Turn on | Boot up | Jack in

You have been brainwashed since you were a small child, you’ve got samskaras from different lives, all coming at you in full force. And you have a belief system that you react to everyday. You say this is good and this is bad and this is right and this is wrong, I love this and I hate this. All part of your belief system, the mind. Now these roots have been planted a long time ago. Therefore to get rid of your negative thinking so-to-speak, you have to dig a big hole to pull out the roots. You do this by turning away from your problems, turning away from your situations, turning away from the world and diving deep within yourself. Continually, day after day after day, never looking for results. Never saying, I’ve been practicing a month now and nothing has happened. Remember how many years it took you to be the way you are. The things that your mind has accepted. The stuff you’ve got deep in your subconscious so-to-speak. It has to come up and gotten rid of.

Robert Adams (via ashramof1)

A lot of people proclaim a need for independence, for space. And while I could attest to that, more than anything, I was a tiger dying amongst the sprawling jungle. I longed for a cage of my own. My apartment, a two bedroom overlooking the gentrification of Philadelphia, had a décor of my design. I picked out the furniture, including the Ikea futon I dubbed “death trap,” and gave every trinket and knick-knack their designated spots: high school diploma and Bachelor’s degree over my black computer desk, novelty shot-glasses along the top of my bookcase and various Buddha figurines, from flea markets in South Jersey, on my dresser and nightstands. And of course, my vinyl collection, a two hundred piece of my heart that took me to the dustiest, most allergenic music stores on the East Coast.

Longform Fiction is featuring my short story (and first ever publication) “Saturn Return,” originally published in 2008 by Up The Staircase. (via mensahdemary)