Singing for Peace: An Interview with James Twyman

Vicky Thompson

There are many definitions of peace. It's the absence of war or an agreement to end hostilities. Peace is inner calm and contentment. It's harmonious relations. And for one man, peace is singing.

As a part of A Season for Nonviolence, James Twyman, author of The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking, will do 64 concerts in 64 days to promote peace from Jan. 30, which is the anniversary of the assassination of Gandhi through April 4, which is the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Twyman spoke with New Connexion about creating peace in your heart and in the world.

 

Q. From a spiritual perspective, what does peace feel like to you and how would you define it?

A. I would define peace as an alignment with who I am. Peace is something first of all that begins within me. From a traditional viewpoint, peace is something that happens to me or outside of me. What I call spiritual peacemaking is the understanding that peace is something that first has to happen inside of me and then radiates to touch everyone or affect the world around me.

So what we try to encourage is for people to find that place of truth within them, that place of alignment and to nurture that like a child and to learn how to amplify that energy. When we do that, peace becomes the natural effect all around us.

I've traveled around the world to many war zones, and though I've been to these war zones, I never found the war. All I really met was wonderful beautiful people just like you and I.

When we carry that resonance of peace, we experience it all around us. When we carry a resonance of conflict, we're going to experience conflict all around us. I think that this is the most important teaching about peace: it's something that's inherent and it's something that has to be found within first.

Peace is not about opposing war or opposing violence. When we oppose something, we're actually giving it more energy. It reminds me of Mother Teresa, who was asked why she never attended any of the anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam war. She said, "I'll never be a part of an anti-war demonstration. But the moment you have a pro-peace rally, I'll be there."

 

Q. That ties into the work of Gandhi, who has encouraged people to be the peace they wish to see. How can we as individuals embody peace?

A. We spend so much time in our society focusing on the ways that we're different from other people, different from other religions, different from other cultures of countries. One of the things that I have found is that if we simply open a little wider, we can begin then to focus on the ways that we are the same, rather on than the ways that we're different. And when we see those similarities and we can honor the differences, then those ego boundaries begin to fall way, and peace becomes a natural extension.

It's really about a choice between separation and unity. If I always focus on how I'm separate from other people, then I'm going to see war and conflict all around me. But if I strive to find the similarities or what unifies us, then peace is a result.

 

Q. In The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking, Emissary of Light and Emissary of Love, you present the mystical path for using intuition to find your way through the world. What has the mystical path taught you about finding peace within yourself?

A. The mystical path has taught me that peace is already there. Peace and love point to a particular field of energy, which is a unified field. It's a harmonious field of energy. If that's who I really am, then every moment I can remember that, then I can come back to that energy. Or I can choose to deny that and live in fear and experience something else. That's the beauty of this whole system -- it's our choice. I can remember who I am and be in peace or I can forget who I am and be in conflict. It's always within me. And that's what all the masters say, is that peace is within you now.

It's just a question of if you are willing to realize who you are right now, and realize that you are an enlightened being right now and to live from that place.

Enlightenment isn't something that happens after years of study and lifetimes of spiritual pursuit. Enlightenment happens the moment that you realize that who you are cannot change.

 

Q: Do you find that people struggle when you say that? In the world, we have levels of masters and teachers above us. Have you encountered resistance to your concepts of enlightenment?

A. Oh yes. It's a rather confrontational idea to believe or to accept that you are already enlightened and that you don't need to jump through all the hoops that we've been told that we need to jump through. It's very confrontational because it takes away everything we've ever believed about our spiritual path.

But for me, my experience has been that the pursuit of enlightenment is the greatest block to enlightenment. Trying to become something that I already am cancels out my experience of who I am. The final and only real step in the spiritual journey is to realize that who I am, the truth in me, is unalterable and unchangeable. It's present whether I'm aware of its presence or not.

The moment I fully realize that unalterable and unchangeable presence, is the moment I achieve or experience what we sometimes call enlightenment. Now that can happen in an instant or it can take many, many years and decades or lifetimes. It's really up to you. If you believe that it's going to take lots of hard work, then great, may it be so. But I just don't want to do that.

 

Q: Would you call your process one of alignment with what already exists?

A: Exactly. Alignment with that inherent, unchangeable truth which is our foundation. For whatever reason, we were set up in a system where we can either accept or deny that foundation. And therein lies both the rub and the ruby.

 

Q: About 30,000 people have taken The Art of Spiritual Peacemaking through your online course. Can you give us some examples from the course for realigning with peace within?

A: As you asked me that, I opened up the book, and I find that with almost any really inspired book, you can look at almost any sentence and find the answer to the question you're asking. There are two sentences that popped out as I opened it arbitrarily.

The first sentence was: Live within the eternal yes. We for a long time have been living within the no or the maybe, or maybe someday. What we are hearing today is that we have to live within that yes.

The second sentence was: You are the one you are seeking. These two sentences almost describe the entire course. We are here to realize that we are the ones we are seeking, and it is only when live in the eternal yes of God that we active that. Because God is a yes, life is yes. When we live within those infinite possibilities, then we find ourselves wrapped within that yes. Then we realize that there's really no one out there that we are seeking except for ourselves. We are seeking that authentic place within us. That's who I am. I am the one that I am seeking-that truth within me of who I really am. When we do this, peace is the natural result.

 

Q. As a part of the Season for Nonviolence, you'll be doing 64 concerts each day. As a person who is guided by Spirit, what do you feel will come from that personally and then globally?

A. Personally, I think for all of us, it's important to be consistent in our intention. For me, just being able to be out there singing and sharing these prayers allows it to go deeper within me. This is a great opportunity for me to be consistent in my own prayer and sharing this message. When I do that, I get it more. I give this to get it. I'm hoping whats happens on a wider level is to inspire many other people to find their own passion, their own pathways to peace. Mine is unique, not everyone will do it in the same way that I do it. But we all have something important and powerful to offer. It's important to find that.

 

Q. If you could give one message of peace, what would it be?

A. This is the time that each one of has chosen to remember who we are and to remember how to create the peaceful kingdom that we've been imagining. If not us, then who? And if not now, then when?

 

For details on James Twyman's Season for Nonviolence concert tour, visit www.64daysofpeace.com. The tour includes the Pacific Northwest with final concerts on the lawn at the U.S. Capitol and the United Nations in New York.