LYNNE TWIST
BESTSELLING AUTHOR, GLOBAL VISIONARY AND ACTIVIST
Lynne Twist is the founder of the Soul of Money Institute and author of the best-selling, award- winning book "The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life”, and her newest book, “Living a Committed Life: Finding Freedom and Fulfillment in a Purpose Larger Than Yourself.”
Over the past 40 years Lynne has worked with over 100,000 people in 50 countries in the arenas of fundraising with integrity, conscious philanthropy, strategic visioning and having a healthy relationship with money. Her clients include: Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble, the International Unity Church, Charles Schwab, United Way, The National Black theater of Harlem, Harvard University and others.
A sought-after speaker, she has presented for the United Nations Beijing Women’s Conference, State of the World Forum, Synthesis Dialogues with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Governor’s Conference on California Women, among others.
A recognized global visionary, Ms. Twist has been an advisor to the Desmond Tutu Foundation, and The Nobel Women’s Initiative. Lynne is the recipient of numerous prestigious honors, including the "Woman of Distinction" award from the United Nations.
Lynne is a co-founder of The Pachamama Alliance — a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest to preserve their lands and culture. In addition, Lynne serves on a number of nonprofit boards including the Fetzer Institute, The Institute of Noetic Sciences, Bioneers, Conscious Capitalism and Women’s Earth Alliance.
From working with Mother Teresa in Calcutta to the refugee camps in Ethiopia and the threatened rainforests of the Amazon, Lynne’s on-the-ground work has brought her a deep understanding of the social tapestry of the world and the historical landscape of the times we are living in.
Believing or Experiencing?
LYNNE TWIST
I don’t believe in God – I experience God. Or rather, I have experiences that I call God because there's no other word for them. What I feel is grace – another word for the divine love of God – a gift from something, somewhere that’s ineffable, that’s sacred, that’s way beyond my understanding.
I love that God is mysterious and can show up anywhere anytime: in an encounter with a tree, being swept up in the sound of music, in the expanded vision of a work of art, in a miraculous meeting with another human soul. I am honored to be in regular communion with this Being or Beingness, Spirit, Source, Creator, All There Is. I live in awe and wonder at the Universe, and those feelings keep me constantly grateful.
When I am afraid or in trouble, I pray to the God I have always known. I was raised Catholic. I am grateful for my religious upbringing because it gave me a moral compass. Although I respect it, that is no longer my understanding. I had stopped being a practicing Catholic when I worked with Mother Teresa in the 1980s, yet being in her presence, her field of being, I knew that God was available to me.
I had a similar experience years later when I met Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk, who is the spiritual father of the gratitude movement. Whenever we were together, I felt the grace of what most people would call God. Even when I think of him, I feel the presence of something vast and deep. In the company of people who've taken a vow to that which is called God, I can feel the power and presence of the divine.
I often feel it in the company of the Indigenous shamans who are our partners in the Pachamama Alliance. They do not speak of God, but rather of the sacredness of all creation – the holiness of not only animate beings, but of plants and rocks, lakes and mountains, planets and stars. One day, walking in the Amazon jungle with Manari Ushigua, shaman and leader of the Zapara people of Ecuador, he turned to me and asked, “Can you feel them?” Bewildered, I asked, “Feel what?” He waved his machete around and said, “The millions of souls surrounding us.” And at that moment an entire universe of beings came alive for me.
So I thank God that God is not a dogma or belief system with rules that I am wedded to, because for me, God is Love – a profound experience of love. That means being completely in awe of the way things are, and completely okay with the way things are not. If I can accept what is, I experience the peace and presence of the divine. And when I let go of my identity, I am an expression of God. I am not saying I am God, I am just saying this magnificent energy can come through someone even as tiny as me.