What to stop? How to stop?

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): I want to talk about something that is fundamentally, tremendously important to all of us. Most of us are here for a reason. Most of us are anywhere for a reason. What is the reason? The reason usually is the desire for something new, or a dissatisfaction from something that appears to be existing.

I want to talk about continuity and cessation. There is something that is continuing. There is something that the mind wants to continue. There is something that the mind wants to cease. We say we want to stop what is going on and we want to begin something new. This search for the new takes several forms — spiritual quests, material ambition, efforts towards relationships, travels, many a things. That’s what I meant when I said that most of us are here for a reason.

So, there is something that is going on and there is something that you would rather have continued, begun. And these two interact, these two are enmeshed. Are they not? If we look at our daily lives, the very need for the new, the very need for something different arises from our response to what seems like existing.

So if boredom seems like existing, than there is a need for excitement. If the gross seems like prevailing, then there is a need for the subtle. If dryness seems like prevailing, then there is a need for something to melt. So the new that we want, the difference that we are chasing is always related to, in a sense being born from that, which we want to do away with, that which we want to escape. And that is the reason behind our endeavours.

You see, you will not extend your hands towards a glass of water, if first of all you are not feeling thirsty. The demand for water, the demand for a satisfied state arises from the current state, which is, one of dissatisfaction. The current state not being there, the other state would not have appeared desirable. Are we together on this? Does this follow from our daily experience? It is a simple matter that deserves great attention.

I repeat: Whatever be the new that we are after, is always a product of the old, the stale, which appears to be already present, which appears to be continuing. Right?