Why is the new so scary despite feeling thankful and happy?

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY IS THE NEW SO SCARY? MY WANTING AND NEED FOR RECOGNITION ARE GONE ALONG WITH THE DOING. EVEN THOUGH DEEP INSIDE I AM TREMENDOUSLY THANKFUL AND HAPPY, I FIND PART OF MYSELF FEELING GUILTY. I SEE AS WELL THAT LAZINESS IS NOT ONE OF MY QUALITIES. BELOVED OSHO, I CAN'T FIND THE NEW WAY FOR ME TO BE TOTAL IN MY WORK. IT IS BECOMING VERY PAINFUL. CAN YOU PLEASE BRING SOME LIGHT AND GUIDANCE TO ME? Anand Candida, the new is always scary, for the simple reason that it is new; you don't know how to face it. All your knowledge is suddenly found to be absolutely meaningless, because there is no answer in your experience and knowledge that can be an authentic response to the new. You suddenly find yourself ignorant, helpless, not knowing what to do; hence the scariness.

Question: WHAT HAS GONE WRONG? WHY IS IT THAT PEOPLE MEET EVERYTHING NEW RELUCTANTLY, AND WITH FEAR, RATHER THAN WITH EAGER JOY? And it happens many times that if you become too tense about remembering something it becomes difficult to remember it, because the very tension, the very strain upon your being does not allow the memory to release its information to you. You try and try to remember somebody's name and it doesn't come, even though you say it is just on the tip of the tongue. You know that you know, but still the name is not coming. Now this is strange. If you are memory, then who is preventing you and how is it not coming? And who is this who says, "I know, but still it is not coming"? And then you try hard and the harder you try the more difficult it becomes.

Question: Sixth question: Osho, I get frightened whenever I try to do anything new. How can I be free of this fear? The new always frightens. The unfamiliar intimidates. Yet only in the unfamiliar is growth. Only in the unknown is the journey. Each day you have to drop the old; each day you have to move into the new. Just as every morning a new sun rises, every morning new flowers bloom, so in your life too there must be a fresh light each day, new flowers each day. Don’t sit clinging to dead flowers pressed in books. Your memories are dead flowers pressed in books. Do not get entangled with the past. It is comfortable. To live by the past needs no courage. For the weak, it is a great security. But if you only keep drowning in the past, how will you grow? How will you evolve?

Question: 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.

Bodhi means becoming alert of who you are, becoming alert that, "I am a witness of all that happens. I am a witness of the world, a witness of my thoughts, a witness of my emotions. Basically I am only a witness, a mirror that reflects everything but remains uncontaminated by the reflections, a mirror that gathers no experiences, a mirror whose very nature is innocence." To know this is bodhi; it is awakening. Then life has a totally different texture, a totally different taste. Then it has the taste of tao. Then it has the texture of the divine, and then it has the fragrance of immortality. Sannyas is a search for it. Anandbodhi means awakening of bliss. Bliss is a dormant energy in our being. It is like a serpent coiled up, fast asleep.