Solstice Dance & Yoga Studio

Introduction to Arabic Drumming & Meditation!

Taught by Tony Lammam 

Saturday, October 11th 2008

Selected Saturdays from 5:30pm to 7:30pm $30/Per class

Please call (415)828-1456 for more information or email Tony at tonylam313@sbcglobal.net

Some drums are available for sale, please contact Tony for more details.

Drumming and Meditation:

At an early age, hungry for spiritual knowledge, I desperately wanted to meditate. My longing for wholeness and intimacy with my inner love, colorfully painted an image of neutrality that carried me beyond good and bad. I knew that if meditation was about spiritual communion, it must be accessible to anyone.

At the age of seventeen, I became a professional drummer. Night after night, I drummed myself into a trance, entering a state in which all things appeared perfect and whole. Drumming allowed me to sit down in pure pleasure and pay attention to myself.

It never occurred to me to associate drumming with meditation or spiritual practice. From that time, meditation became a path of communion with the realm of the spirit. For meditating is like breathing; is a flow of energy.

If we are to experience a state which the body moves and functions in perfect union with the soul’s purpose, then we must release our deepest mistrust and fear of the body. I believe that the struggle against the body is unfortunate and unnecessary. As we meditate together in conscious gentle ways, you will learn to honor earth’s abundance, and you will experience your existence on this earth in ways you never had before.  Everything will become alive and sacred.

The practice of meditation allows us in a very natural and effortless way to make the step from a theoretical knowledge to actual experience of the sacredness of all Bodies.

I pray that our meditation together, combined with different drum exercises, will bring peace and contentment to our lives, and allow us the freedom to love and experience love.                                                     Tony  Lammam

Tony Lammam's Biography:

ANTOINE LAMMAM was born March 13, 1960 in Beirut, Lebanon, into a family with a rich cultural life. His mother was a singer. His father worked in the film industry in Cairo for many years.

As a child, Antoine's first interest was in the rhythms of poetry. The poetic words to his mother's songs fascinated him. His childhood was spent reading, writing, breathing poetry. He wrote his first poem at age 6. From an early age, Antoine was profoundly influenced by Sufi thought- in school, by age 9 he was studying Omar Khayyam, Rumi, Kahlil Gibran, Mutanabbi, and other medieval writers and poets. Later in life, Antoine studied in the Gulf desert with a Sufi mystic.

When Antoine was 14, his family moved to the United Arab Emirates (Dubai),where he eventually became a successful professional drummer. He immigrated to the U.S. when he was 20, to work on his degree in medicine. His mystical interest carried him away from medical school to Eastern philosophy and psychology. Antoine carries several healing degrees and now resides in Santa Rosa where he continues to be a sought after musician. The interplay between his drumming and his poems is undeniable. In his words,"...music and poetry feed each other. When I write, I become touched by saints. When I play, I touch the saints."

Antoine wrote two books of poetry, "Confessions From Rain" and "Echoes Of Silence".  He is also working on his third book titled, "Together".