Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 8. HE ALONE WINS WHO DOES NOT WANT TO WIN
through the medium, still the message is not the medium, nor is the medium the message. The
dualistic mind has always thought like this; it always divides everything in two. It says that the body
and mind are two separate entities – the body being the medium and the mind its message. It says
that movement and the mover, light and the lighter are different. In the same way the world and
God are two. And this dualistic approach has dominated up to now, resulting in the belief that the
message and the medium are separate.
I consider McLuhan to be a non-dualist, an advait-wadin. He himself might not be aware of it, but I
call him so. For the first time he has brought the non-dualistic approach to the matter of the medium
and the message. He means to say that what you say and the way you say it are the same, are not
different.
To understand this maxim of McLuhan’s we need to go into it in depth. For instance, when a sculptor
sculpts a statue, he is separate from his creation. We can see it clearly. As the statue is complete
it stands apart from the sculptor; they are two separate entities. And it needs a profound monist,
an adwait-wadin, to say that the sculptor and the sculpted, the statue, are one. It will be difficult for
us to accept it. Our eyes, our intellect, our mind will refuse to accept that they are one. To say so
seems to be utterly fantastic. Tomorrow the sculptor will die, but his statue will remain. It needs very
penetrating eyes to see and to say that the sculptor will live as long as his handiwork lives. Even if
the artist moves away from his art in space, he will remain one with it spiritually. There is an inner
unity between the two which will last forever, which cannot perish.
The example of a dancer and his dance comes closer. It also comes very close to Krishna. And it is
easier to understand. Are the dancer and his dance separate from each other? If you separate the
dancer from his dance, the dance will immediately disappear. And in the same way if you detach
the dance from the dancer, the dancer will be a dancer no more. So the dancer and the dance are
one. The flute and the flute player are one. The singer and his song are one. Similarly, God and
nature are one and the same.
The message and the medium are one. To know that the medium is the message, it is necessary
to have a wide range of view. It is easy to understand that the dancer and his dance are one. But
if one is a hard-headed dualist he will divide them into two; it is not difficult. He will argue that while
the dance is an external act, the dancer is the inner being, who is not dancing, who stands still in
the thick of the dance, which is happening on the outside. The dualist can say that the dancer, if he
wants, can observe his own dance, can be a witness to it. In that case the dancer and the dance
are separate from each other.
How you look, how you observe is the question. Seen with superficial eyes, even one will seem to
be two, and seen with insight two will become one.
You are playing a flute. Can you tell where your lips separate from the flute? And if they are really
separate, how can your lips play the flute? Then there is an unbridgeable gap between the two
which will make flute playing impossible. After all, notes will come from you and they have to reach
the flute. If you and the flute are really separate then you cannot play it. No, they only seem to be
separate; really they are not. In fact, the flute is the extension of your lungs, throat and lips; it is their
instrumental form.
Krishna: The Man and His Philosophy 150 Osho