“Come Out of the Circle of Time and Into the Circle of
Love”*
When I recently heard these words of the poet Rumi* set to music, I knew instantly that this was what had happened for me in the fall of 1990 when I went to my first nighttime meeting of A Course in Miracles.* Seated in a circle on the rug, I had looked around at each person and realized that I knew no one. But as my gaze kept moving around the circle, I noted both comfort and friendliness in each one there. I saw that some participated by questioning or commenting, while others seemed comfortable simply following along with the reading and the discussions. By the end of the evening, I knew that I felt safe in this group. Appreciative as well that it was only a short drive from my home, I had let the co-leader know that I would return.
As I walked outside with this woman that night, I told her that I had had a problem with one word. When she had asked, “Which one?”, I said, “God.” Later on, my discomfort was resolved by the three lines in the book’s introduction that explained the course: “Nothing real can be threatened / nothing unreal exists / herein lies the peace of God.* Now I had a definition of God that seemed meaningful, where before I’d had none.
By the time I left the group two years later (it had been time for a next step), the members had become a family. While on that first night I hadn’t known what I looking for—beyond feeling safe—I had come to know that it was a spiritual family that I sought.
* Meherabad is the Tomb-Shrine of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba (1894–1969) in Arangaon, India.
When I recently heard these words of the poet Rumi* set to music, I knew instantly that this was what had happened for me in the fall of 1990 when I went to my first nighttime meeting of A Course in Miracles.* Seated in a circle on the rug, I had looked around at each person and realized that I knew no one. But as my gaze kept moving around the circle, I noted both comfort and friendliness in each one there. I saw that some participated by questioning or commenting, while others seemed comfortable simply following along with the reading and the discussions. By the end of the evening, I knew that I felt safe in this group. Appreciative as well that it was only a short drive from my home, I had let the co-leader know that I would return.By the time I left the group two years later (it had been time for a next step), the members had become a family. While on that first night I hadn’t known what I looking for—beyond feeling safe—I had come to know that it was a spiritual family that I sought.
Twenty-eight years later, at a recent Saturday afternoon concert by Lorraine Brown* at Meherabad,* I heard the title of her opening song, “Come Out of the Circle of Time and Into the Circle of Love,” and my face instantly lit up with a wide grin. At the time, I was working on the two circle stories for Purely Prema. Spontaneously, I remembered my first night at A Course in Miracles; it had been a leap to real love that night—timeless. Synchronicity! We met the next day, and she spoke of her purpose in singing, which she said was to “create a safe space where people can enter their own heart space and keep company with their beloved.” Judging by the audience’s standing ovation, she had succeeded!
My realization is, “Synchronicity can be delightfully recognized in a moment.”
* https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/915737-come-out-of-the-circle-
of-time-and-into-the
* Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Rumi) (1207–1273) was a Persian poet during the Islamic Golden
Age, whose work is still read by millions of people all over the world.
* A Course in Miracles is “a unique, universal, self-study spiritual thought system that
teaches that the way to Love and Inner Peace is through Forgiveness.”
https://www.acim.org/AboutACIM/what_it_says.html
* This quote from A Course in Miracles © is from the Paperback Edition, published in 1985, by the
Foundation for Inner Peace, P.O. Box 598, Mill Valley, CA 94942-0598, www.acim.org and
info@acim.org
* Lorraine Brown is a retired teacher living near Avatar’s Abode, a spiritual retreat dedicated to
Meher Baba in Queensland, Australia. Her song “Come Out of the Circle of Time and Into the
Circle of Love” are the words of Rumi set to original music by Lorraine.
My realization is, “Synchronicity can be delightfully recognized in a moment.”
* https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/915737-come-out-of-the-circle-
of-time-and-into-the
* Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (Rumi) (1207–1273) was a Persian poet during the Islamic Golden
Age, whose work is still read by millions of people all over the world.
* A Course in Miracles is “a unique, universal, self-study spiritual thought system that
teaches that the way to Love and Inner Peace is through Forgiveness.”
https://www.acim.org/AboutACIM/what_it_says.html
* This quote from A Course in Miracles © is from the Paperback Edition, published in 1985, by the
Foundation for Inner Peace, P.O. Box 598, Mill Valley, CA 94942-0598, www.acim.org and
info@acim.org
* Lorraine Brown is a retired teacher living near Avatar’s Abode, a spiritual retreat dedicated to
Meher Baba in Queensland, Australia. Her song “Come Out of the Circle of Time and Into the
Circle of Love” are the words of Rumi set to original music by Lorraine.
* Meherabad is the Tomb-Shrine of Avatar of the Age Meher Baba (1894–1969) in Arangaon, India.