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MYSTERIES OF THE MIDDLE EAST
by Rob Simone
Cover Story, FATE Magazine, Published December 2004 - SAMPLE ONLY



In all my travels around the world, the regions of Turkey, Israel, and Egypt were
by far the most powerful and mysterious.

Abydos

Egypt is well known for its pyramids, tombs, temples, and ancient cities.
But there is a place which was sacred long before any of these things ever existed.
After traveling halfway around the world from Japan to India, I made my way
through Petra in Jordan, boarding a ship from Aquaba on the southern coast, to
the Sinai Peninsula.


I watched the sunset from the top of Mt. Sinai,
where Moses received the Ten Commandments,
then continued onward in my quest to explore the sacred places of the past.
From the peninsula I traveled overland through southern Egypt and Luxor, where I heard
from an old man who guarded the entrance of one of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings
about a little town called Abydos to the north, which holds the greatest mystery.

Getting off the microbus on the highway next to the road to Abydos,
I started walking toward the town when two heavily armed soldiers told me to stop,
and that I was not permitted to continue. I ignored them, thinking that they knew I
was a foreigner, and were trying to pressure me for money.

Looking around and seeing everyone else able to go about their business,
I continued on, and again they insisted I stop. I finally acknowledged them
and told them I was going to walk in to town. They said, "Not possible".
I pulled out my passport and flipped through the many stamps and permits
until I got to my Egyptian visa. I showed it to them, s
aying, “See this? This allows me to go anywhere in Egypt.

They stood their ground but did not get angry, in fact, they
were more polite than I was accustomed to. I realized they
were acting in my best interest.

We walked to the guard house at the corner, and there it was explained that
the rest of the distance to Abydos could only be traveled if I was escorted
by an armed guard. Seeing no other option, I was joined by two AK-47-clad
soldiers in an old Peugot station-wagon taxi for the next ten miles
of dusty, desert road.

No other place in Egypt requires this level of security.
Unlike most of Egypt, which is very safe, the area around Abydos is known
to harbor extreme Muslim fundamentalists who won’t hesitate to kill or kidnap
foreign travelers, especially Americans—at least this is what I was told.
When we arrived in Abydos, the soldiers walked, ate, and slept wherever I did.
They were part of a platoon of other soldiers stationed there and had an
armored attack vehicle parked right outside my sleeping quarters.
How comforting!

On my first day there I met an older European woman in an electric wheelchair
next to the temple. She had lived in Abydos for many years and believed the
area held an energy that heals the body and cures disease.
She was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given eight months to live.
That was ten years ago! The existence of such special energetic proporties
might explain why Abydos has been Egypt’s premier pilgrimage site for more
than 3,000 years.



In ancient times, Abydos was a holy center where pharaohs and commoners joined
in festivals and ceremonies in honor of the gods, especially Osiris, ruler of
the Egyptian underworld......

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RHYTHEM AND BUDDHA
by Rob Simone

Published in Nimbin News Magazine
Nimbin, Australia
December2000/January2001 issue

A circle of drums is more than a jam in concert parking lot, it's a
fundamental exercise in Buddhism. Anyone who has participated in a drum
circle knows that the boundaries of the individual breakdown and a feeling of
one emerges. This is because the real truth is that we are all
the same being in different disguises.

Buddhism began in the 4th century by a Hindu prince named Gautama Siddhartha.
Born a prince, he abandoned his kingdom for a life of meditation and teaching.
Not being motivated by fear or desire, Gautama "woke up" to his true nature.
Upon attaining "enlightenment", Gautama instantly recalled all his past
lives and was able to explore the complete potential of temporal
consciousness. In the course of meeting people, they would ask
Gautama not WHO he was, but WHAT he was. He would answer "I am awake!"

I would not call Buddhism a religion, unless you call seeing into one's
own true nature a religion. Buddhism is more like a code of ethics.
Our actions should come from compassion and not be motivated by fear or desire.
If you are coming from a good place, chances are you'll end up in one.

How, you may ask, do drum circles compare with Buddhism?

Often religious expeierences are nonverbal. It can be said religions are
often used as a shield against the terrors of direct expierence.
The drum circle, being non-verbal, affords us an opportunity of being
quiet in speech and raging in spirit.

"Words are the pins on which the butterflies of life are stuck to a board" -Chinese wisdom

Another example of how words fall short. If a man never saw a river,
it would tell him little if I were to scoop a handful of water and bring
it to him. A handful of river is dead in your hand.

So what to do ? Do!
Do what ? Drum!
Why ? Because it's a complete unspoken model of the universe.
Really ? ... Really!

The easiest example is to compare a bang of a drum or bell to the "big bang".
When a Buddhist monk rings a bell, he or she will first notice the
silence, ring it, then let it fade and fade until there is silence again.
the big bang, one crash, the sound rings out, wave energy turns into
real-time thoughts and energy and then slowly fades out to silence.

Conception, life death and when the priest hits it again, life again.
One world exploding for 1 second or 1 millennium, then fading into the backdrop of another.

When a group of people drum, the rhythm changes, revolves, dances
and dreams. What you play and how you play it, effects others, goes
around the circle and comes back to you.
Karma.

Once you settle in, you fall into an effortless flow of energy and
information, in sink with the others and "the other."

So keep drumming and ask not for whom the drum sounds,
it sounds for you.

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