A Lifetime in a Moment

King Lavana and the illusionist

An illusionist raises a wand, and while the lamp barely flickers King Lavana lives sixty years — famine, love, loss — then wakes on his own throne before the court has finished its breath. And down the road, the other life is there, warm as bread. The most precise pre-modern description of trance ever written, built as a rolling hypnotic groove that slips into dreamlike half-time. Its mercy: the dream runs both ways.

Mantra

So Ham

Ajapa mantra · the breath's own confession

I am That — beyond every lifetime, dreamt or waking.

If sorrow can be dreamt this deeply, so can grace.

Lyrics

A stranger came into my court With peacock feathers, eyes of smoke He raised a wand of woven horsehair And sixty years passed while he spoke I fell from throne to dust and famine I wed my sorrow, raised my pain I traded rings for one small fire I lost the names I loved to rain A lifetime in a moment A moment holds a life Who stretches time like water The mind, the mind, the mind I woke — the lamp had barely flickered The court still held its indrawn breath Yet down the road my other lifetime Lay real as morning, warm as bread A lifetime in a moment A moment holds a life Who stretches time like water The mind, the mind, the mind If grief can be this deeply dreamt Then so can grace, then so can light The spell that bound me can unbind me The dream runs both ways in the night So Ham... So Ham (Beyond all my lifetimes... I am That) Sixty years... one breath So Ham

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