The Seven Commandments of Seventy

The Seven Commandments of Seventy

One - Awake every morning with a song on your lips. A melody made perfect from the center of your soul. An enchanted tune that comes from all the joyous and sad moments that have made you whole. What is joy if not the victory over sadness, and sadness but the loss of joy.

Two - Be careful and kind in your daily deliverances, but steadfast in your convictions as they have made you strong. Be generous in giving of yourself.

But cautious in your approach.

Three - Accept your triumphs with humility and your defeats with resolve. It is both that have taught you, and both that have brought you to where you are today. Not everyone walks the same path, each of us must find our own way forward. But remember in doing so it is most important not to harm the people and things that have helped us clear that path.

Four - Let your meditations lead you along through out the day and evening hours, for there in lies your inner strength. A shield for your most vulnerable breaches. A safe guard of the soul.

Five - Before retiring at night let your body and mind merge. Accept the transference of the static and dynamic currents that can balance your innate equilibrium, and let the detox begin. Much like scanning a computer for malware this is a process that needs be done often.

Six - Once you have set forth on your pathway to peace and serenity, be sure that you are alert in your venture and not distracted by the cosmic clutter of others. 

While listening to another’s advice remember that it may not always sync with yours, nor be in the direction that you have chosen.

Seven - Think of life as a mosaic of tile and glass, a thing of beauty that reflects your most inner hopes and desires while shielding you from the cold and darkness that is always there as well. But remember there is also a secondary defense when needed. It is our tapestry of treasures that have been woven from love and enlightenment, a warm and welcome comfort in times of necessary need. 

The Layers of Life

The Layers of Life

The Art of Living in the Millennium

Robert Dobnick

Winter 2023

Living, Loving and Longing

It was in the year 2022 that my world would turn another page. After the devastating apocalyptic pandemic, and the utter devastation of a world order brought on by willful ignorance. A planet divided by false prophets and con artists pursuing their agendas of hate and greed laid siege to a fragile Eco system many decades in the making.

One cannot but wonder at the total lack of concern when it comes to the human condition. For a planet that has been nurtured and coddled for the past 2000 some odd years under the Picean agenda, it seems at times not much in the way of love for our neighbors or care taking of our fragile planet has been cultivated or even attempted.

As I walk my way through this journey called Life, I can’t help but reflect on the base elements that keep us alive and thriving, regardless of our reckless abandon when it comes to safeguarding our existence.

Each and every decade for me has been a celebration of a life well lived. Every season has been a symphony of light and love that have colored the tapestry and mosaic I call my life.

There, of course, have been many moments of distant darkness and even some more immediate matters that have challenged my journey, but in the end I have found them to be in some ways beneficial in giving me the strength and purpose to go on.

Life truly is a dance, and whether it is a waltz or a samba, the rhythm of universe can be heard in its wake. 

This latest reincarnation in my 75th dance around the sun has perhaps been the most difficult of all the pervious ones, but once mastered it has become an auspicious one indeed.

Mornings are special because …

Mornings are special because - well because they are. Every day is special and every moment a precious reveal of the next.

In my childhood such events went pretty much unnoticed, me being enraptured in the wonder of my life as it took root and began to grow in this magnificent ocean of cosmic dust.

Always the inquisitive student of life and forever the curious dreamer, I tend to approach this daily journey around our solar luminary as a dancer might their recital practice, adding grace and stamina to an already honed craft.

From the beginning of time mankind has been enamored with the Cosmos and its magic mystical role in the creation and reincarnations of the universal continuum. 

My grandmother used to take me on her knee and talk to me of her life quest and how she became the beautiful being that she was - and still is. She passed back into the very cosmos that she had strived to perfect for herself and others all of her mortal stay on this planet. I oft times see her in the morning light smiling and whispering to me as though it was still yesterday.

So many sacred secrets are revealed when love and compassion are in play, and so much knowledge distilled in the morning light of day. 

As I would sit with my grandmother and listen intently to her stories it became evident that she was not just talking in one dimension but rather in a learned continuum on a universal scale. Her language may have been colloquial but it's message was much deeper. It touched on ancient ritual and nature speak, it became alive with happiness and some grief. But always it would assure me that, should I take heed, the gods of creation would lead me to inner peace. 

I have found that the time we live in can be determined by the way in which we interpret it. It is multi dimensional and exists within us as well as around us. 

We carry our persona as we would a banner. It is a manifestation of a user's personality, a "mask" for and individual to use to face both hardship and success. But mostly it is that which we desire to be identified as. 

As Kahlil Gibran once said - “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded on our thoughts. It is made up of our thoughts. If one speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows one, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the wagon.”

So I think, follow not the foot of the Ox but rather the direction of our heart, because there in lies the true path back to the stars.

DESIGNING YOUR LIFE - A Refection on Perception

According to Wikipedia, “Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object, system or measurable human interaction. Design has different connotations in 

Whether we know it or not, Design plays an intricate part in all of our lives.

For as long as I can remember, my passion has been to design my life so as to be as happy and stress free as humanly possible. Perhaps my Aquarian soul was part of the trigger that ignited this passion.

Each and everyone of us has the innate power to direct or redirect our lives. In my early twenties I studied occult sciences under a man by the name of Swami Kriyananda. I believe it was he who finally helped me understand how science and technology interface with spiritualism and common sense. Whether it is Feng Shui, Wabi Sabi, Astrology, Psychology, or Numerology. Life is a collection of past and present experiences molded into a thing which becomes the future. Therefore, you could say that we indeed design our lives, and in fact orchestrate our lives.

We all have the need to experience beauty and joy in our lives. To be happy equates to being successful in our daily routine, and to do that it is necessary for us to know our strengths and weaknesses. Once we learn who we are we can then determine where we want to go. Design is the tool that allows us to build our inner world and to use it to keep us safe and strong.

“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose”. (Charles Earnes). 

While Design is the plan creativity is the motivator. Creativity is all around us – in the homes we live in, the cars we drive, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. Therefore, it is important to be aware of all that is around us, especially those things that touch us individually.

I once wrote that “our lives are a mosaic, a tapestry if you will, woven from our daily experiences and rendered by our will to remember them”. It is what makes us who we are.

However there are times I feel that I am walking on yesterday’s debris. The soil and ruble of past years and memories are mixed into a jumble or forgotten remembrances’ that revived only by their distillation in the mists of time itself.

It can sometimes be easy to give way to depression and to embrace defeat, but that is not what I am made of. I have always been an optimist and will continue to be so until the end. What are we if not a compilation of our hopes and dreams? When we reach out to the universal continuum do we not feel its power and lay bare in its healing energy?

Not so many years ago I ventured from my life in a small Midwestern Town and arrived in the Metropolis called Chicago. At the time, so eager to experience the stimulation that comes with a world class Utopia, I found myself enveloped in a cloud of electric euphoria. That euphoria has carried me many places both magical and benign.

As the years advanced I found myself to be somewhat of an anomaly, a creature of the air both elevated and grounded by my mathematical mind. When air meets a mass of conclusions, it tends to elevate in order to be free again.

So there you have it, common sense, confliction, and euphoric energy am I.

Someone asked me just the other day how I can stay so calm and collected in a world  of constant change and dereliction. My answer? I’m not and I don’t.

To be truly content and comfortable with yourself you must, on occasion, leave the chaos and turmoil in order to reset your soul. I am talking solo here, no distraction, no interaction, just peace and oneness with the universe. Healing happens when you begin to feel that soft but strong energy that lifts you up to the place and space you call your own.