According to Osho, the pull toward the new isn’t a timeless human necessity but the signature of youthfulness—the future coursing in one’s veins. The young are inwardly restless, creatively dissatisfied, and thus magnetized to new dimensions; the old cling to the familiar past. This discontent is a healthy sign of life-energy, propelling exploration and growth.
Wanting new things isn’t for everyone all the time—it’s the lively, restless energy of being young, while older people often prefer what they already know.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Is this due to the human need for newness?
It is only the young man who becomes interested in new things. An old man has such an investment in old things that he cannot be interested in new things. And it is always the youth who feels the future in his veins, not the old man. The past is the home of the old man; the future, that of the young man. Because the young man will be living in the future, he is more interested in new developments, in new things. The young are always dissatisfied -- always. Dissatisfaction is in their very hearts; otherwise they could not be young. If romance were absolutely satisfied they would not just be old but already dead. They always feel a discontent, a dissatisfaction, an inner restlessness. It is a good sign. Because of the inner restlessness they are ready to move into new dimensions.
Osho, I am always seeking the new. Whatever is new appeals to me. Is there something wrong in this?
A mistake, certainly. Not a small one—a big mistake. Because this is precisely the way the mind lives. The mind is always in search of the new. The mind is an itch for the new. The old wife doesn’t appeal; a new wife is wanted. The old house doesn’t appeal; a new house is wanted. The old clothes don’t appeal; new clothes are wanted. Always the new. This is what the mind is—it keeps you running. From this craving for the new, ambition is born. And you remain restless. After all, every new thing will soon become old, and the restlessness will only go on increasing. There is so much restlessness in the West because there is a mad race for the new. Everything must be new. It’s not even a question of utility; it’s a question of newness. It may be that the old thing is better, stronger, more…
Why does one cling to the old? Why is one afraid of the new?
There is a natural reason in it. With the old one is efficient, with the new one is awkward. With the old you know what to do, with the new you will have to learn from ABC. With the new you start feeling ignorant. With the old you are knowledgeable: you have done something again and again, you can do it mechanically, you need not have any awareness, With the new you will have to be alert, aware, otherwise something may go wrong. Have you not watched it? When you learn driving, you are so alert. When you have learned it, you forget about it. You sing a song, you listen to the radio, you talk to the friend or you think a thousand and one thoughts, and driving continues as a mechanical thing, robot-like -- you are not needed. The old becomes mechanical, habitual. That's why with the new…
If you give the body something new every day, the body becomes troubled, the body suffers. The body does not adjust to the new. The body is a demand for the old. Therefore in the old world, the body was greatly at ease. Everything was fixed. In the new world a great difficulty has arisen—everything changes daily. The body is in great distress. Hence the body experiences many illnesses which it had never known in the old world. New diseases, new troubles have arisen for the body, because all its rhythms have been broken. A man travels by airplane; this morning he is in India, after a while in Pakistan, a little later in Arabia, then in Europe. Everything changes. In a single day ten countries change, ten kinds of food change, ten atmospheres change, ten kinds of beds to sleep in, ten languages, ten kinds of people.
What has gone wrong? Why is it that people meet everything new reluctantly, and with fear, rather than with eager joy?
The new does not arise out of you, it comes from the beyond. It is not part of you. Your whole past is at stake. The new is discontinuous with you, hence the fear. You have lived in one way, you have thought in one way, you have made a comfortable life out of your beliefs. Then something new knocks on the door. Now your whole past pattern is going to be disturbed. If you allow the new to enter you will never be the same again, the new will transform you. It is risky. One never knows where you will end with the new. The old is known, familiar; you have lived with it for long, you are acquainted with it. The new is unfamiliar. It may be the friend, it may be the enemy, who knows. And there is no way to know. The only way to know…