The logo in the hatch says DHARMA, which, if you google, will return some interesting things.

Here it is on the shark:
http://lost.cubit.net/pics/lostShark.jpg

And a closeup:
http://lost.cubit.net/pics/hatchLogo.jpg

Per your advice... I performed a google search.

The following quote is from one of the resulting links:

Buddha's teachings, which are known as "Dharma", are likened to a wheel that moves from country to country in accordance with changing conditions and people's karmic inclinations. The external forms of presenting Buddhism may change as it meets with different cultures and societies, but its essential authenticity is ensured through the continuation of an unbroken lineage of realized practitioners. Buddha's teachings are said to be like a precious wheel because, wherever they spread, the people in that area have the opportunity to control their minds by putting them into practice.
http://aboutdharma.org/dharma-wheel.php

Is this concept of a dharma wheel the foundation of the Lost plot?

I posted a pretty good link on another DHARMA thread before I read this one. Also, the word Dharma has something to do with protection (*ahem* the island's security system?) beyond having some relivance to time and space.

Do a google for the Philedelphia Experiment and the relevance to space/time...There was a movie about this as well.

By the way--make sure to look at the relationship with electromagnetism (i.e. compass issues, jack's key, the navigation system).

I posted a pretty good link on another DHARMA thread before I read this one. Also, the word Dharma has something to do with protection (*ahem* the island's security system?) beyond having some relivance to time and space.

It just seems that the survivors have some serious "karma" issues... per their flashbacks. Maybe this theory of dharma explains how the survivors learn to deal with their karma and reach nirvana?

I'm just shooting into the wind here.... maybe some of the other posters can do a more detailed analysis.

Talk about a rift between science and faith. Yowser.

Check this out:

http://www.fourwinds10.com/news/13-space/D-photon-belt/2003/13D-01-07-03-photon-belt-and-nibiru-article.html

and look for the part that says:

"The Restoration of the Divine Order will take place in 2003, when the avatar of Krishna arrives to reign over dharma (righteousness) for 108 years. During the period preceding 2003, the world will be full of calamities and chaos."

Fascinating...

I posted this on another thread, but I think this Dharma corporation or agency or whatever may be Korean. Look at the old Korean flag, all the way to the right, on wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Flag_of_old_Korea.jpg

If you turn the old Korean flag 90 degrees to the right, the trigrams (the 3 parallel lines) match those surrounding the snake on the Dharma logo.

Do a google for the Philedelphia Experiment and the relevance to space/time...There was a movie about this as well.
:biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:

Hmmm... could the emblem be related somehow to the poem Dharma Swan Song?

Here's a link.http://poetry.tetto.org/read/14711/

Also, now that I see it again, not only does the trigrams on the Dharma symbol match that of the trigrams on the old Korean flag, but the snake creates an S shape, like the one dividing red north and blue south on the current South Korean flag. If there is one thing that I'm certain about anything on this show, its that this Dharma entity has something to do with Korea.

I thought it was a swan - I have posted this elsewhere - sorry if I am being repetitive:

LOST research:


There was a swan in the middle of the symbol in the hatch: Note the relationship to Apollo


Swan symbolism and mythology
Because of its pure white colour, the swan is a symbol of light in many parts of the world. Though in some regions it was considered a feminine symbol of the moon, in most it was a masculine symbol of the sun. In ancient Greece, for example, the swan was linked to Apollo, the god of the Sun. The god Zeus took the shape of a swan to get close to Leda, with whom he had fallen in love. And in Celic myth, a pair of swans steered the Sunboat across heaven. As a feminine symbol, the swan represents intuition and gracefulness, and goddesses such as Aphrodite and Artemis were sometimes accompanied by swans.
As a symbol in alchemy, the swan was neither masculine nor feminine, but rather symbolised hermaphroditism or 'the marriage of the opposites', fire and water. It was an emblem of mercury, as it was white and very mobile, because of its wings.
In Germanic myth the Valkyries had the power to transform into swans. They were warrior goddesses, bringing victory to one side and defeat to the other, and deciding which warriors could enter Walhalla after death. They would sometimes take off their swan-plumage and appear in human form, but if a man then stole their plumage, they were forced to obey him. However, the Valkyries could also be united with a man through love instead of force. The Valkyrie Kara accompanied her lover Helgi in war, flying over the battlefield in her swan's plumage. She sang a song so soothing that the enemy lost the will to fight. Also in Celtic and Siberian culture stories existed of swans taking off their plumage and turning into maidens.
As a dream symbol, the swan can signify self transformation, intuition, sensitivity, and even the soul, the 'higher Self' within each person.

Apollo was the type of candy Kate was eating: Notice the relationship to being a healer/epidemics! Also - he is a twin!

• Apollo was associated with law, philosophy, and the arts. He sometimes gave the gift of prophecy to mortals whom he loved, such as the Trojan princess Cassandra.
• One of the most important Olympian gods; son of Zeus and Leto, twin brother of Artemis.
• He is considered the ideal of manly beauty, so that a very handsome man might be called an “Apollo”. He is also the god of poetry and music.
• Apollo replaced the Titan Helios as the sun god; however, the Greeks didn’t delete Helios completely but referred to both of them as the Sun gods.
• The arrows of Apollo and Artemis invariably killed and the Greeks explained epidemics of diseases by supposing that they were shooting their arrows at people; and so, by praying to Apollo, the epidemic might be made to stop. In this way, Apollo became associated with the cure of diseases.
• Such so-called cures led to a myth in which Apollo was thought to have had a son, Asclepius (as KLEP ee uhs), who is better known under the Roman version of the name, Aesculapius (es" kyoo LAY pee uhs).
• He was a mortal medical healer who was so successful that he was reputed to have the ability to bring the dead back to life; which resulted in complaints by Hades. As a result, to keep peace in the godly family, Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt.


Someone mentioned they thought it said "dharma" in the middle of the symbol: I found this

When things are going well, and people are kind and treating us with respect, it is not so difficult to wish for them to be happy. However, if our love for others diminishes as soon as they cause us problems or fail to appreciate us, this indicates that our love is not pure. For as long as our good feelings for others are conditional upon their treating us well, our love will be weak and unstable and we shall not be able to transform it into universal love. It is inevitable that people will sometimes respond to our kindness in ungrateful and negative ways, and so it is essential that we find a way of transforming this experience into the spiritual path.

There is a lot of talk about transformation in dharma and also in the description of the swan above!

As a practicing Hindu, I can offer the following definition of dharma, which is a concept Western religions don't have an analogue for.

Roughly translated, dharma means religion. It can also imply a sense of duty, what one is supposed to do in life. For example, it's in the Christian dharma to love thy neighbor, not kill, not steal, etc.

In ancient Greece, for example, the swan was linked to Apollo, the god of the Sun.

Dharam Swan + Apollo candy = Sun's father back in Korea?

OMG, it is a swan; and all this time I was saying it was a snake, but still, the shape the swan's neck is in fits with my Korea theory. I like where you're going with this, Gobi.

As a practicing Hindu, I can offer the following definition of dharma, which is a concept Western religions don't have an analogue for.

Roughly translated, dharma means religion. It can also imply a sense of duty, what one is supposed to do in life. For example, it's in the Christian dharma to love thy neighbor, not kill, not steal, etc.

Also doesn't the god Ganesha (sp?), a Hindu god, have 108 names?

We have 2 connections to Hinduism now. DHARMA and the number 108.

This is all getting weirder.

So dharma is like religious doctrine? Or more like central belief?

Dharma..what is it? From http://www.inlightimes.com/archives/1999/09/dharma.htm

It seems natural to connect Dharma with another Sanskrit word, namely Karma. They are closely related, but of a different nature, and play a different role in the clockwork of the Universe. Karma plays the role of an immutable Law; impersonal, absolute, invariable and universal. It is always active and everywhere the same. Dharma is not a Law. It is individual and ever changing. Each individual, a group of individuals, a species or a whole, has its own or unique Dharma which is ever changing according to the actions, attitude and even the outer circumstances of that individual or group. In a way one can say that Dharma is the relationship between so-called acquired Karma and the Universal order or the inherent harmony of Existence.

Found this and posted it on the LB.

Dharma can be found in Hinduism, Budhism and various other religions. It seems to transcend various religious beliefs and make its way into them.

Its almost like whoever or whatever put those signs with Dharma in the hatch was trying to play God...

Also doesn't the god Ganesha (sp?), a Hindu god, have 108 names?

We have 2 connections to Hinduism now. DHARMA and the number 108.

This is all getting weirder.

Good catch. I didn't even make that connection. 108 is kind of a holy or mystical number in Hinduism. There are prayers to gods that recite 108 "names" for the god - things like "our protector", "the one that knows all", etc.

If you're curious about the 108 names of Ganesh, here's a link
http://www.saranam.com/Deities/108Names.asp

Whats also interesting and what should be painfully obvious by now is that the numbers of doom add up to 108.

Whats also interesting and what should be painfully obvious by now is that the numbers of doom add up to 108.

OMG. I can't believe I didn't think of that sooner.

As far as "karma" is concerned, within the same episode we see Sawyer save Michaels life at the beginning of the episode, and then Michael saves Sawyers life at the end of the episode.....


Goes around comes around...

What are the numbers of doom?

more about dharma here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharma

also, the hexagonal symbol is called the bagua: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua_%28concept%29
It's an important Taoist concept.

Just my .02...I used to own a home that had these mirrors stuck to the exterior next to the doors. They were supposed to be from an Asian culture (can't remember which) and served to protect the home from...I don't know what. They were designed exactly like these tri-grams as you folks are calling them with a little mirror in the middle..instead of the Dharma Swan.

i am very excited about this new dharma development.
im working on a project about hinduism and dharma keeps coming up everwhere. then, being such the horrible student that i am, i click on over here while im supposed to be doing my project and find a thread entitled dharma. i dunno. i guess i get excited about dumb things at two in the morning.
anyways, i was going to note that roughly translated it means religion, but someone beat me to it. nonetheless i still think that this extra religious tie in is very interesting. it really does sound like someone is trying to play god...which makes it all the more creepy that the dharma logo is on the shark (anyone think that maybe the logo was on the polar bears?).

Check this out:

http://www.fourwinds10.com/news/13-space/D-photon-belt/2003/13D-01-07-03-photon-belt-and-nibiru-article.html

and look for the part that says:

"The Restoration of the Divine Order will take place in 2003, when the avatar of Krishna arrives to reign over dharma (righteousness) for 108 years. During the period preceding 2003, the world will be full of calamities and chaos."

Fascinating...

Maybe Desmond thinks that in the year 2003 something happened outside the hatch to bring about the reign of the Krishna, say a worldwide plague. Since he's been in the hatch for longer than that he doesn't know that the Restoration has not occurred. That might explain why he asked Locke "Is the world still out there?"

I had closed captioning on and he did not say "is the world still out there?" (even though that is what I could of swore he said)...according to CC he said "are they all still out there?" (meaning the survivors).

I also don't think that the symbol is a swan in the center, I think it is a snake, when Locke touches the symbol it clearly shows a tongue sticking out of the mouth. Also, last year, a snake was slated to appear on the show (a 20ft python). It was listed as a "monster" along with the polar bears. The company that made the polar bear also made the snake. The snake was never used though and I was thinking that it probably wasn't used because the show ended up getting picked up and they were saving it for a future season/episode or they just disregarded the storyline completely.

Maybe Desmond thinks that in the year 2003 something happened outside the hatch to bring about the reign of the Krishna, say a worldwide plague. Since he's been in the hatch for longer than that he doesn't know that the Restoration has not occurred. That might explain why he asked Locke "Is the world still out there?"

That was the impression I got as well!

OMG, it is a swan; and all this time I was saying it was a snake, but still, the shape the swan's neck is in fits with my Korea theory. I like where you're
going with this, Gobi.

It looks more like a crane to me...like on the tail of Japan Air's planes.

Oh My God! This theory gives me the creeps. I hope the writers have gone down this path, actually i don't cause now it won't be a suprise?

Dont know if anybody has mentioned this already...I was thinking the letters in Dharma may actually stand for something...like maybe peoples initials? with the D obviously being Desmond? I know it's a very cliche idea. Just thought I'd mention it.

Check this site out

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.buy-utah.com/images/graphics/bagua-map.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.buy-utah.com/feng_shui.htm&h=479&w=487&sz=48&tbnid=g2rBKRYsJxUJ:&tbnh=123&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbagua%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D&oi=imagesr&start=1

In relation to Desmond's comments about the world "still being out there",

http://www.fourwinds10.com/news/13-space/D-photon-belt/2003/13D-01-07-03-photon-belt-and-nibiru-article.html
(which was posted before)
makes note of Niburu, the supposed planet X that was going to pass by the Earth in 2003 and mess up our <i>magnetic fields</i>. I knew a lot of people who took this theory seriously and thought life as we knew it was going to end.

Hell, Maynard Keenan (of Tool / A Perfect Circle) at one point went on the record in 2002 for this very reason saying he didn't want to bother with a new Tool album because the world was going to end.

I don't know how it all relates but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the computer and the giant magnet.

The mala (prayer peads used by buddhists) has 108 beads.