieve nirvana, the state of one's next incarnation.
The root of Hindu religious beliefs is that one should strive to connect one's self, the Atman, with the
Godhead, the Brahman, which is the spiritual source of the material world. Hindus also believe in reincarnation,
samsara, and that one is reborn into a station and particular set of circumstances in life depending on one's
actions, karma, and duties, dharma, in the previous life.
The goal is join the Godhead and get off the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, which only leads to suffering, because of man's incessant and insatiable desires. In Hindu religious beliefs, there are four ways (yoga = path) of achieving this union:
Jnana Yoga: based on knowledge
Bhakti Yoga: based on service to God
Karma Yoga: based on work for God (ie, not for oneself)
Raja Yoga: based on psychophysical exercise.
In LOST, the light cave force was described as "life, death and rebirth," which parallels the Hindu principles of the after life. LOST was also a bundle of character memories being re-worked or re-ordered which follows a pattern of thought in Buddhism. The ancient Greeks felt that after death, punishment and purification was necessary in order for a soul to move on in the after life. Likewise, the ancient Egyptians believed that there had to be final judgment in order for one's body to be reunited with its soul.
Perhaps the problem with LOST was that it jumbled these religious tenets not create a unified belief system for the show, but only to add a layer of conceptual confusion to the show's premise.
The goal is join the Godhead and get off the cycle of birth, death and rebirth, which only leads to suffering, because of man's incessant and insatiable desires. In Hindu religious beliefs, there are four ways (yoga = path) of achieving this union:
Jnana Yoga: based on knowledge
Bhakti Yoga: based on service to God
Karma Yoga: based on work for God (ie, not for oneself)
Raja Yoga: based on psychophysical exercise.
In LOST, the light cave force was described as "life, death and rebirth," which parallels the Hindu principles of the after life. LOST was also a bundle of character memories being re-worked or re-ordered which follows a pattern of thought in Buddhism. The ancient Greeks felt that after death, punishment and purification was necessary in order for a soul to move on in the after life. Likewise, the ancient Egyptians believed that there had to be final judgment in order for one's body to be reunited with its soul.
Perhaps the problem with LOST was that it jumbled these religious tenets not create a unified belief system for the show, but only to add a layer of conceptual confusion to the show's premise.
